Approve Agreement for Technical Services with The Instructional Coaching Group for the Advanced Coach Academy - $7,500 (Curriculum and Instruction Division)

We are requesting approval of an Agreement for Technical Services with The Instructional Coaching Group for the services of Dr. Jim Knight to provide a seminar for 55 current advanced reading coaches. This three-day training will be held on June 4-6, 2007, at Aparicio-Levy Technical Center.

The seminar will include sessions on coaching for classroom management; conferencing skills, training techniques, and follow-up processes. These sessions will be directed to assisting coaches develop verbal skills necessary in their work in persuading teachers to adopt new strategies and teaching techniques. A large portion of time in the workshop will be devoted to helping coaches bring together a skill-set for dealing with a variety of classroom management issues to include disruptive student behavior. This will extend the effectiveness of our preparatory training which primarily focuses on reading content and reading processes.

Dr. Jim Knight from the University of Kansas, Center for Research on Learning, will help provide a stronger foundation upon which a solid, effective instructional coaching program can be built. This seminar will improve the communication skills of our Reading Coaches in reporting the outcomes of student reading achievement.

Goal 5 – The District will close the FCAT achievement gap by a minimum of 10 percentage points as reported by No Child Left Behind.

Funds of $7,500 are included in the K-12 Comprehensive Reading Plan budget, Project 4526.

May 2008. 2008 FCAT reading scores for students of participants will be analyzed to determine effectiveness of training.