2025 Instructional Coach Pool (Secondary)
Atlanta Public Schools
- Atlanta, GA
- Permanent
- Full-time
- Develops deep mastery of the academic standards in the subjects/grades for which he/she coaches, and strong understanding of academic standards for all subjects/grades. Understands the implications of standards on what a student should know and be able to do and therefore what a teacher needs to know and be able to do to facilitate student mastery
- Studies curriculum and assessment content and further develops understanding of how assessments map to content mastery, and what is required of students and teachers to accomplish mastery on the assessments
- Develops own knowledge of best practices in instructional methods and teaches teachers how to match particular strategies to gaps in student mastery
- Manages personal calendar to allow for sufficient time to plan for high-quality instructional coaching, PLC facilitation and the completion of other core duties
- Establishes strong relationships and a culture of safety and support with assigned teachers
- Sets measurable goals, in partnership with each teacher, for each coaching cycle
- Provides weekly to bi-weekly content/curriculum-specific coaching using a structured coaching cycle (e.g., observations, student data analysis, debrief, practice/modeling, follow-up)
- Identifies the highest-leverage teacher skills and bite-sized action steps to focus coaching cycles
- Utilizes a diverse range of coaching strategies (co-teaching, co-planning, modeling, scripted practice, lesson internalization, data-analysis, etc.) to effectively develop teacher skill and accelerate student achievement
- Links the work of PLCs to coaching (e.g., observing for agreed upon next steps from PLC meeting, providing feedback on instructional practice discussed with PLC members)
- Conducts regular step-backs with teachers to assess strengths and areas for improvement in the coaching relationship and overall progress towards achieving coaching goals; revises coaching frequency, structures and plan as needed
- Builds the capacity of teachers to plan for, gather and utilize high-quality data to inform teaching and re-teaching during the lesson (e.g., establishing monitoring pathways, administering high-quality checks for understanding)
- Builds the capacity of teachers to gather, analyze and utilize formative and summative data to inform teaching and re-teaching after assessments (e.g., collaboratively reviewing daily exit ticket data to identify common student misconceptions and plan re-teach, co-analyzing end of unit assessment data to identify trends and specific strategies by student sub-groups)
- Links data-analysis trends and next steps from PLC meetings to daily instruction via observation and high-quality feedback
- Builds the capacity of teachers to strategically prepare and plan for upcoming units/modules (e.g., taking end of unit student assessment with teacher and proactively planning for student misconceptions, deconstructing standards, calendaring lessons, integrating SEL competencies, building in time for re-teaching)
- Builds the capacity of teachers to intellectually prepare and plan for upcoming lessons (e.g., taking exit ticket with teacher and proactively planning for misconceptions, create/deconstruct lesson objectives, create/modify curricular resources, rehearse challenging portions of the lesson, execute daily lesson planning protocol)
- Facilitates or actively participates in grade-level/department PLC meetings, ensuring that all teachers actively deepen content knowledge and knowledge of curriculum/curricular resources
- Facilitates or actively participates in instructional planning (unit or lesson), data analysis, skill building or other PLC structures
- Links work of PLC to daily/weekly coaching of teachers
- Facilitates or supports grade/department/school-wide professional learning
- Commitment to APS' Core Values
- Demonstrated belief that all students, regardless of background, can achieve at the highest levels in college and in their careers; demonstrated commitment to the school's unique community
- Demonstrated resilience and focus on student outcomes
- Demonstrated student achievement results in own classroom and from teachers that he/she supports
- Demonstrated ability to drive student achievement results through others (direct reports have improved student achievement results)
- Demonstrated expertise in what the grade/department or school-wide academic standards and state assessments require of students' knowledge and skills to demonstrate mastery
- Demonstrated understanding of appropriate application and differentiation of high-leverage instructional strategies (e.g. pacing, checks for understanding, students doing the heavy lifting, etc.) based on comprehension of child development and pedagogy
- Demonstrated investment in and understanding of appropriate application of social emotional strategies to promote the development of the whole child
- Demonstrated ability to translate student mastery requirements into instructional plans and strategies
- Demonstrated expertise across a grade/department's standards and how student mastery will be assessed; developing an understanding of instructional design
- Demonstrated skill in data analysis; ability to extract meaningful insights from classroom, team or grade-level data
- Demonstrated ability to facilitate and ensure positive outcomes of teacher teams and/or professional learning communities
- Demonstrated track record of developing a positive learning culture for adults and students across his/her entire grade/department
- Demonstrated ability to create inclusive environments that honors and supports a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives
- Demonstrated ability to develop teachers through providing helpful feedback and/or professional learning opportunities
- Demonstrated ability to retain the highest performers on his/her team