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District presents early results from expanded instructional coaching program for elementary schools
Summary
Administration reported increased coaching hours and early gains in kindergarten and first-grade foundational skills after shifting to a building-based instructional coaching model.
Plymouth-Canton Community Schools administrators outlined the district’s instructional coaching model for elementary schools and shared early fall-to-winter data showing modest gains in foundational literacy and math engagement.
Dr. Denise Lilly, executive director of elementary education, said the district restructured professional learning to emphasize job‑embedded coaching. She said coaches support teachers through coaching cycles, collaborative planning and targeted professional learning communities; the aim is to strengthen tier‑1 classroom instruction so fewer students require intensive interventions later.
Why it matters: The district made a deliberate shift to building-based instructional coaches to raise the overall quality of classroom instruction and reduce downstream intervention costs.
Key figures and findings presented: district trainers previously delivered in-service professional development to more than 300 teachers and supported roughly 3,000 hours of professional learning. For the 2024–25 school year, administrators reported coaching hours by focus area (example figures cited by presenters): about 2,340 total coaching hours logged across elementary coaches to date, with roughly 905 hours (about 39%) focused on word-recognition/ foundational literacy work. Presentation slides also showed distribution across pedagogy/management (27%), math (27%), language comprehension (20%) and ELA comprehension.
Principals and coaches described how coaching operates in practice. Thunder Elementary Principal Dave Turrell and instructional coach Kristen Bertollia described options: weekly one-on-one planning meetings, regular co-teaching/modeling, targeted PLCs on assessment use, and use of teacher-release days for observation and collaborative planning. Coaches model lessons, record and debrief instruction, and help teachers plan differentiated small-group lessons tied to frequent progress monitoring.
Board questions and next steps: Board members and student co-chairs asked about coach placement and whether coaches serve one building or rotate. Administration said each elementary has a building-based coach, district coaches rotate among buildings, and high-school coaching is provided by part‑time coaches who also teach. Trustees asked for a fuller accounting of how many teachers and students are affected; administrators said that spring data review will provide consolidated metrics for 2024–25.
Ending: Trustees thanked staff for the presentation and asked for a follow-up report with end-of-year coaching reach and student outcome data during the spring data review.
