by Barbaba Hall

The concept of literacy coaches dates back to the 1920s—but they are increasingly in demand in 21st century schools.

For six years, Stacy Fell-Eisenkraft has been a literacy coach at Intermediate School 131, in the heart of New York City’s Chinatown. She and other literacy coaches in schools across the United States are working to increase the instructional capacity of content teachers, so that they can incorporate literacy instruction in science, math, history and other subject areas. With too many of our nation’s students unable to read adequately, this new approach is aimed at equipping all students with strategic reading skills, so that they will be prepared for college and the demands of today’s workplace.

On a morning in late spring, Fell-Eisenkraft meets with Bryce Bernards, a first-year teacher at I.S. 131. Before their thirty or so eighth graders enter the classroom, the two educators trade ideas and approaches to the day’s reading and writing lesson.

Recognizing that a literacy coach should be supportive to teachers, Fell-Eisenkraft skillfully and sensitively helps Bernards refine his lesson plans. He is pleased with her suggestions, and, as students stream in, takes his place in front of the classroom. Fell-Eisenkraft remains nearby, assessing how she can be helpful in the classroom. The young teacher begins the class by engaging the students in reading exercises, intertwining the themes of “recipes” and “identities” to capture the students’ interest. Like a carefully constructed painting, brushstroke by brushstroke, the morning’s lesson cumulatively takes shape, forming a cohesive whole. During the to and fro between teacher and class, Fell-Eisenkraft writes key points on the board—especially helpful, Bernards says later, because of the multilingual nature of his class.

Literacy Coaching Defined
Literacy coaching is a growing development in the field of American education. Like other educational innovations, from charter schools to enriched after-school programs, literacy coaching is protean, varying from venue to venue and even described by different terms in various regions of the country.

On the West Coast, educators work with an instructional framework known as “reading apprenticeship,” while an East Coast source calls literacy coaches “advisor/mentors.” These terms have evolved over the years, with early studies on the subject often using the term “reading specialists.” Barbara Neufeld and Dana Roper of Education Matters, Inc., a nonprofit educational research organization in Cambridge, Massachusetts, refer to literacy coaches as “change coaches” and “content coaches” in a June 2003 report, Coaching: A Strategy for Developing Instructional Capacity. Hundreds of interviews with literacy coaches, principals and other administrators, along with synthesis and analysis, are gathered in the report, which was prepared for The Aspen Institute on Education and The Annenberg Institute for School Reform.

One model for literacy coaching, as it has been introduced into Boston classrooms and elsewhere, is called Collaborative Coaching and Learning (CCL) because a chief characteristic of the model involves active participation by teachers who collaborate with their colleagues. Coaches and teachers are carrying out CCL through practices that involve demonstration and observation, pre-conference meetings, lab-site activities, debriefings and classroom follow-up.

The Role and Qualifications of the Reading Coach in the United States, an important statement on literacy coaching, was published in June 2004 by the Delaware-based International Reading Association (IRA). Cathy Roller, director of research and policy for the organization, helped develop the report with the IRA board of directors; the publication is endorsed by an array of organizations representing many learning disciplines. One of the report’s recommendations is for higher standards for literacy coaches, notably, a requirement of a master’s degree. The report also draws attention to the marked flexibility—not necessarily a positive thing, in the authors’ view—in the definition of literacy coaching.

“Some coaches are volunteers with no specific training in reading,” the IRA publication notes, “where others are school district employees with master’s degrees and reading specialist certification. In some schools, tutors who work with students are also called coaches; these individuals have a variety of levels of training and they may work for companies (both profits and nonprofits) who supply supplemental services to students attending schools labeled ‘in need of improvement’…There are no agreed upon definitions or standards for the roles…In the leadership role [coaches] design, monitor and assess reading achievement progress; they provide professional development and coaching for teachers…they are responsible for improving reading achievement; and they may also have staff supervision and evaluation assignments.”

Roller suggests that what distinguishes literacy coaching is teacher-to-teacher communications that occur both during class and at other times as well. She also observes that the supply of literacy coaches these days is far exceeded by the demand. Her sentiments are echoed by Susan Frost, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education in Washington, D.C., who offers the idea that literacy coaching is an outgrowth of “high-stakes” testing—schools fail if students fail tests; improvement in test performance depends, in part, on a student’s ability to read and comprehend the test material.

For Carnegie Corporation of New York, a concern with increasing the number of qualified literacy coaches who are currently working in middle and high schools is an element of its overall work in the area of improving adolescent literacy, which grows out of the Corporation’s long history of supporting literacy efforts. Currently, grantmaking in this area is focused around its Advancing Literacy: Reading to Learn subprogram, which was launched in 2003 after an extensive two-year review that included consultations with the nation’s leading practitioners and researchers. Specifically in support of literacy coaching, the foundation has made grants to the University of Michigan to help train coaches through the use of technology and to IRA to begin to review and help set standards for middle and high school literacy coaches.

Next page: Like other educational innovations, literacy coaching is protean, varying from venue to venue and even described by different terms in various regions of the country.

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