Measuring the Effectiveness of an ESL Coaching Model

Abstract

Identifying professional development models that result in accelerated academic and linguistic development among English language learners (ELLs) is a pressing educational concern, especially in an era demanding that teacher performance be directly linked to student achievement. Classroom-based coaching has proven effective in helping teachers to expand skills, sustain change over time, and improve student achievement (e.g., Speck & Knipe, 2001). Coaching provides teachers with a “chain of assistance” (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988, p. 83) in their efforts to implement researched-based practices. This article describes the growth targets, process, and outcome data of the ESL (English-as-a-Second Language) Effective Pedagogy (EEP) Coaching Model. This is a new, sociocultural, performance-based coaching model (Teemant, Reveles, & Tyra, in prep) focused on research-based practices known to improve ELLs’ student achievement. 1 The EEP coaching model is grounded in Vygotsky’s (1978) premise that learning is social, and that through dialogue and interaction with more knowledgeable others – coaches and peers – classroom teachers receive assistance in their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) to gain the knowledge they need to competently promote the academic development of mainstreamed ELLs.