Coaching New and Experienced Principals: Lessons · PDF fileat Seattle University PROGRAM FOR...

at Seattle University

PROGRAM FOR NEW PRINCIPALS

Coaching New and

Experienced Principals:

Lessons Learned From a

Three-Year Study

Michael Silver, Director of Educational Administration, SU

Monica Chandler, Project Director, SU

Chad Lochmiller, Assistant Professor, WSU

Washington Educational Research Association

State Assessment Conference December 9, 2010



Outcomes for Today

• Share a definition and framework of leadership coaching

• Share a description of the Program for New Principals at Seattle University

• Identify research findings on differences in coaching new vs. experienced principals

• Identify and discuss implications for coaching school leaders



A Definition of Coaching…

“Coaching is the practice of providing deliberate support to another individual to help him/her to clarify and/or to achieve goals.”

“All coaching is centered on increasing the coachee’s ability to set goals effectively, to act in pursuit of those goals, and to reflectupon those actions and their impacts.”

Blended Coaching (2005)



Foundational Coaching Skills

• Relationship Building– Establishing trust and rapport

• Communicating Effectively– Active Listening

– Powerful Questioning

– Providing Feedback

• Facilitating Learning and Results– Planning and Goal Setting

– Designing Actions



Blended Coaching Strategies

Facilitative Coaching

– Primarily addresses an individual’s “ways of thinking and being”

– Locus of control is with coachee, not the coach

– Builds self-reflective practice

– Develops problem solving skills and diagnostic abilities

– Can produce powerful shifts in thinking and beliefs

– Rests on the assumption that coachee has skills and knowledge to resolve need

Instructional Coaching

– Primarily addresses “ways of doing”

– Used when it is clear that the coachee does not have the skills or knowledge needed

– Coach may share own expertise by modeling and providing resources

– Nested in facilitative coaching



Coaching is not…

• Coaching is not training– Addresses the needs of the individual, not a

particular curriculum

• Coaching is not supervision– A coach does not have the authority to give

directions or determine employment status

• Coaching is not therapy– Coaching focuses on the accomplishment of

professional goals



Coaching vs. Mentoring

Coach MentorOutside the organization; outside perspective

Organization insider; senior expert

Provides continuing, regular support that is safe and confidential

Informal, voluntary, may not be regular

Goal: nurturing of significant personal, professional and institutional growth through a process that unfolds over time

Goal: show novice the ropes



On the coaching relationship…

“The coaching relationship isn’t the same as a mentoring relationship… in a coaching relationship the coach is creating a space for the other person to grow… a mentoring relationship is about a specific culture or organization… it’s really not about the person….”

Coach



On being a coachee…

“…I feel like I can talk about so much more with my coach…I don’t feel like I am going to be judged…I don’t feel like I will be fired if I talk about things I don’t understand…As [her] coachee, I am free to learn…I feel like she was picked just for me…”

Coachee



Why Coaching Works

• Objectives are realistic and important for personal and professional needs

• Control over what, how, why, when, where of learning

• Direct application to work

• Provides support for transfer of learning and sustained practice

• Provides feedback on results of efforts

• Responsive to wide range of experiences, knowledge, interests and competencies

-Speck and Knipe (2001)



Seattle University

Program for New Principals

Goals: • Create and sustain a research-based, model program that supports

new and experienced school and district administrators through leadership coaching

• Train and develop highly skilled coaches committed to the success of school and district leaders

Purpose:• To have a positive impact on student achievement by helping

administrators develop and/or refine the skills to be effective instructional leaders

Funding:Stuart Foundation, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, JP Morgan Chase



PNP Program Components

• Support for New Principals (SU)– Seattle University graduates receive coaching support for 3

years

• Support for New and Experienced Principals– Receive coaching for 1-3 years

– Coaching is provided on-site for 4-6 hours /month

• Support for Supervisors of Principals– Workshop series on use of effective coaching strategies

– Coaching is provided on-site for 4-6 hours/month

• Support for Leadership Coaches– Initial 3 day coaching workshop

– Four follow up training workshops over course of year



RESEARCH ON THE PROGRAM

FOR NEW PRINCIPALS

2009-2012 External Program Evaluation



Study Context

• Research is based on a multi-year, external program evaluation for

the Program for New Principals at Seattle University conducted by

faculty from Washington State University.

• Research began in 2006-07 and has been completed every year

since.

• Research is primarily qualitative evaluation, with methods including

interviews, observations, surveys, and review of documents.

• Data in this presentation reflects research conducted in the 2009-10

program year, specifically surveys and interviews completed in

Spring 2010.



Program Evaluation Sample

35 (43%)

Experienced

Administrators

22 (27%)

Leadership

Coaches

14 (17%)

Novice

Administrators

11 (13%)

Central Office

Administrators



Research Questions

• The research explored two questions:

– What differences do leadership coaches perceive when working

with novice versus experienced school administrators?

– What implications do these perceived differences pose for the

program or for professional development of leadership

coaches/school administrators?



Findings

• Leadership coaches reported the following differences in their work with experienced school principals:

1. Coaches generally indicated that experienced principals approached the coaching relationship with a different set of expectations and needs.

2. Coaches found experienced principals more receptive to facilitative coaching (probing their thinking) as opposed to instructional coaching (showing them how).

3. Experienced administrators were often “skeptical” or “resistant” to leadership coaching as they were concerned that accepting coaching meant acknowledging a weakness in their performance or practice.

4. The coaching relationship, particularly developing trust, took longer to establish when working with experienced principals.



Different Focus and Interest in Coaching

• According to the leadership

coaches:

– Novice principals tend to focus

their coaching on learning their

roles;

– Whereas, experienced principals

tend to have interest in using the

coaching support to optimize

their leadership performance.

New principals are focused on

performance enhancement and

generally learning their role, whereas

veteran principals are interested in

optimizing their leadership, which

means exploring one's way of being

as a leader, one's values, beliefs, and

sense of identity.

-- PNP Leadership Coach



Explanations for the Differences

• Leadership coaches offered different explanations for the differences between their work with experienced and novice administrators:

– From my experience it seems like an experienced principal does not need as much of the "emergency" problem-solving as a new principal does.

– [Experienced principals] have had the time for more reflection on their job and have found that events, certain types of situations, and even people issues repeat themselves… so, once they have resolved one issue they are better able to apply that experience to another one.

– I think an experienced principal has more confidence and a sense of urgency in an experienced principal that will often propel him/her into action on instructional matters that novice principals do not.



Relying on Facilitative Coaching

• Coaches indicated that

they tended to rely on

facilitative coaching

strategies with

experienced principals

whereas they often used

instructional coaching with

novice principals.

Coaching an experienced principal

requires spending more time

unpacking their current knowledge or

understanding of the challenge or

organization…

… you have to use more facilitative

questioning to probe their thinking to

understand why and how they make

decisions and how this experience

may be tied to something that

happened before and is now

influencing how they think about the

problem.

-- PNP Leadership Coach



Coaching to Their Strengths, Not Weaknesses

• Coaches found experienced school administrators often avoided the

coaching support because they feared it would acknowledge a

weakness or deficit.

When I first found out about the coach, I was

like, what did I do wrong? It was not something

that I saw as being helpful, I thought it was

being provided because I had done something

wrong. I now realize that wasn’t the purpose

of this – but it still took me time to admit that

the coach was here to work on my strengths

and not highlight my weaknesses.

-- School Administrator, Seattle

I think you need to understand what

principals in this district are going through –

there is sort of this view that we either move it

(student achievement) or lose it (our job)…

When a coach shows up, your first thought is

that you’re on the way out because you’re not

doing the work or getting the job done. The

coach may be well-meaning, but that’s just the

culture in the district that we’re working in

right now.

-- School Administrator, Seattle



Difficult to Establish Trust

Experienced principals bring more to the

table in terms of skills and strategies. But

they also have baggage that they have

accumulated over time. It takes time to work

into a trusting relationship with an

experienced principal because that person is

assessing the coach as much as the coach is

assessing the coachee… Many experienced

principals may have been burned in the past

and they have to overcome their concerns

about whether this relationship will really

benefit them. This takes time to achieve.

--- PNP Leadership Coach

• Coaches indicated that

developing a relationship with

an experienced administrator,

particularly developing trust,

often required greater effort

than it did with a novice

administrator.

• Coaches saw this as a

reflection of past experience

more than an apprehension to

coaching.



Explanations for the differences?

• Leadership coaches explained that some of the differences they encountered coaching experienced principals stemmed from:

–Relationship with the central

office supervisor or

administration.

–Quality of the relationship

between the administrator and

his/her staff.

–Previous experience with or

exposure to professional

development.

–Misconceptions about what

leadership coaching is/was.



Implications for the Program

• Professional development for leadership coaches needs to differentiate whether/when strategies apply to novice or experienced administrators.

• Coaches need additional training on strategies to develop a relationship and overcome resistance when working with school administrators.

• Matching procedures used by the program should consider the principal’s experience level and their specific professional learning needs, as well as the school level and coach’s professional background.



References

Bloom,G., Castagna, C., Moir, E., & Warren, B. (2005). Blended Coaching: Skills and Strategies to Support Principal Development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Speck, M. & Knipe, C. (2001). Why Can't We Get it Right? Professional Development in Our Schools.Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.



Contact Information

• PNP website: http://www.seattleu.edu/coe/newprincipals/

• Michael Silver: [email protected]

• Monica Chandler: [email protected]

• Chad Lochmiller: [email protected]

http://www.seattleu.edu/coe/newprincipals/

mailto:[email protected]



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