Developing Common Core Classrooms Through Rubric-Based Coaching

Harvard University, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This project develops and field-tests a mathematics-specific coaching protocol centered on the Mathematical Quality of Instruction (MQI) instrument, a Common Core-aligned observational tool. The coaching model will consist of three elements: a summer training workshop, personalized web-based coaching, and access to a library of resources to support coaching and instructional change. The project team works with 3rd through 8th grade mathematics teachers to implement and evaluate the coaching model, randomly assigning teachers to treatment and control conditions, stratifying on grade level. The project team evaluates the effect of the coaching model in both the concurrent and post-intervention year, as past studies have found effects only after teachers have completed the full cycle of coaching (Allen et al. 2011; Campbell & Malkus, 2011). The primary outcome measures include teachers' classroom performance as captured by the MQI, students' perceptions of their teachers' effectiveness, and student test scores. This study supports the development of a subject-specific and Common Core-aligned coaching protocol. Moreover, it provides further experimental evidence on the effect of web-based coaching, and the first evidence on a subject-specific coaching tool. This information advances the field?s understanding of the potential value in shifting resources from more traditional professional development programs to web-based coaching. The increasing demands being placed on teachers by new evaluation systems and the adoption of the Common Core has created a growing need for content-specific coaching models. If this web-based coaching model proves successful, it could be widely adopted by districts to supplement the generic evaluation feedback teachers receive in most large-scale evaluation systems. It would also allow individualized feedback for teachers who concentrate in mathematics, including elementary mathematics specialists and middle school math teachers.