Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 3, No. 1 | Literacy Coaches: An Evolving Role, page 3

Goodlad, president of the Institute for Educational Inquiry and a founder of the Center for Educational Renewal at the University of Washington, wrote the classic, A Place Called School: Prospects for the Future (McGraw-Hill, 1984, 2004). His latest book is Romances With Schools: A Life of Education (McGraw-Hill, 2004).

Goodlad says that from his vantage point, “The coaching idea is not new at all. My view of it is a cultural one. The term dates back to the multi-language problem; I’d time it in with the growth of the Hispanic population, forty or fifty years ago. Simultaneously,” he continues, “there were people making their concerns known at the university level. They had the sense that you didn’t get anywhere if you couldn’t read. There was a call for vocabulary to understand social studies, science and so on.”

Math dominated the coaching landscape, he recalls. “That’s my first memory of the use of the term ‘coaching.’ Today, though, literacy coaching has become a cottage industry.” He goes on to suggest that there should be greater evaluation of the field. “We need long-term studies of literacy coaching—it’s difficult to understand its value without ongoing studies and assessment. It’s a tough question because we don’t know the impact of shifting heavily to technology and what the computer will do to literacy in the long run. I worry some about this. The contrast between computer-based literacy and print-based literacy provokes,” he says, “a layered conversation.” Adding a cogent comment, he says that he believes “the understanding of democracy involves the written word.”

Sizer, too, has a new book: Keeping School: Letters to Families from Principals of Two Small Schools (Beacon Press, 2004) written with Deborah Meier and Nancy Faust Sizer. Currently visiting professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Sizer is also the chairman of the Oakland, California-based Coalition of Essential Schools (CES), which “provides national networking and professional development opportunities, conducts research, and advocates for public policies” that are aimed at developing “equitable, intellectually vibrant, personalized schools.”

Infused with Sizer’s ideas about educational reform, CES is committed to the idea of literacy coaching. Sizer likens a literacy coach to the artist/teacher. “You still do your own art while you’re teaching,” he says. “You’re still influenced by current movements in the art world.”

What Sizer says worries him is coaches who end up not actually teaching—departing from what he calls the practice of “school-keeping.” “My concern,” he says, “is that coaching carries a great deal of ideological freight. Moreover,” he adds, “if coaches are just thrust upon teachers, there will be resentment.” But there are directions to follow, Sizer suggests. For example, “It’s important,” he says, “to build a network of people who are very close to the action of schools, who are trained to work with others.” Overall, Sizer is optimistic about the growing practice of literacy coaching. “It’s one of the pieces of education reform most likely to be sustained,” he says.

Frictions and Mini-Epiphanies
While the practice of literacy coaching continues to make inroads in schools across the nation, even its most dedicated advocates acknowledge that it can have drawbacks. In studying literacy coaching at the Boston public schools, for instance, educators candidly caution that there are sometimes turf battles between coaches and teachers—and content teachers, who are deeply invested in the practice of imparting knowledge about a particular subject area, do not always welcome the idea of having to teach literacy and comprehension at the same time. Their feeling, often, is that by the time kids reach the middle grades, their elementary schools should have already taught them to read and understand the information in their textbooks. With the added pressure of having to ensure that students pass required tests—so that not only can the student continue his or her educational career but also so that the school itself doesn’t suffer the stigma of being a “failing school”—literacy is not always the first subject on a middle or high school teacher’s agenda.

Still, Boston and other systems have also had their “mini-epiphanies.” The term is used by Lisa Gonsalves, author of a 2003 University of Massachusetts study of literacy coaching in Boston’s public schools. But, as Gonsalves and others note, Boston’s successes can, in large measure, be chalked up to a dedicated and capable team. Cathleen Kral, the instructional leader for literacy K-12 in the Boston public schools and coaching head there, has worked closely with individuals such as Ellen Guiney, executive director of the Boston Plan for Excellence in the Public Schools Foundation, and Barbara Neufeld to incorporate the literacy concept in the city’s middle and high schools. (The Boston Plan for Excellence also partners with the Boston public schools in Schools for a New Society, a Carnegie Corporation initiative being carried out in seven urban communities that focuses on reform of school district policies and practices to help reshape teaching and learning in high schools; key elements include creating small learning communities and a citywide network of excellent schools that can provide high-quality education for all students.)

Next page: The practice of literacy coaching will provide few long-term benefits if there isn’t secure, ongoing funding available to ensure that coaching has staying power on the educational agenda.

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