The Advisory Board of the Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse suggests six characteristics that define effective literacy coaching. These characteristics can guide districts and schools to think carefully about the qualifications of the literacy coaches they hire, the realistic roles for coaches to fill, and the support systems that coaches need to be successful. Effective literacy coaching: (1) Involves collaborative dialogue for teachers at all levels of knowledge and experience; (2) Facilitates development of a school vision about literacy that is site-based and links to district goals; (3) Is characterized by data-oriented student and teacher learning; (4) Is a form of ongoing, job-embedded professional learning that increases teacher capacity to meet students' needs; (5) Involves classroom observations that are cyclical and that build knowledge over time; and (6) Is supportive rather than evaluative. (Contains 1 figure.)