What do instructional coaches do? That’s a question I’ve heard a lot. Why? Because I’ve lived it. Over the course of my career, I’ve served as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, assistant principal, and now, district leader. Each role has shaped me, but stepping into the role of instructional coach allowed me to see beyond the four walls of my own classroom. It gave me the chance to work alongside teachers, administrators, and students in many classrooms, to watch best practices unfold, and to cross-pollinate ideas across a school community.

Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why a blog I wrote years ago, titled Celebrating Instructional Coaches: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, Always, continues to be shared widely—it’s a topic that resonates deeply and endures because of the powerful role coaches play in schools.

So, what do instructional coaches do? It’s a question that gets asked often because coaching sits in a space that isn’t always easy to define. Instructional coaches aren’t administrators, yet they participate in leadership conversations and collaborate closely with principals. They don’t have their own classroom, but they remain deeply connected to the daily experiences of teachers and students. They are, in essence, teachers on special assignment whose primary responsibility is to elevate teaching and learning through relationships, connection, and high-impact instruction.

The Many Dimensions of Coaching

Instructional coaches wear many hats…they are:

Relationship builders and connectors – They cultivate trust, listen deeply, and build bridges between teachers, administrators, and students. Coaches create safe spaces for professional risk-taking and ensure ideas don’t stay siloed but are shared across classrooms and teams.

Data-informed decision makers – They analyze student data, helping teachers interpret results and make instructional choices that respond to real needs.

Curriculum refiners – They ensure resources are aligned, accessible, and designed to meet the diverse needs of learners.

Resource curators – They gather and share articles, tools, and instructional strategies, and integrate technology in meaningful ways that enhance, not overwhelm teaching and learning.

Modelers and co-teachers – They roll up their sleeves and step into classrooms to demonstrate strategies and build teacher confidence.

Facilitators of professional learning – They design experiences that are job-embedded, ongoing, and practical—far from the “one and done” workshops that fade quickly.

Coaching partners – They work through targeted coaching cycles focused on student learning first, while being thought partners and building teacher capacity along the way.

As Jim Knight reminds us in The Definitive Guide to Instructional Coaching, “Coaching done well produces measurable improvements that lead to better learning and better lives for students.” Coaches don’t come in with a script, they co-construct goals with teachers and stay in the work long enough to make a difference.

Why the Role Gets Misunderstood

Coaching can be one of the most powerful levers for instructional growth, yet it is also one of the most misunderstood roles in schools. Too often, if administrators don’t clearly communicate the purpose of the role or if coaches aren’t onboarded with intentionality, teachers may view them as evaluators rather than partners. And in times of budget cuts, the role can be put “on the chopping block,” with little recognition of how vital it is to sustaining high-quality teaching.

As Elena Aguilar writes in The Art of Coaching: Effective Strategies for School Transformation, “Everyone we work with knows a lot more and can do a lot more than we think. It’s our job as coaches to find out what it is that they know, care about, can do, and are committed to, and then to use that information to help them move their practice.” That only happens if schools invest in the role with clarity and commitment.

Practical Tips for Using and Onboarding Coaches

If you are considering how to maximize the impact of coaching in your district or building, here are a few manageable moves:

• Communicate the purpose clearly. Share with teachers that coaches are there to support, not evaluate. Frame them as thought partners who make teaching easier and more effective.
  
• Provide structured onboarding. Introduce coaches through faculty meetings, newsletters, or classroom visits. Make their responsibilities transparent so teachers know when and how to access them.
  
• Set manageable entry points. Start with small, focused goals like modeling a specific strategy or co-analyzing a data set before moving into deeper coaching cycles.
  
• Involve administrators. Principals should publicly champion coaching, meet regularly with coaches, and reinforce the value of their work.
  
• Celebrate wins. Highlight stories of impact in newsletters, meetings, or even informal conversations so teachers can see the difference coaching makes for students.
  
• Invest in coaches’ growth. Coaches also need opportunities to learn and grow. Send them to conferences, provide professional learning tailored to coaching, and connect them with instructional coaching collegial circles. We are fortunate to have those opportunities available, and they sustain coaches with fresh ideas, collaboration, and affirmation that they are not alone in this work.
  

Walking the Walk as an Instructional Leader

As a former instructional coach, I am committed to keeping my coaches right by my side. As an instructional leader, I model what I want to see. I want our coaches to feel supported, calm, and capable. I want them to facilitate learning experiences without me and this week, I saw that happen.

I co-facilitated grade-level meetings with them to roll out newly created pacing calendars, updated curricular resources, and shifts we made in evidence-based assessment practices. By the last couple of meetings, they didn’t need me anymore. We had front-loaded questions teachers were likely to ask into our conversations with earlier groups, and by the time we met with later groups, the coaches were leading with confidence, navigating additional questions on their own.

I was proud and it validated why this role is important. Letting teachers lead and helping others grow is what it’s all about. As I wrote in my book The Leader Inside, “Gifts live within exceptional educators, waiting to be unwrapped at the right place, at the right time, with the right people.” Coaching creates the conditions for those gifts to be discovered.

Why This Matters

This work is especially meaningful for me because literacy is the foundation of all learning. Last year, I had the privilege of onboarding a literacy coach, and this year, another has joined our team. Their presence in professional learning sessions and classrooms is a reminder that instructional coaching is not about pulling teachers away from their practice, but about being right there in the trenches with them—listening, modeling, reflecting, and growing together.

So, what do instructional coaches do? They connect, they support, and they amplify the impact of every teacher they partner with. They make learning a collective endeavor. And when coaching is communicated clearly, invested in deeply, and nurtured well, it becomes a role that not only strengthens instruction but also transforms schools.

And that is work worth protecting.