Coaches for teachers shows promise in some NC schools, studies say

Some North Carolina schools are showing progress with programs that provide teachers with coaches.

That’s according to researchers who presented their findings to the State Board of Education on Wednesday. Researchers studied two interventions: Coaches for teachers in low-performing schools and leadership teachers who can provide coaching and feedback to their peers.

The research shows some positive movement — though limited to select schools — as standardized test scores, though improving, remain below their pre-pandemic levels. At the same time, expanding these programs across the state is unlikely to happen any time soon. One program is only a year old, and researchers will continue to study both of the programs.

The Education Policy Initiative at Carolina, located at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and North Carolina Central University received state grant funding to study a two-year program called Transformation, also known as CARES, that provided coaches in 102 low-performing schools. They found that reading and science scores jumped this spring at schools that had the coaches, several points higher than the statewide average gain.

Researchers at North Carolina State University conducted a separate study on teacher leaders, called Advanced Teaching Roles, that found math scores rose significantly in schools that had teacher leaders, equivalent to about one month of gains over other schools.

Feedback from teachers and schools on both programs was positive. But school leaders cautioned that they need time and financial investment to fully implement them.

‘This model works’

The Transformation program has provided coaches to 102 low-performing schools to reverse pandemic learning loss. The coaches have helped teachers with curriculum and feedback. Most coaches met with teachers for four or more hours each week at each school.

It started last year as a pilot program, and it will go on throughout the rest of this school year. However, no state funding is set to continue it beyond that.

State Superintendent Catherine Truitt said she asked state lawmakers to continue funding for it, but they declined. But the new research could provide data to back up her request.

“We have data now from an external group that we can take to the General Assembly in short session and say … this model works,” Truitt said.

The 17 coaches last year cost about $3 million. The program is funded using federal pandemic relief money.

Principal workload is too large for many principals to be able to provide consistent feedback or curriculum planning for their teachers, Truitt said. That’s one reason Truitt supported expanding advanced teaching roles across the state in her proposed overhaul to teacher licensure. State lawmakers have declined so far to pursue Truitt’s proposal.

“The truth is that the job is what it is, and it doesn’t always lend itself to being an instructional leader for every teacher in the building,” Truitt said.

Board member Jill Camnitz said many smaller school systems don’t have the capacity to write or buy their own curriculum in many cases.

That leads to schools relying on textbooks to guide curriculum, even if the textbooks aren’t totally aligned with state standards, Truitt said. Standardized tests are based on state standards.

Making teacher leaders

Lawmakers did choose to provide more funding for advanced teaching roles in the new state budget, but not enough to fund every teacher leader currently working in schools. Right now, principals must cut a position or two at their school to create a teacher leadership position and may not pay them extra for taking on a leadership role.

The new state budget provides $2 million more for new advanced teaching roles teachers, as well as $10.9 million for salary supplements for some of those teachers. The budget provides supplements of $10,000 for “leadership teachers” and $3,000 for “classroom excellence” teachers. A leadership teacher works in a classroom at least 30% of the time and leads their teacher team. A classroom excellence teacher agrees to take on more students.

According to the budget, more than 4,000 teachers could be leadership teachers, and about 14,000 teachers could be classroom excellence teachers. However, the recurring funds would be enough to cover 1,090 leadership teachers or 3,633 classroom excellence teachers.

Funding for advanced teacher roles is critical to the program’s success, school leaders told NC State researchers.

“The ability to sustain this program requires funding,” said Lam Pham, an assistant education professor at NC State.

Researchers found success was hampered at some schools by teacher turnover and variable funding for the roles. Administration also said they need class-size flexibility to more easily assign a teacher to an advanced role. State law caps class sizes for kindergarten through third grades, in part to help teachers devote more time to each student.