View article

Evanston/Skokie School District 65 serves one of the oldest communities in the metropolitan Chicago area, with a richly diverse population reflected in both the teachers and students in its schools. During the last 10 years, School District 65 has adopted and implemented best practice strategies associated with literacy improvement. As a result of a differentiated literacy program and specific interventions, the percentage of underachieving students in the primary literacy program meeting grade-level literacy benchmarks rose from 55 percent in 2000 to 80 percent in 2003 (Evanston/Skokie School District 65, 2004). An important feature of the literacy program is developing coaching models for schools with the most mobile school populations. In many such schools in the Chicago metropolitan area, one-third to two-thirds of the students in a classroom may turn over during the course of the school year. Teacher mobility is also higher in schools that have a substantial number of at-risk students. One job of the literacy coach is to monitor the overall instructional program, helping teachers maintain a consistent literacy program as they differentiate for new students. The coaching role of the reading specialist is increasingly receiving attention in professional development literature (Dole, 2004). The coach's major role is to provide professional development and support to teachers to improve classroom instruction. This typically involves organizing schoolwide professional development and then structuring inclass training, which includes demonstrations, modeling, support for teacher trials of new instruction, and coach feedback.