New Program to Offer Principal Coaching, Support on State's Evaluation System
The Delaware Department of Education's new development coach program will provide principals and assistant principals across the state with advanced training and targeted assistance as they assess and support teachers in their buildings.
Key to Delaware's education reform strategy are statewide professional development initiatives that build critical skills among teachers and leaders. The state's development coach program will help improve the consistency and rigor of educator performance appraisals and will better link these appraisals to feedback and professional development opportunities.
The state has partnered with the University of Delaware's Delaware Academy for School Leadership (DASL) on this project. Funded with about $3 million from the state's $119 million federal Race to the Top grant, the initiative will launch this summer. Twelve coaches will be selected and trained, each of whom will be assigned to work with four to seven schools intensively. The initiative also will provide district-wide trainings on aspects of the state's DPAS-II evaluation process to all principals and assistant principals
Development coaches will be trained in assessing performance, providing feedback to facilitate critical conversations, and identifying opportunities for teacher development. They will provide coaching to assessors to improve the quality and accuracy of performance appraisals and, ultimately, instructional planning and delivery. Development coaches will not conduct performance appraisals themselves, but rather they will support assessors as the state transitions next year to a more rigorous and transparent performance appraisal process.
"The coaches will help ensure that the evaluation system is consistently and fairly implemented across the state," Secretary of Education Lillian M. Lowery said. "They will support a school culture that values appraisal as a way to help educators develop their skills over time."
Delaware's public schools have about 9,000 teachers, 700 administrators, and 1,300 specialists. Among administrators and specialists, there are about 600 trained and certified assessors.
The coaches will be trained this summer and report to districts and charters to begin their work in August. The 24-month program will span two full academic years.
The Delaware Academy for School Leadership, a professional development and policy center in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Delaware, has posted the position for Development Coach. The posting can be found by following this link http://www.udel.edu/udjobs/current/index.html. Click on the Exempt tab. The Development Coach posting is #100044 and which is the sixth from the bottom.
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Delaware's Department of Education is committed to promoting the highest quality education
for every Delaware student by providing visionary leadership and superior service.
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Contact Info.
Alison Kepner Delaware Department of Education 401 Federal Street, Suite #2 Dover, Delaware 19901 Phone: (302) 735-4035 Fax: (302) 739-4654 Email: akepner@doe.k12.de.us |
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