Education reform is the driver for changes in principal leadership practices. Instructional coaching is a common lever used to meet reform mandates but has had inconsistent results. The problem in practice is little is known about how principals use leadership practices to establish effective instructional coaching in their school building. The…

Purpose: This study explores factors that influence the initiation of leadership coaching relationships that include externally employed coaches and school administrators. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative research study includes semi-structured interviews, observations and documents collected across three academic years within the…

The selection process of a coaching model should be an initial consideration before conducting training activities. However, the limited availability of coaching models hinders the delivery of quality training programs. Therefore, it is necessary to have options for coaching models. This research aims to develop a goal, actual, alternative, plan,…

Coach and ASCD author Cathy Toll knows that principals can face resistance and competing priorities when trying to make changes in schools. "Whole-staff coaching" is one tool to get all educators on the same page by putting teachers in control of planning, implementing, and evaluating change--and principals in charge of facilitating it.

Principals today face greater job complexities and more diverse challenges than ever before because of decreases in resources, funding, and district support, along with increases in accountability expectations, student diversity, and unfunded federal and state mandates. Principals today are tasked with myriad responsibilities ranging from…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the perspectives of novice New York City public school principals to understand if their individualized, in-service novice principal training, either mentoring or coaching, during Year One of their principalships impacted their sense of self-efficacy and influenced their decision to continue or…

Effective principal supervisors focus on building principals' instructional leadership capacity. Strategies that include data analysis, feedback loops, job-embedded practice, and executive coaching should be a part of every principal supervisor's repertoire of skills. Current research suggests principal supervisors should make specific teaching…

School principals are critical to students' academic achievement, second only to teachers. They are the primary agents of change in their schools, fostering supportive learning environments that enhance student learning and teacher effectiveness. Moreover, they often design and oversee the initiatives and hiring to sustain the positive changes…

The mission of the Palau Ministry of Education is to ensure that their students will be successful in Palauan society and the world. Schools are the heart of Palau's communities, reflecting the rich culture of the nation. They incorporate a unique blend of traditional values and modern methodologies to support learning for the diverse and…

The effectiveness of an instructional coach is extremely important in the teaching and learning process. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine the current reality of school stakeholders' perceptions of roles, responsibilities, and barriers to effective instructional coaching and to use this information to make recommendations to…

Once leaders of one-room schoolhouses, principals' roles have expanded to instructional commanders over complex public-school structures (Hallinger, 1992). As the roles and responsibilities of the school principal evolve and grow, more support for school leaders is necessary. Coaching has been defined as a "supportive model for systems…

School principals are charged with being instructional leaders and yet they are tasked with obligations and face daily challenges that often make this an unrealistic expectation. According to the Maine Department of Education, 225 instructional coaches work in 53 Maine school districts. Instructional coaches provide feedback and support for…

The empirical research examining the effects of virtual mentoring and coaching (VMC) on principal leadership development is limited. Furthermore, little is known about school leaders who engage in virtual professional leadership learning communities (VPLCs) and how much school leaders grow with VPLCs who are also receiving VMC at the same time.…

In this era of the Great Resignation, when nearly 40% of principals anticipate leaving their roles, districts need more resilient leaders who can meet the challenges ahead. The past two years--from the global pandemic to the national social justice movement--have created a vastly more complex and demanding environment for school leaders. The need…

Purpose: To identify key issues that university-based leadership coaches act upon in work to fortify the developmental opportunity of the clinical experience for aspiring principals, and how leadership coaches act upon these issues. Research: Data include roughly 75 hours of interviews with two cohorts of aspiring principals and 25 hours of…