Feedback is essential for learning and a key component of career-long growth. Tailoring feedback formats is important to meet educators' unique needs and stages of development. Drawing on the authors' professional practice, three categories of feedback are defined and illustrated: (1) rapid response formats; (2) moderate engagement formats; and…

A significant teacher shortage persists in K-12 education, with estimates of vacancies ranging from 36,000 to 52,000 across the United States (Nguyen et al., 2022). To tackle this issue many states have developed ways to boost the teacher supply, such as non-traditional licensure pathways. In Tennessee, one type of non-traditional educator…

After several years of operating in crisis mode, many teachers are feeling exhausted and burned out. More than ever, they need to feel appreciated, valued, and respected to be resilient in the face of ongoing stress. One of the best ways to show appreciation for teachers is to value their professional growth and provide support to address their…

This tip sheet introduces a three-step coaching cycle focused on strengthening implementation of effective instructional strategies. It offers practical guidance for applying the coaching cycle to strengthen teacher practice and improve student outcomes. By understanding each step of the coaching cycle, coaches and those who train or support them…

How would instruction and student learning improve if educators made the time to really understand and practice a new curriculum before implementing it in classrooms with students? In Orange County, California, educators are finding out by testing an approach of preimplementation professional learning for a full year before applying a new…

A school is much more than a collection of individual classrooms. Fostering a collaborative and learning-oriented culture can improve teachers' and students' success. In model classrooms, teachers who have participated in professional learning open their classroom doors and agree to have others observe as they work to integrate the targeted new…

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are crucial facilitators of undergraduate education, yet many begin their teaching appointments with minimal knowledge of teaching practices. Chemistry Instructional Coaching offers GTAs at the University of Michigan an opportunity to develop their instructional practice through a collaborative, nonevaluative,…

For teachers and coaches, co-teaching can be exciting, rewarding, and full of powerful learning. It offers teachers supported experiences to apply new knowledge in their own contexts, exemplifying active engagement in job-embedded professional learning. Co-teaching requires the coach and teacher to make continuous, intentional decisions about how…

Behavior skills training (BST) with ongoing coaching is an effective form of professional development that creates sustained educator practice change and improves student outcomes. We provide a model for how BST can be used to improve the implementation of evidence-based practices with both teachers and paraprofessionals, the latter of whom often…

In the third edition of this longtime bestseller, nationally recognized education leader Kim Marshall offers a framework for supervisors who want to motivate and inspire their colleagues and bring more good teaching to more classrooms more of the time. "Rethinking Teacher Supervision and Evaluation" shows you how to break away from…

Although instructional coaches are deeply committed to continuous improvement, they rarely have access to professional learning themselves. Rarer still is differentiated professional learning that meets coaches where they are in their careers and their professional growth. Just as Florida's Orange County Public Schools accentuates the importance…

Many early childhood educators (ECEs) feel inadequately prepared to teach students with or at risk for disabilities and report challenges in implementing evidence-based practices (EBP) with fidelity. eCoaching through online Bug-In-Ear (BIE) technology is an EBP that can be used to enhance educators' implementation fidelity of EBP by providing…

While coaches can have a positive impact on teachers' practice and students' learning, in many school districts teachers have the autonomy to decide whether and when to work with a coach. Coaches then must work to gain access to teachers' classrooms. In a recent study of 28 content-focused coaches, researchers Jen Munson and Evthokia Stephanie…

Supporting beginning teachers continues to be problematic for education systems across the nation. Issues concerning recruitment and retention have long plagued the profession. The onset of the global pandemic exacerbated these issues, particularly across rural communities. Researchers continue to advocate for the need to provide beginning…

At the start of the 2020-21 school year, six months after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic changed the lives of everyone, the author and the other instructional coaches in her district were temporarily reassigned to virtual teaching positions. In this article, the author shares what she learned about the kinds of support teachers need and how…