Investigating the effectiveness of a comprehensive literacy coaching program in schools with high teacher mobility

Abstract

Teacher mobility is a factor that impacts schoolwide implementation of professional development programs. In this article, we present interim results of a longitudinal randomized field trial of a comprehensive literacy coaching program (Content-Focused Coaching, CFC) for improving instruction and learning in schools with high teacher mobility.Weinvestigate program effects on 73 new treatment and comparison teachers recruited to replace the large proportion of teachers who left their schools during the first year of the program. HLM analyses indicated that the CFC program predicted significantly higher school-level gains on the state standardized test for English language learners (N=496, ES=.51). By spring, the quality of teachers' self-reported and observed instruction in the CFC schools exceeded that of comparison teachers. Implications for accommodating new teachers into an ongoing and established coaching program to improve instruction and student learning, and conducting randomized trials in schools with high teacher turnover, are discussed. Copyright © 2010 by The University of Chicago