| The focus of this study was to create a living portrait of the work life of literacy coaches, a new and evolving occupation for staff developers. Coaches with expertise in literacy curriculum, instruction, and assessment have been hired to work with teachers and administrators in urban elementary schools and help them to improve instruction for urban youth.; Coaches, teachers, and principals in four northeastern cities participated in this study. Coaches were observed, interviews were conducted, and participants were asked to provide samples of student work, schedules, or other documents that were used to triangulate data obtained from observation and interviews.; Of the five coaches in the study (three part-time, external coaches and two full-time, internal coaches), reports indicate that two of the part-time coaches were most successful. Supervisory or administrative responsibilities, particularly identification and remediation of problematic teachers, created an obstacle for both of the full-time coaches.; It created the perception among other members of the faculty that the coaches were forcing a top-down agenda for change. The effectiveness of the principal as an instructional leader, the coaches' ability to manage their daily work, the personality of individual coaches, and process by which they choose to engage teachers also had an effect on their ability to promote change.; The successful coaches appealed to the intrinsic motivation of teachers to improve instruction by explicitly demonstrating how some practices are beneficial to students. Having gained the initial commitment of teachers, the successful coaches focused on helping teachers to internalize strategies that would allow them to become more reflective about their practice and better able to adapt instruction to the diverse needs of their students.; The successful coaches were working in districts with organized reform initiatives, and were working in schools with principals who were knowledgeable about, and dedicated to literacy reform. Their principals had created time for teacher collaboration and professional development to be part of the teachers' workday. |
