Instructional coach reports measurable gains after one year of math coaching

Danielle Robson, the district's K'12 math instructional coach, told the board she has worked directly one-on-one with 50 of 68 math teachers this school year and recorded 404 coaching interactions across classrooms, grade-level teams and system-wide efforts.

"As of today, I've worked with 50 of our 68 math teachers in the district," Robson said, and described that 69 percent of her recorded interactions were individual teacher supports, 18 percent were grade- or team-based, and 12 percent benefited entire buildings or the district.

Robson compared growth on benchmark assessments between classrooms she worked with consistently and those she visited less often. "We did see a positive association with higher student outcomes for the classrooms that I worked with consistently versus the ones that I did not," she said, characterizing the comparison as roughly 8 percent growth versus about 3 percent in the less-supported group.

She emphasized the comparisons do not establish causation but said the association supports continued investment in coaching and outlined next steps: monitoring year-end growth measures, targeting coaching to units with instructional gaps and attempting a touch point with every math teacher by year'end.

Board members asked about sample sizes, percentage calculations and high-school metrics; Robson said high school courses lack a uniform benchmark and noted her efforts are more curriculum-focused at that level. She also described pilot use of multiple benchmark tools (i-Ready, IXL, FastBridge) and proposed follow-up comparisons at year-end when additional data are available.

Robson requested continued board support for the role; several members praised early results and asked staff to include year-end KPIs in future reports.