Most-Clicked: Report on Reading Coaches in Florida

The number of reading coaches in schools has increased in the past decade, thanks in part to elementary school mandates from Reading First. A new report (PDF) from the Rand Corporation shows middle school reading coaches in Florida help teachers and boost student motivation to read, but the report offers no clear data on coaches' overall effectiveness in raising student test scores.

The report also showed that reading coaches

• Spent less than half their time in the classroom due to administrative workloads.
• Provided services mostly to reading teachers, as opposed to teachers in all content areas.
• Wanted more professional development on working with adult learners, English language learners, and struggling students.
• Were most effective when they spent time reviewing student data with teachers.

The report also recommended schools put more resources into developing highly qualified reading coaches that work with teachers across subject areas.

What results have you seen from your work with reading coaches? Do you think district budgets should prioritize broader use of reading coaches?

Comments

[Paul]

There are some pretty scary stats here. I feel like my administrative duties keep me away from my classroom too often as well. I feel like the best work I do is in class with my kids. Two times this year already I have been in all day meetings with a sub in my room.

[Victoria]

I agree Paul. I have only 1 hour of contact with students. This is disheartening. On the other hand, if I can effectively help five teachers, through coaching and instructional refinement, I feel as though I am indirectly increasing my student contact time. This article reinforces my thinking. The more I help teachers help themselves the more effective my position becomes-- especially with data dialogue. Some teachers do not understand how to analyze data with thought to implementing instructional modifications. Obviously, if teachers cannot meet before and after school they then face having to find a sub. But I believe that leaving the class for an hour is worth the time in the long run. With specific help a teacher can then do more for their students.

[Lisa]

I am a literacy coach in New York State. My day is spent working with teachers and children. This report bothers because coaches should be working with children and teachers not doing administrative work. Coaches don't get paid administrative pay we get paid to help with reading and writing. I am grateful that I work in a district that values the literacy coach's job.

[Kristen]

I am a reading teacher in Guatemala and the most frustrating thing about my schedule is the number of school holidays, assemblies, religious holidays and other assorted reasons to cancel the reading program for that day. While I am not burdened with the administrative tasks that many of you face, I'm challenged by the competition with their social calendar!

[Julia]

Kristen and Lisa are both very lucky to have the support of their school districts regarding time actually coaching readers or working with teachers. Sadly, in my district, we rarely see the "Reading Specialist". She is overextended, travels between three buildings, and is often out attending Reading workshops. In five years of teaching, I have recieved about 9 hours of support. In addition, she is constantly pulled into our Disrict Teaching and Learning Center to work on curriculum development.

[Jenny Garcia]

I am an ESOL teacher in Georgia, where we are privileged in our elementary school to have both a reading and math coach. While it is true that our coaches have some adinistative duties, for the most part of the day they are working with teachers or the students to improve both our reading and math scores in our schools. I agree with Victoria on her view about spending time with five teachers instead of students could effectively help more students when the teachers apply something they have learned to improve reading literacy.
Jenny

[Mary]

I am an Intervention Specialist in Ohio. I work with students who have learning disabilities in an inclusion setting. I am thankful that I am able to spend a great deal of time with my students in their general education classroom as well as my resource room. In my building, we have a reading and math coach. Like many of you stated, our general education teachers complain that our coaches spend little time working with students who are in need of their services because of meetings and administrative duties. None of the students in my building have received assistance from either coach so far this school year! I do feel it is important for them to work with teachers and help teachers analyze data, but they need to have more contact with the students also! Parents are beginning to inquire about the assistance their child is supposed to be receiving from a specialist. They have such specialized knowledge in their field! It is a shame they all seem to be so over extended!
Mary

[Lynn A. Schemel]

I have had excellent experience with our Reading Intervention Specialist(RIS). She assisted me by modeling techniques for management, lesson plans, presentation of material,and assessments. With help my content area delivery is smoother and more proficient. Our school has approximately 850 middle school students. Our RIS is responsible for directing our state testing schedules, quarterly district testing in English and Language Arts and classroom help. I think it would be advantageous having 2 or more RIS in our building. Without her direct involvement in my classroom I know my students would not have made the reading gains they did.

[Marla Punsalan]

I am a teacher in California and I have a reading coach at my school. I feel she does a lot of administrative duties but is always available if we need her. She does offer great ideas and she also plans our staff development once a month. I don't think it is effective for the students as much as it should be. I am amazed at some of the schools where coaches spend most of their day working with students and teachers. I wonder if the test scores are higher since the coach began.

[Julia]

Marla-

Our test scores HAVE improved for K-2 students that get to work one-to-one with the Reading Specialist in our building, but there have been no marked impprovements in classrooms where the Reading Specialist worked with a teacher.

[Karen]

I work in a school system in Southeast Georgia. We, too, have a math and literacy coach. Our coaches are used many times as an extension of the office, but they do work in the classrooms as well. This year the coaches are working together, and this makes it much better for the teachers. We meet with the coaches once a week to discuss curriculum, upcoming deadlines, and student work. Both coaches work hard to ensure our teachers are getting all the assistance they need to help with student achievement. They also model lessons for teachers and give feedback on lessons being taught. They are a great asset at our school.

[Katie]

I have worked at a school with a reading specialist in the past, and I am jealous of the descriptions I have been reading. The only times I saw our specialist were when it came time for testing. She had a great deal of administrative responsibility, but at the same time she had a limited knowledge of the requirements of our reading program.

[Audrey]

I am currently a special education teacher in Wyoming. I started my career in FL as reading coaches were starting. I remember the problem was they were never available. They were either filling in for the secretary, the principals personal assistant, the data cruncher. My biggest complaint was they were there to help teacher improve their teaching and in turn student learning. How can you improve the teacher and the students when you are not in the classroom? I think the idea of a coaches is fantastic, but there needs to be a clear job description, just the classroom educator has.

[Lisa]

As I was reading many of your comments it saddens me to hear that Literacy Coaches are doing more administrative work than coaching. In my district I am not consider an academic intervention service, my general job is to help classroom teachers teach all children in their classrooms. Our scores in the district have gone up due to training the teachers have, coaching, and reviewing data. I am very blessed to be where I am. My school is a Literacy Collaborative School. My district trainer had her training at Ohio State University. You can check out the Literacy website by going to www.OSU.com. It will be you a better understanding what our program is about.

[Christine]

I am a reading specialist/facilitator in an intermediate school. I spend 90 minutes every day in classrooms. I coach the teachers, place students in reading classes based on their reading levels (using multiple measures), facilitate trainings, track data, share data with teachers and administration, select reading material, and communicate with parents. Our school houses four special education programs and services 370 students, so my days are busy, but very rewarding. Our reading scores have grown over the years.
The greatest frustration that I have is the mandates of NCLB, especially for children with special needs. Often, data does not tell the entire story.

[Colleen]

I am a Special Educator in a suburban school in Maryland. We have two Reading specialists in our building as well as a Math specialist. This year, our school has developed a formal intervention program where these teachers are pulling small groups of students and are using research based interventions in the hopes of increasing student achievement. Unfortunately, my Special Ed. students are not allowed to participate in these groups. Does anyone have any similar experience with Special Ed. students being pulled from the general ed. setting to work with a general ed. intervention group? I need to address this issue with my adinistration and would love to know if others are using a similar model and if so, how they are dealing with Special Ed. within that framework.
Thanks!

[Julia]

Lisa-
Thanks for the link to the OSU website! I read through the literacy training manula that I found posted and WOW! So many great ideas! My favorite was having the reader act as a character in their story given a situation, or given a prediction about what might happen next! This is a creative idea that I will use THIS WEEK in my Guided Reading small groups. Again, I cant thank you enough for your post!

[Dr. E]

The reading coach at my school is awful. She rarely comes to the campus. When she does come to campus, she observes us and then gives us negative feedback (always) without suggesting what could be done to make the situation better. During department meetings, when issues come up, she always claim that she is going to bring resources for us to use, but never brings them. Our reading coach does not do administrative work. She is so lazy, she will not even offer to run copies for our department meeting. She places all the work on the department chair. This lady is something serious.

[tjalston]

I can relate to this article as a teacher at a Reading First school. Each year, my reading coach spends less time in my class helping me get students up to benchmark, and more time on administrative duties. Because she spends less time helping me directly, I spend more time completing the tasks that she completed in years past. Particularly progress monitor testing and data review. I have become increasingly bogged down with these duties, as have the other teachers in my school. There are many restrictions associated with Reading First, and I feel that my coach has been willing, but not able to do her job appropriately. Next year I'm planning to move up a grade so that I don't have to deal at all with Reading First because it has become too much work added to my regular teaching duties.

[Amy Sandvold]

I am now a principal, but when I was a literacy coach (in a successful model!), we worked very hard at protecting what literacy coaches were hired to do...coach teachers. We had the load of extra work because we were part of the Federal Reading Excellence Act. It has to be a concerted effort and it's all about communicating and establishing roles. From the beginning, we wrote a solid job description, trained PRINCIPALS in what the coach was supposed to be doing, and had an explicit professional development model. If you have a solid professional development plan, you know what the priority is...following-up in classrooms by working with teachers in implementing the PD. ~Amy Sandvold (Fundamentals of Literacy Coaching, 2008, ASCD)...we talk A LOT about this issue in our book.

[Jennifer]

Amy hits the nail on the head. For any coaching program to be successful, there needs to be a very clear understanding of the coach's role and responsibilities. There is a big difference between a reading specialist who's job it is two work with students who are struggling readers and a literacy coach who should be focusing on the individual professional development needs of the teachers. Coaches frequently wear many hats, as I do in my position as the only instructional coach in a large urban high school, but we all need to be assertive when we are asked to perform non-coaching related duties that take us away from our primary role which is improving student learning. I am very fortunate to have a princial who respects my role as a coach.