Performance Improvement · Coaches Academy

Coaches AcademyGreat teachers become great coaches on purpose.

High-caliber teachers are often promoted into coaching without the training, tools or support to be effective. The Coaches Academy embeds Jim Knight’s Impact Cycle, Partnership Principles, and his Seven Success Factors in daily practice: our coaches partner with yours in real coaching cycles, calibrate together on what proficient looks like, and look at growth data with each coach so they decide what to work on next.

Two smiling educators at a white desk in a bright office, one in a navy top and one in a tan blazer, look over a tablet together beside an open laptop
Shadowing and calibrationInside real coaching cycles
Built onJim Knight’s 30 years of research
The Impact Cycle, coached

Identify. Learn. Improve. With a coach for the coach.

Scroll around the Impact Cycle. At each stage, the Academy partners with your coach: in the room for real cycles, calibrating together and talking through what to try next.

  1. Impact Cycle · Identify

    Coaches learn to partner with teachers on current reality.

    Academy coaches join your coaches in real coaching cycles and calibrate together on what proficient looks like as your coach and the teacher get a clear picture of current reality and the teacher sets a student-focused goal. Your coach names their own current reality and growth goal the same way.

  2. Impact Cycle · Learn

    Teachers learn the strategy, from a true partner.

    Academy coaches model strategies and reflect with your coaches on living the Partnership Principles in day-to-day conversations, so teachers choose their strategy with a partner, not an evaluator.

  3. Impact Cycle · Improve

    Coaches learn to lead the Improve conversation.

    Improve is where most of the work happens and where the gains show. Your coaches practice talking through growth data in GroweLab with teachers, as partners, so the teacher decides the next step. The Academy works alongside each coach as they refine that conversation.

  4. And then

    A program that lasts past its launch.

    The Academy aligns your coaching systems, protocols and documentation to the Seven Success Factors, so the cycle keeps turning after the Academy ends.

The Partnership Principles

Coaching as partnership, not evaluation.

Jim Knight’s seven Partnership Principles describe how a coach and a teacher work as equals. The Academy gives coaches personalized feedback on living them in everyday conversations.

  • Equality
  • Choice
  • Voice
  • Reflection
  • Dialogue
  • Praxis
  • Reciprocity

Jim Knight is widely regarded as the founding father of instructional coaching.

How the pieces fit

The Institute first, then the Academy, inside a designed program.

  1. Network & Events

    Instructional Coaching Institutes

    The foundation: the Impact Cycle, the Partnership Principles and the Seven Success Factors.

  2. This page Performance Improvement

    Coaches Academy

    Institute learning embedded in daily practice, coach by coach.

  3. Planning & Design

    Coaching System Design

    The program, playbook and routines built with your coaches.

In their words

Coaching teachers want, and leaders who grow.

[e2L coaching] will walk you through how to get better, and what teacher doesn’t want to get better!
Henry CobbsTeacher, Lancaster ISD
“It has definitely been a super-positive experience. Through engage2learn, we were able to provide an opportunity for our leaders to grow.”
Dr. Roberta TrevinoSuperintendent, Zapata ISD
Where this sits in the cycle

Invest in the coaches who carry the cycle.

The Academy is the coaching step for your coaches. Our coaches work beside yours on the coaching skills an assessment or a coaching-system review points to, and connect them to peers who keep them growing.

  1. 01

    Diagnose

    The Coaching Effectiveness Assessment shows which coaching actions to strengthen.

    Assessments & Software
  2. 02

    Design

    Coaching System Design builds the program your coaches work inside.

    Planning & Design
  3. You are here 03

    Coach

    The Academy embeds the Impact Cycle and Partnership Principles in daily practice, measured in GroweLab.

    Performance Improvement
  4. 04

    Connect to community

    Coaches keep learning with peers in the Jim Knight Impact Network and at TLC.

    Network & Events
150,000+ instructional coaches trained through Jim Knight and the Instructional Coaching Group
30 years of Jim Knight’s instructional coaching research, since 1996
See how the whole cycle runs
Not sure where to start? Answer eight questions to find the answer to your Improvement Equation. Find my pathway
FAQ

Questions leaders ask.

Who should attend the Coaches Academy?

The Academy is for instructional coaches and specialists, especially high-caliber teachers promoted into coaching roles without the training, tools and support to be effective. It is personalized to each coach.

Do coaches need an Instructional Coaching Institute first?

Attending an Instructional Coaching Institute first is ideal, not required. The Academy is the natural next step after an institute, embedding that learning in daily practice.

What do coaches practice, and how is feedback given?

Coaches practice the Impact Cycle, Identify, Learn and Improve, and the Partnership Principles in real coaching conversations. Academy coaches join those cycles, calibrate with each coach on what proficient looks like at each stage, and talk through what they see as a thinking partner, so the coach decides what to refine.

How is coach growth tracked?

Coach growth is tracked with growth data in GroweLab, so coaches and their leaders can see progress against the competencies the Academy focuses on.

How does the Academy fit with Coaching System Design?

The Coaching System Design builds the program with your coaches; the Coaches Academy works beside the coaches inside it. Together they align the coaches and the system to the Seven Success Factors.

Isn’t this just more workshops?

No. The Academy happens inside real coaching work, through shadowing, calibration and growth-data analysis, rather than in a workshop room.

Start here

Coaches who coach on purpose.

Tell us about your coaching team, how many coaches, how new, and what training they have had, and we’ll show you what the Academy would look like for them.

A smiling teacher with curly hair, in a striped shirt, writes on a whiteboard, marker and eraser in hand, as a group of smiling high school students looks on