The Mid-Prairie Community School District has endorsed a new full-time release Instructional Coach in all buildings for the 2023/2024 school year. This team of coaches formerly served Mid-Prairie as classroom teachers within their buildings. They receive continuous training to collaborate with teachers and building principals to positively impact student learning.

Our Instructional Coaches serve our buildings in a multitude of ways with individual teachers and teams of teachers. Examples of their work include co-teaching in a classroom; co-planning with teachers; partnering with teachers on their individual professional goals; analyzing student data evidence; supporting teachers in new curriculum implementation efforts; sharing research based instructional strategies; mentoring first and second-year teachers and using observational data for teaching and learning.

The foundation of the Instructional Coaching role is having the opportunity to collaborate and share in the belief of collectively accomplishing more together on behalf of our students. The practice of teachers working together for the betterment of student achievement is highly established within research. According to John Hattie, a researcher and professor of evidence-based teaching, the top influencer on student achievement is collaboration among educators (Visible learning for teachers, Hattie, J., 2011).

We are grateful for the ongoing partnerships that positively contribute to our school community here at Mid-Prairie. By working together, we will continue to advance our mission of “Preparing today’s students for tomorrow’s world in a caring learning environment.”