Elevating Student Voice: The Role and Importance of Literacy Coaches for K–12 Teachers

This position statement was written for K–12 teachers in order to focus on the role and importance of literacy coaches. The NCTE Executive Committee commissioned this work by approving a recommendation to archive Standards for Middle and High School Literacy Coaches (2006). A literacy coach is positioned as an individual who serves both teachers and students in an effort to elevate their voices in literacy learning. Relationship building must be foremost for literacy coaches, as coaches should understand the learning styles and needs of each teacher and student in order to provide a differentiated, equitable approach to coaching and instruction (Morgan et al., 2019). The current statement highlights the following messages: (1) Literacy coaches support a collaborative learning process with the K–12 teacher to create an inspired environment of learning for the teacher and students in the classroom. (2) K–12 literacy coaches center student voice, rather than assuming a deficit approach. (3) Literacy coaches reach students across grade levels and a range of language levels, incorporating technology throughout their work, when applicable. (4) Literacy coaches balance the various roles of a literacy professional. (5) Literacy coaches elevate the work of content-area teachers. (6) It is important to create a culture that values a literacy coaching framework across a range of educational settings. Insights gleaned from previous NCTE position statements—including The Act of Reading: Instructional Foundations and Policy Guidelines; NCTE Position Paper on the Role of English Teachers in Educating English Language Learners; Position Statement on Indigenous Peoples and People of Color (IPOC) in English and Language Arts Materials; Definition of Literacy in a Digital Age; and Shifting from Professional Development to Professional Learning: Centering Teacher Empowerment—as well as Jim Knight’s (2004) and Cathy Toll’s (2005) literature on instructional/literacy coaching, along with disciplinary literacy scholars Elizabeth Moje (2008), Timothy Shanahan and Cynthia Shanahan (2012), Peter Smagorinsky (2015), Michael Manderino (2017), Paula Di Domenico (2017), and Regie Routman (2018) guided its creation