Coaching System DesignA coaching program built by design, not by chance.
The assessment names which of Dr. Jim Knight’s seven success factors are holding coaching back. Design closes those gaps: the Impact Cycle put into practice, an instructional playbook, partnership and communication skills, data routines, and the leadership supports that protect coaching time.
The same seven factors, built one at a time.
A coaching program is only as strong as the system behind it. Scroll to watch a sample gap analysis fill out as each flagged factor is built.
- Where it starts
The gap analysis names what is holding coaching back.
Each of the seven success factors is assessed. Some are strong. A few are flagged. Design starts from the flags, with prioritized recommendations for each.
- Build · the coaching process
The Impact Cycle, put into practice.
Coaches and teachers work through Identify, Learn and Improve: a clear picture of reality, a goal, a strategy, and the coaching to reach it, the same way in every school.
- Build · the instructional playbook
A playbook of high-impact strategies.
The strategies your coaches share with teachers, each with its research, its purpose and an implementation checklist, so coaching has a common language.
- Build · partnership, communication and data
Better conversations, and data that guides them.
Coaches build partnership and communication skills for growth-fostering conversations, and data routines on engagement, attainment and teaching that tell them what to coach next.
- Build · leadership and system support
Leaders protect the time coaching needs.
Principals and district leaders put in place the supports that keep coaching time protected and coaches and teachers supported, with implementation tracked in GroweLab.
What a coaching program looks like when it works.
Jim Knight’s research, begun in 1996, with over 150,000 instructional coaches trained, distilled into seven factors. Design works on every one.
- 01
Partnership
Coaches and teachers work as equals, with choice, voice, dialogue, reflection, praxis and reciprocity.
- 02
Communication
Growth-fostering conversations built on real questions and careful listening.
- 03
Leadership
Coaches lead themselves and others, and multiply good practice across a school.
- 04
Coaching process
The Impact Cycle: identify a clear picture of reality, a goal and a strategy, then learn and improve.
- 05
Data
Engagement, attainment and teaching data that tell coaches what to work on next.
- 06
Instructional playbook
High-impact strategies, each with its research, purpose and implementation checklist.
- 07
System support
Leaders protect the time and support coaches and teachers need.
Measure the program. Build the program. Develop the coaches.
- Assessments & Software
Coaching System Assessment
A gap analysis across all seven success factors.
- This page Planning & Design
Coaching System Design
The structures, playbook and routines that close the gaps.
- Performance Improvement
Coaches Academy
Coaches develop inside the system, through shadowing, calibration and growth data.
Built on 30 years of coaching research.
Jim Knight is widely regarded as the founding father of instructional coaching. Over 150,000 instructional coaches have been trained through Jim Knight and the Instructional Coaching Group.
The Instructional Coaching Group, Jim Knight’s organization, is part of engage2learn.
For more than three decades, I’ve had the privilege of learning alongside remarkable coaches, teachers, and school leaders whose ideas and commitment have shaped everything we do.
Build the program the assessment found missing.
Coaching System Design is the design step for a coaching program. It takes the gap analysis and builds the structures the coaching depends on.
- 01
Diagnose
The Coaching System Assessment produces a gap analysis across seven factors.
Assessments & Software - You are here 02
Design
The structures, playbook and routines that close those gaps, built with your leaders.
Planning & Design - 03
Coach
Your coaches grow their craft in the Coaches Academy, inside the new system.
Performance Improvement - 04
Connect to community
Coaches and leaders keep learning together in the Jim Knight Impact Network.
Network & Events
Questions leaders ask.
How is Coaching System Design different from the Coaching System Assessment?
The Coaching System Assessment measures a coaching program against the seven success factors and produces a gap analysis. Coaching System Design builds what that analysis found missing: the Impact Cycle in practice, an instructional playbook, data routines and the leadership supports that protect coaching time.
Do we need the assessment first?
It is the best starting point, because design works on the factors the assessment flags. If your district has not been assessed, design begins with a lighter review against the seven success factors before anything is built.
What gets built, and who builds it?
engage2learn builds the program’s structures with your leaders and coaches: Impact Cycle routines, an instructional playbook with implementation checklists, partnership and communication skills, data routines, and leadership supports. Implementation support continues, tracked in GroweLab.
How does Coaching System Design connect to the Coaches Academy?
Design builds the program around your coaches; the Coaches Academy is where your coaches build their craft, through shadowing, calibration and growth data. Most districts run them together.
Our coaches already trained with Jim Knight. Do we still need this?
Training develops the coach; design builds the system the coach works in. Coaches trained in the Impact Cycle still need protected time, a shared playbook and leaders who support the work, which is what Coaching System Design puts in place.
Do we have to adopt Jim Knight’s coaching model?
No. Coaching System Design builds around the coaching model your district chooses, whether that is Jim Knight’s Impact Cycle, engage2learn’s High-Performance Coaching System or your own. Jim Knight’s Seven Success Factors guide the conditions the design puts in place around it.
Coaching that works on purpose.
Tell us about your coaching program, how many coaches, how long it has run, and what you are seeing, and we’ll show you where design would start.
