Coaching the School Principal’s Capacity to Lead Underperforming Schools

No Child Left Behind legislation places educators under pressure to increase the achievement of all students and to narrow the achievement gap that exists between economically advantaged students and students who are from different economic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds, as well as students with disabilities. Failing to improve student achievement can lead to corrective actions that include school restructuring, reassignment or dismissal of the school principal, conversion to a charter school, or a state takeover of the school. Yet, even with the possibility of losing their jobs, many principals still appear to be struggling to transform underperforming schools into high-performing schools, as evidenced by their schools’ continued underperformance. One widespread solution suggested for improving underperforming schools is to assign leadership coaches to school principals to help them learn to maximize the strength of the educational staff and lead the improvement of student performance. This study is based on a state system of support that requires underperforming schools to participate in the Midwest Coaching Institute or face more extensive consequences. Coaches influenced principals’ thinking to focus on the instructional core and program coherence, but coaching realized classroom changes only when a common vision of student excellence existed between the principal and the staff and when teachers were actively part of the instructional change movement. Most changes put into place within the school, however, evaporated with changes in the principal or the superintendent.