Examining the Association Between Coaching Intensity and Teacher Effectiveness

• In Event: Teacher Learning in Networks and Communities of Practice

Abstract

Research on teacher professional development supports coaching as a theoretically effective way of helping teachers transfer their knowledge to their instructional practice. However, few quantitative studies exist evaluating the effects of coaching intensity on multiple measures of teacher effectiveness. Utilizing a situative framework, this study uses multiple fixed effect models on data from elementary math teachers in three districts across three years to test the association between coaching intensity and teacher effectiveness. I find that high coaching intensity is strongly associated with teacher effectiveness as measured by instructional practices, but the association with student test scores and teacher knowledge is not significant across all models. These findings suggest that coaching more directly influences teachers’ practice than their content knowledge.

Author

• Lam Pham, Vanderbilt University - Peabody College