Scaling an Evidence-Based Instructional Coaching Program for Teachers

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Teacher at whiteboard with math students

One way to improve K-12 education outcomes is to scale-up programs that have rigorous evidence of effectiveness. This AIR-led project focused on a teacher professional learning program called MyTeachingPartner-Secondary (MTP-S). Prior to the project, the program had already demonstrated positive impacts on student achievement in two randomized controlled trials.

With support from the Education Innovation and Research program administered by the U.S. Department of Education and a grant awarded by the William T. Grant Foundation, the project used a multi-prong strategy to expand the use of the program and boost awareness of it and its distinctive features. It also evaluated both the implementation and impact of the program to inform future program improvement.
 

Expanding Use of the Program

AIR built a partnership that included the program developer, Teachstone, and 49 schools across 15 states. From 2017 to 2023, the partnership expanded the number of teachers and instructional coaches who experienced the program. Most participated for two years, and a final group participated in winter and spring 2023. 
 

Boosting Awareness of the Program and How It Works

The partnership included Learning Forward, a professional association devoted to those who work in educator professional learning. To spread knowledge of the program among professionals in K-12 education, Learning Forward collected stories about participants' experiences and disseminated them to members and nationally. 

The participants highlighted several features that distinguished the program from other teacher coaching programs. For example:

  • The coach and teacher follow a predictable, transparent, and time-efficient process.
  • The coach uses video clips demonstrating the teacher's successes in the classroom, rather than pointing out weaknesses. 

To share participants' experiences with the program, the partnership created several resources:

Digital Story: Magnifying Teachers' Successes: Insights from the MyTeachingPartner-Secondary Coaching ProjectIn this digital story created by AIR, readers can learn more about the MTP-S project and hear directly from participants through short video clips and quotes.
 

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Magnifying Teachers' Successes screenshot


Briefs: In these briefs, Learning Forward authors highlight the distinctive features of the MTP-S program and share perspectives from program participants.

Professional Journal Articles: These articles include one with excerpts from an interview with a leading researcher and co-designer of the program, an essay by a coach about how using video as part of the coaching can motivate teachers to improve their skills, and an article with excerpts from interviews with coaches and coaching experts about their experience with the MTP-S program before and during the pandemic. They appear in Learning Forward’s journal, The Learning Professional.
 

Refining the Scaling Supports

Scaling high-quality instructional coaching programs is a known challenge. To support implementation on a large scale, Teachstone trained, monitored, and supported local coaches, who were selected by the participating districts. Teachstone refined these scaling supports during the project, using internal data as well as implementation data gathered by AIR. 

Articles published by AIR project staff in Phi Delta Kappan and The School Administrator document the fidelity of implementation and explain the strategies Teachstone used to ensure the quality of implementation of the MTP-S program in this project (e.g., routines for 1-1 support for meetings between Teachstone staff and coaches). 
 

Rigorously Evaluating Program Implementation and Impact

AIR and Teachstone launched a randomized controlled trial in fall 2021, assigning half of the volunteering teachers to do the program for two years (2021-22 and 2022-23) on top of their normal activities. 

The trial was difficult to implement. Due to the pandemic, the trial enrolled fewer teachers than planned, making the trial less sensitive to impacts. In addition, the program was not fully implemented, especially during the Delta and Omicron outbreaks, making the program less likely to have impacts. 

The September 2023 evaluation report  and the August 2024 addendum present findings from the evaluation. The program had a statistically significant impact only on one measured outcome: teachers' enthusiasm about teaching. That finding is the focus of the brief, Can a Teacher Professional Learning Program Reduce Teacher Burnout? 
 

Enthusiasm About Teaching

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Infographics: Teacher sentiments about teaching


AIR  researchers who studied the impact of the MTP-S program were surprised by the teacher well-being results of this program in relation to another teacher professional learning program. The results of the two programs are the focus of a forthcoming brief titled Do programs designed to help teachers improve instruction affect their well-being?

Analyses of student achievement data did not reveal any significant program impact on student achievement in either the first year of the MTP-S program or at the end of the 2-year program. Findings from this study need to be interpreted with caution given study limitations resulting largely from the influence of the pandemic.