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WestEd coaches credited with improved systems and staff retention at two schools; district to scale practices
Summary
District leaders and principals reported early implementation gains from a WestEd partnership — including trained PLC facilitators, stronger coaching, improved supervisory protocols, and higher staff retention at East Middle School — while noting that student outcomes remain a multi‑year effort.
School leaders described results from a district partnership with WestEd, saying the coaching and protocols helped build shared leadership, more effective PLCs and stronger schoolwide systems, though they cautioned that measurable student‑level outcomes will take sustained practice to appear in assessment metrics.
Erie High School executive principal Dwan Orlando said the school trained 21 “vital” PLC facilitators and put in place shared calendars, structured agendas and a set of protocols for data analysis and lesson tuning. “Backward planning allows teachers to start with the end in mind,” Orlando said, adding that shared observation and feedback systems and weekly assistant principal training were part of the improvement work.
East Middle School principal Matt Coval reported similar system gains and improvements in staff morale. Coval said the East Middle School vital PLC structure provided “156 opportunities for East Middle School staff to collaborate on teaching and learning last school year” (12 PLC groups across 13 cycles). He also said a staffing agreement was approved by 92% of teachers at his school and that 95% of teachers returned for the current year, which he tied to stability and the ability to sustain improvement work.
District instructional supervisors described how they will scale the practices. Supervisor Megan Halloran said the combination of in‑person visits, virtual coaching and the CALL framework helped sharpen school improvement planning and make walkthroughs more actionable. The district’s supervisory team said it expects to spread the protocols to other schools and to continue principal and assistant principal coaching through executive principal meetings.
Board members questioned whether WestEd’s work should have produced clearer short‑term gains on the district assessment metrics. Superintendent Gibbs said the partnership aligned with district priorities and that system and adult practice changes must be sustained before translating to student achievement gains. “Some of the practices that are just starting to take root haven't yet yielded the results we want for students because adults needed to shift practice,” she said.
Principals and central office staff described early operational benefits (improved morning entry and hallway supervision, stronger communication, and faster transitions) and said those changes also aided school climate. Orlando and Coval said improved supervision practices increased the number of behaviors that were captured and addressed, and that suspension counts at some levels increased as a result of better identification and reporting while early‑year comparisons showed improvements in some discipline measures.
Why it matters: WestEd’s work is tied to the district’s strategic plan and leadership framework; the district expects to scale coaching, PLC protocols and shared leadership practices across schools to support the curriculum and MTSS work described elsewhere in the meeting.
