Implementation of a Coaching Program for School Principals

We present a multi-phase coaching model that was implemented to help principals improve their instructional leadership practices. We then discuss a rubric based on this coaching model that we used to evaluate coaches’ implementation of key model phases and to identify principals’ responses to the coaching. After presenting the leadership coaching model, we introduce the implementation rubrics, and then we present contrasting cases from our analyses that illustrate two principals’ varying responses to coaching. We discuss how their coaches differed in two key dimensions of implementation: dose and the quality of program delivery. We conclude with a discussion of how these findings can inform development of future educational leadership coaching programs and guide additional research to evaluate the impact of coaching.