Board hears coaching update as district tallies classroom and math coaching gains

The Buchanan Board of Education received a detailed briefing on Feb. 10 about the district's classroom and math coaching program and its effects on teacher practice and student learning.

Dr. Susan Bliss, a district staff member, opened the presentation and said the program reflects the board's goals to "promote and support innovative and exemplary research based professional practices." She described the program's central premise: "academic excellence stems from continuous teacher growth."

The district's two coaches and a K'8 coordinator gave classroom-level examples and usage data. Jen Eldridge, the classroom coach, described the coaching cycle she uses: target, plan, implement and expand. She walked the board through a transition-focused cycle in which a teacher reduced a typical transition from about "2 to 3 minutes" to a target of 30 seconds, using video analysis, modeling and student-led problem solving. Eldridge said the change can have a substantial classroom impact: "If you take 2 minutes off of 20 transitions per day, that's 40 minutes per day of instructional time that you've gained back." She added, "I wanna see the worst part of your day," to explain the peer-coaching, non-evaluative stance she uses with teachers.

Mary Fisher, the math coach, said her work focuses on domains 2 and 3 of the…