Advanced Coaching Clinic: Professional Development for Head Start and Early Head Start Education Coaches

Overview:

This clinic is a skill-building series aimed at Head Start and Early Head Start education coaches, including coordinators and supervisors of coaches. The focus will be on developing advanced coaching techniques and strategies that will enhance the effectiveness of coaching practices within early childhood education programs.

Objectives:

• Skill Enhancement: Build upon foundational coaching skills to develop advanced techniques tailored for early childhood education settings.
• Collaborative Learning: Foster a cohort model for peer-to-peer learning, feedback, and reflection.

Target Audience:

• Coaches who work directly with early childhood educators in Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
• Coordinators and Supervisors who oversee coaching teams and support professional development.

Why

The ideal participant for this cohort group includes Head Start and Early Head Start education coaches including coordinators and supervisors of coaches who want to accelerate and hone their coaching skills.

Ongoing professional development for education coaches in Head Start programs is essential for improving coaching effectiveness, supporting teachers, and fostering positive outcomes for children. Coaches who engage in continuous learning are better equipped to provide teachers with guidance, foster collaborative learning environments, and support high-quality, culturally responsive instruction. The result is a stronger, more effective Head Start program that benefits teachers, children, and families alike.

• Coaches should receive professional development support focused on the effective practices they are supporting coachees to implement; Artman-Meeker, K., Fettig, A., Barton, E. E., Penny, A., & Zeng, S. (2015). Applying an evidence-based framework to the early childhood coaching literature. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 35(3), 183-196.
• Artman-Meeker et al. (2015) reviewed 49 studies focused on coaching practitioners to implement intervention practices in early childhood settings. Less than 50% of the studies reported providing coaches with professional development or follow-up support on coaching, including coaching strategies.

This as well as other studies concluded that professional development is imperative to building a cadre of capable coaches whose expertise is essential for installing, implementing, and sustaining a robust coaching system.

Impact

Enhanced Instructional Quality and Teaching Practices

• Continuous training for coaches allows them to better support Head Start teachers in improving classroom instruction and interaction quality (Gupta & Daniels, 2012).

Improved Emotional and Instructional Support for Teachers

• Coaches who receive professional development are better equipped to support Head Start teachers’ emotional and instructional needs. This support enables teachers to handle classroom challenges more effectively (Harris, 2016).

Increased Teacher Retention and Job Satisfaction

• When education coaches are well-trained, they can better mentor and support teachers, leading to increased job satisfaction and reduced turnover among Head Start teachers (Heilmann et al., 2022).
• Teachers feel more competent and confident in their roles when they have access to coaches who receive ongoing development, fostering a positive workplace environment (O’Keefe, 2017).

Better Implementation of Coaching Models and Fidelity of Practice

• Consistent training allows coaches to align their practices with the most current evidence-based models, improving the effectiveness of coaching for Head Start teachers (Page & Eadie, 2019).

Increased Collaboration and Team Building

• Professional development strengthens the ability of coaches to facilitate collaborative goal setting and reflection processes, which support continuous improvement among teaching teams (Neuman & Cunningham, 2009).

Positive Child Outcomes and Learning Gains

• By improving coaches’ skills and competencies, professional development indirectly supports better child outcomes. Teachers who are coached more effectively tend to improve instructional quality, leading to better academic and developmental outcomes for children (Harris, 2016; Walsh et al., 2021).

What

These are the learning outcomes

• Participants will learn and understand the differences between coaching, mentoring, training, professional development, and supervision.
• Participants will learn elements of professional coaching such as;
  • Active Listening
  • Powerful Questioning
  • Reflective Practice
  • Goal Setting
• Participants will hear mock coaching scenarios wherein practices are modeled to support the coaches learning through observation.
• Participants will be paired with each other to record their own mock coaching sessions which will be reviewed by a professional Certified Coach from the Certified Coaches Alliance.

Where

All Sessions will be conducted via Zoom