Shifting our focus to the right work

A publication of the Association of California School Administrators

Coaching collaborative teacher teams to improve learning

By Lori Emmington | September | October 2024

The day-to-day responsibilities of school administrators have grown exponentially over the last decade. With the barrage of new initiatives aimed at addressing post-pandemic challenges in schools, it is more difficult than ever to maintain focus on the right work — improving student learning in every classroom. With increased demands and limited hours and minutes in a day, principals must find effective ways to replace low-leverage, time-intensive tasks with more efficient strategies that have a greater impact on student achievement. There is convincing research that suggests a great place to start is to reduce time and energy spent formally observing and evaluating individual teachers and place a greater emphasis on building the capacity of teacher teams.

The impact of formal teacher evaluations on student achievement remains unclear. Research shows that, when done well, teacher evaluations can improve teacher practice; however, there is less evidence that teacher evaluations improve student performance (Cleaver, et al., 2018). While principals should still spend considerable time observing, coaching and evaluating new or inexperienced teachers, most school administrators will agree that experienced or veteran teachers are rarely evaluated into significant improvement through the formal evaluation process. These teachers often attribute a negative evaluation to a principal’s own deficits, such as lack of content knowledge or years of experience in the classroom. Some may even view an unsatisfactory evaluation as the result of a principal’s biased feelings about the teacher, especially if a previous administrator has given this same teacher positive evaluations in the past.

Another issue with traditional formal evaluations is that the focus is almost always on the teacher: Does the teacher use a variety of instructional strategies? Does the teacher create a supportive learning environment? Does the teacher sequence instructional activities? Does the teacher communicate learning goals? The focus is on what and how something is being taught, not whether the instruction leads to learning. Furthermore, formal evaluations are almost always summative in nature and rarely provide strategies or tools for professional growth and improvement. The teacher is simply deemed effective or ineffective. Thus, one can only conclude that formal teacher evaluations are intended to identify teachers deemed unsuitable for the profession. What process, then, can impact a teacher’s development and as a result, improve student learning?

School administrators can have a profound impact on teaching and learning by coaching and facilitating the work of teacher teams. Research by Linda Darling-Hammond and Nikole Richardson highlights the importance of collaborative learning environments that develop and support communities of practice, promoting school change and improvement beyond individual classrooms. Their research asserts that when principals foster a collaborative team approach to improving teaching and learning, they create school culture focused on collective efficacy, reflection and cycles of continuous improvement (2009).

Research also confirms that teachers are four times more likely to go to a colleague than their principal for support and advice, and they are twice as likely to go to a colleague than a trusted coach (Leana, 2011). Therefore, the teacher in the classroom next door can be much more influential in improving a teacher’s practice than the evaluating administrator, making collaboration and the teacher team the most powerful vehicle to influence and improve student learning.

In a two-decade study by the Wallace Foundation, researchers found that when principals prioritize and facilitate teacher collaboration, schoolssee significant improvements in student achievement (Grissom, et al., 2021). This study underscores the importance of school leaders fostering a collaborative culture within schools to maximize student outcomes. Dufour and Marzano assert that “if principals devote less time to the supervision of teaching and more time to working collaboratively with teams in examining evidence of student learning and strategies for improving those results, they will be far more likely to fulfill their primary responsibility of helping more students learn at higher levels” (2009). The question then becomes, how do school leaders coach the process of effective collaboration and build capacity in teacher teams?

Strong professional learning communities and effective collaboration does not happen by chance and will never occur without strong leadership. The principal must provide clarity around purpose and maintain the team’s focus on goals and initiatives (Dufour & Reeves, 2015). The principal must also guarantee that teams have adequate time each week to engage in the work of professional learning communities. This time cannot be used for planning Back to School Night, discussing the staff holiday party or completing mandated reporter training; this time must be solely dedicated to team collaboration around student learning. During the early stages, teachers must be provided the training, resources, tools and structure to maintain focus on the essential questions of a professional learning community:

What do we want students to learn?
How do we measure student learning?
What do we do when students do not learn?
What do we do when students are learning?

When schools commit to this work, several changes in school culture occur as the focus shifts from improving teacher performance through evaluation to improving student outcomes through team coaching and capacity building.

Shifting from traditional PD to job-embedded PD Research shows that traditional models of professional development do not align with current theories of adult learning principles, which include relevance, active engagement and collaboration (Darling-Hammond, et al., 2017). Consequently, one-shot workshops and district in-services are being replaced by “approaches that are … grounded in classroom practice and involve the formation of professional learning communities” (Borko, et al., 2010). When learning is embedded in the work of teacher teams, teachers share student data and effective evidenced-based teaching practices; improve and refine their own practices; and develop a supportive learning community. Shared knowledge and resources improve the outcomes for all students and foster a school culture based on collective efficacy and a shared responsibility. The role of the principal, then, is to develop a supportive structure for professional development that allows teachers to learn from each other while sharing student data, reflecting on which instructional strategies were effective and planning next steps for student success. Shifting from working in isolation to team interdependence

Traditionally, teachers tend to work in isolation, keeping both their strengths and their weaknesses within the four walls of their classroom. When teacher teams are able to build trust and mutual respect, they begin to rely on each other’s expertise and support for continuous growth. Although teams form in stages, it is ultimately the interdependence of the team members that transforms a group of teachers into an effective collaborative team. As they come to recognize and value their interdependence, teachers look to each other to address challenges and develop creative solutions that benefit all students, not just their own. Principals can guide teams toward more interdependence by developing a school-wide collaborative culture, encouraging teachers to rely on one another and hold each other accountable as a collaborative team.

Shifting from teacher burn-out to teacher satisfaction

Research by Douglas Reeves confirms that teachers who are part of a high-functioning, collaborative team experience higher levels of job satisfaction and professional engagement (2017). Additionally, strong collaborative cultures decrease teacher turnover and appear to be one of several factors that can help make teachers feel more committed to their school and to teaching as a profession (Schleifer, 2017). In a strong professional learning community, principals create a supportive environment where continuous learning and professional growth is not only encouraged but celebrated. As a result, teacher learning and growth results from teacher commitment, not teacher compliance. In this school culture, teachers are much more likely to remain engaged and connected to the demanding and challenging work they are required to do each day.

Shifting from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning In a Phi Kappan journal article, author Mike Schmoker states, “There is broad, even remarkable, concurrence among members of the research community on the effects of carefully structured learning teams on the improvement of instruction. Add to this that such structures are probably the most practical, affordable, and professionally dignifying route to better instruction in our schools” (2004). In the same article, he shares that schools with “strong professional learning communities were four times more likely to be improving academically than schools with weaker professional communities.” Conversely, most research on the effectiveness of teacher evaluations remains mixed. And when school leaders are engaged in teacher evaluations, principals are observing and documenting whether teachers are teaching. The crucial question should be, are the students learning? This is the question that the collaborative team must respond to each time they meet.

Therefore, the teacher in the classroom next door can be much more influential in improving a teacher's practice than the evaluating administrator, making collaboration and the teacher team the most powerful vehicle to influence and improve student learning.

Building, coaching and leading a collaborative culture As school leaders approach this work, it is important to recognize that coaching professional learning teams requires a variety of skills that principals will need to develop, not only in themselves, but in other teacher leaders who will support this work. Active listening skills and the ability to provide constructive feedback are key. Team discussions will need to be monitored initially to ensure conversations are focused on student learning. Principals should coach teachers in collecting, analyzing and using student data to inform next steps in teaching and learning. Above all, principals must deeply understand the structure and processes of professional learning communities in order to provide ongoing guidance to increase the collective efficacy of teacher teams. By developing and honing these skills, principals will create a supportive school environment that fosters teamwork, trust and continuous improvement. Conclusion I’m not suggesting that principals stop observing and evaluating teachers. Some teachers will still need intentional one-on-one support from school leaders and formal feedback through documented evaluations, and most state and district policies require formal evaluations for most, if not all teachers. What I am suggesting is that principals place more energy and effort in building the capacity of collaborative teams and less energy on individual teacher evaluations, especially those teachers who principals have deemed effective. This shift in focus will save principals a great deal of time and have a much greater impact on school improvement efforts.

Coaching and fostering team collaboration within professional learning communities can be a powerful strategy for improving teaching and learning. School leaders can achieve sustainable improvements in their schools by building a learner-centered culture of collaboration, collective responsibility and mutual accountability. As author Thomas Many explains, “We can move more people to higher levels of effectiveness when we coach people together.” References Borko, H., Jacobs, J., & Koellner, K. (2010). Contemporary Approaches to Teacher Professional Development. International Encyclopedia of Education (pp. 548-556). Oxford: Elsevier. Cleaver, S., Detrich, R. & States, J. (2018). Overview of Teacher Formal Evaluation. Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. Darling-Hammond, L. & Richardson, N. (2009). Teacher Learning: What Matters? Educational Leadership. 66. 46-53. Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., Gardner, M. (2017). Effective Teacher Professional Development. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute. DuFour, R. & Marzano, R. (2009). High-Leverage Strategies for Principal Leadership. Educational leadership: journal of the Department of Supervision and Curriculum Development, N.E.A. 66. DuFour, R. & Reeves, D. (2015, October). Professional Learning Communities Still Work (If Done Right). Education Week. Grissom, J.A., Egalite, A.J, and Lindsay, C.A. (2021). How Principals Affect Students and Schools: A Systematic Synthesis of Two Decades of Research. New York: The Wallace Foundation. Leana, C.R. (2011, Fall). The missing link in school reform. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 30-35.

Many, T., Maffoni, M.J., Sparks, S.K., Ferriby Thomas, T. (2018). Amplify Your Impact: Coaching Collaborative Teams in PLCs at Work. Indiana: Solution Tree. Reeves, P. M., Pun, W. H., and Chung, K. S. (2017). Influence of teacher collaboration on job satisfaction and student achievement. Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 67, Pages 227-236. Schleifer, D.,Rinehart, C., and Yanisch, T. (2017). Teacher collaboration in perspective. A guide to research. San Francisco: Public Agenda. Schmoker, M. (2004). Tipping Point: From Feckless Reform to Substantive Instructional Improvement. Phi Delta Kappan, 85(6), 424-432. Lori Emmington is the director of Education Services in the Folsom Cordova Unified School District. With over 25 years in education, she has served as a classroom teacher, assistant principal, high school principal, and director of Human Resources before moving into her current role.