What We’re Doing to Better Support ELP Participants in 2024

Summer has flown by as it always does, and now that we are into the 2024-25 school year, we thought this was a perfect time to share the new supports we have in place for ELP participants.

New guide for our Virtual Instructional Coaches

As we mentioned in a previous blog post, we worked with our partner, TNTP, to create an Instructional Coaching Guide for our Virtual Instructional Coaches (VICs). 

The handbook walks VICs through everything they need to be successful. It includes:

  • ELP’s vision for effective coaching

  • The VIC’s roles and responsibilities 

  • How to use the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle as a coach

  • Three common coaching pathways VICs can use to deliver feedback to their New Teachers (NTs)

  • An introduction to the ELP CORE Rubric

We believe the CORE Rubric will play an outsize role in teacher (and student) success. It covers four areas:

  1. Culture of Learning: Are ALL students engaged in the work of the lesson from start to finish? It helps NTs understand if they have the right classroom environment to support learning.

  2. Essential Content: Are ALL students working with content aligned to the appropriate standards for their subject and grade? 

  3. Student Ownership: Are ALL students responsible for thinking in this classroom? Are they being challenged? 

  4. Demonstration of Learning: Do ALL students demonstrate that they are learning?

VICs and NTs are free to choose the areas the NT wants to focus on. Maybe the NT focuses on Culture of Learning and Essential Content in the first year. During the second year of coaching, the NT can move onto Student Ownership and Demonstration of Learning.

We are eager to see the impact the rubric and PDSA cycle have on student outcomes.

Central dashboard keeps all information in one spot

It’s no secret that teachers - especially those new to the profession - are overwhelmed. Though ELP is proven to help relieve feelings of stress, we heard from participants at every level that they had a hard time quickly locating information. 

Over the summer, we created a central dashboard (essentially a landing page on our website) so participants can access everything in one spot. 

The dashboard will house:

  • Program updates 

  • Foundational materials

  • Links to resources (more on this below!)

  • A calendar

  • Any other resources or tools we think would be helpful (or that participants tell us they need!)

Like everything in our program, the dashboard is sure to evolve.

Google Classroom will house all workshop materials

During our pilot and this past year’s beta test, we used both Google Classroom and Teach Forward to house and share resources. ELP participants were loud and clear about their desire to use ONE online platform to access resources. 

We heard you!

Google Classroom will now house all workshop assets. Before a workshop, participants can find workshop materials and slides. After a workshop, we will upload the session recording. If a participant couldn’t make the workshop, they can re-watch it.

Speaking of workshops, we got positive feedback on peer-led workshops last year. This year, Leads are running all of them. (Leads are coaches who went through training with TNTP and helped us develop the coaching guide.)

These improvements are a result of participant feedback

We did not dream up these improvements. Rather, the ideas came directly from feedback we received from ELP participants.

VICs have told us they weren’t sure if they were effective as coaches. They often asked, “Am I doing the right thing? Should I be doing something else? How can I frame my coaching to be successful?” Hence, we worked with Leads to create the Instructional Coaching Guide for them.

As we mentioned above, the creation of a central dashboard, move to Google Classroom only, and switch to peer-led workshops came about because we listened to feedback and took steps to implement that feedback. In a profession that often doesn’t listen to what their most important stakeholders - their teachers - need, we are proud to buck that trend and do whatever we can to support both new and veteran teachers.

If you have any questions about our professional support model for New Teachers - or would like to support our work - please get in touch! You can reach us at info@educatorsleadingtheprofession.org

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How (and Why) to Build Relationships as a Teacher

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The Data Is In: ELP Continues to Support Teacher Retention