Leading the Way: School-Based Coaches

Ben and Charlie Blackmon (Rockies All-Star, 2014). Coors Field, 2013.

I am a huge baseball fan. Living within 90 miles of a Major League Baseball team has helped nurture this love. Going to a stadium fills me with nostalgia and a sense of being right where I am supposed to be. Watching a game on television gives me a different perspective, one I do not get watching the game live. I get to hear the background stories and the comparative statistics. I get to re-watch close plays and know instantly if someone is hurt or what records that person might be approaching or breaking.

One of the most admirable elements of a professional baseball player is his drive to always be better. A 162-game schedule every year provides multiple opportunities for improvement. Professional baseball players are the best of the best. They have proven themselves at every level of the game, consistently performing in many different areas. Baseball players have to achieve and maintain a respectable batting average, fielding percentage, and on-base abilities. Off the field, they need to uphold an image to which children, families, and individuals can look up to and admire. 

And they don’t do it alone.

There is a manager to handle line-ups and strategy. There is a bench coach. A first base coach. A third base coach. A hitting coach. An assistant hitting coach. A pitching coach. A bullpen coach. A strength and conditioning coach. There is a head trainer and assistants to aid with injuries and prevention. Take a moment and think of the best baseball player you know. That person, who probably holds numerous records and is in the Hall of Fame or will be one day, has been coached.

This notion of wanting to be better tomorrow than today does not begin nor end in baseball. It exists in every aspect of life. Teaching is no exception. Some schools and districts are fortunate enough to have school-based coaches on staff. Schools want to improve student achievement, and students are not likely to perform higher until teachers perform higher.

In the introduction of Taking the Lead: New Roles for Teachers and School-based Coaches, authors Joellen Killion and Cindy Harrison (2006) say the following: “To make deep changes in teachers’ instructional practice and content knowledge, educators need both opportunities for continuous learning focused on improving student learning and overall school success rather than individual success, grounded in the realities of practice, and located within school as close to the classroom as possible; collaboration with peers; regular feedback about their practice; and opportunities to examine their beliefs related to teaching and learning” (p. 8).

Higher education and teacher preparation programs provide an initial framework for teachers to begin examining their practice. Without students, it is simply that: A framework. Once that framework is tested with time issues, schedules, meetings, colleagues, and students, teachers need support.

School-based coaches can provide timely, relevant, shared professional learning. Teachers put together an approximate 185-day schedule every year. Each day of that schedule includes planning, implementation, flexibility, imagination, creativity, and countless interactions. The setting may be the same, but the people in it – because they are human – fluctuate daily.

One of the greatest developments and advancements in education are school-based coaches. Just like baseball players, even that best player you thought of earlier, teachers should seek to be better tomorrow than they are today.

And with the right support, they can be.