Learn the secrets to more effective instructional coaching. This practical book from bestselling authors Ronald Williamson and Barbara R. Blackburn covers a broad range of key coaching and instructional strategies to help you implement meaningful, lasting change, leading to elementary and middle school improvement.

Each chapter from A to Z offers guidance on a specific aspect of coaching and instruction, such as using data, offering better feedback, working with administration, partnering with resistant teachers, building capacity, and sustaining the work. There are special features throughout, including reflection questions and additional resources. With twenty-six short chapters each devoted to a different aspect of instruction, this book can be read in order or used as a reference that you’ll go back to again and again.

Whether you’re a new or experienced coach, you’ll find valuable takeaways to help you refine how you work with teachers to improve student learning.

Ronald Williamson is a professor emeritus of educational leadership at Eastern Michigan University. Ron has worked with schools across the country, including several large urban districts, as a leadership coach funded by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation and the Galef Institute of Los Angeles, with suburban districts on a variety of school reform issues and with rural Oregon districts on issues of college access for underrepresented groups.

Barbara R. Blackburn is ranked in the Top 30 Global Gurus in Education. What differentiates her approximately 40 books are her easily executable concrete examples based on decades of experience as a teacher, professor, and consultant. Barbara presents workshops for educators on topics such as productive struggle, high expectations, scaffolding for support, instructional strategies, and leadership.