The Self-Reported Impact of Instructional Coaching on Middle School Teachers\u27 Practices in an Urban Georgia School District

Instructional coaching is viewed as a promising initiative in professional learning for teachers, but there is lack of evidence that links coaching to impacting teachers’ practices (Marsh, McCombs, & Martorell, 2010). This dissertation research investigated relationships between the reported amount and types of instructional coaching received by a sample of middle school teachers in a large, urban school district in Georgia and any reported changes in teacher practice. The population for this study included English Language Arts (ELA) and social studies teachers from Title I schools across the district. This ex post facto study utilized a new survey, based on the Wyoming Instructional Facilitator Survey, was developed at the University of Wyoming (Rush & Young, 2011), to collect data on the extent and focus of reported coaching activities during the 2013-14 school year. The teachers also self-reported on changes in their practices and to what degree those changes were impacted by coaching. Quantitative data analysis of survey research results using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) took place to investigate the relationships between the amount and type of reported coaching activities and the reported teachers’ changes in practice, as measured by the overall teacher growth and the estimated teacher growth due to coaching. Means and standard deviations were also reported for reported teacher growth and estimated teacher growth due to coaching. Pearson correlation revealed that there were mixed results about coaching. There was no significant relationship between the reported amount and/or type of coaching activities received and the reported overall teacher growth score. There was a significant and positive relationship between the reported amount and type of coaching activities received and the estimated teacher growth due to coaching score. This study examined instructional coaching in a specific context of secondary literacy coaching across content areas. This study added to existing research regarding the focus and the extent of instructional coaching and its impact on teachers