History of Literacy Coaching: Linking Past with Present

Diane Jenquin contributed today's post. Read more of Diane's thinking about literacy coaching in her previous posts.

Our work as literacy coaches is grounded in a history of 36 years of research.

Literacy coaching was established in the early 1990s as an all-inclusive reform program designed to improve children’s reading, writing, and language skills through embedded professional development.  According to Lyon and Pinnell (2001), the literacy coach, through observation and co-learning, helps the teacher see beyond what is in the classroom to what can improve it and helps the teacher to expand their knowledge base by becoming an ongoing learner, while offering support and encouragement as needed.

The idea of literacy coaching has been documented with research done by Bean (1978). The concept was molded out of the up-springing response to raging criticism of schools after World War II to create specialists that work with small groups, individuals, and teachers to close the gap in the student achievement as a remedial model. Stauffer (1967), however, described this remedial role as a “ bottomless pit.” The concept somehow took a turn to allocating trained specialist and expertise in their areas and utilizing them in only one capacity, that being remediation.  Although the reading specialist was planted in schools as a remediation specialist and consultant, the passing of the 1965 ESEA Act, which provided funding for reading specialists, resulted in reading specialists only working toward pulling out targeted, poverty students.  They were to be a supplemental provider moreover, not being able to demonstrate their expertise with classroom teachers as a consultant.  With the release of the 1980, “A Nation at Risk” the reading specialist role transitioned into more of a teacher mentor and consultant, with a small amount of student remediation.

Learning theories such as the one presented by Vygostky (1978), suggest that individuals learn best when given the opportunity to discuss, reflect, observe,  practice, and apply new learning with others, allow for new ideas to be absorbed.  Further research proposes that the transfer of ideas from the traditional professional development model of one shot workshops is not effective in changing teaching behaviors/practices. Embedded professional development was sparked by the accountability component in No Child Left Behind. This act moved the direction to providing teachers instruction from coaches or mentors to improve instructional practices for the purpose of enhancing student learning. Job embedded professional development can be geared to the specific needs of the teacher and works on concepts more than once, therefore moving to the transfer in their teaching.Thirty years of research grounded in the reading theories of Marie Clay (1979, 1991, and 2004) and Fountas and Pinnell (1996) paved the way to carrying the role of the reading specialist one step farther to the reading coach.

Recently released  are the results of a national survey published in Literacy Research and Instruction (2014) where Rita Bean et al. compares the original research to what is happening currently in the world of literacy leaders.  Take a look at it and compare. 

To link to this article:
Bean, R.M., Kern, D., Goatley, V., Ortlieb, E., Shettel, J., Calo, K., . . . Cassidy, J. (2015). Specialized literacy professionals as literacy leaders: results of a national survey. Literacy Research and Instruction, 54: 2, 83 - 114, DOI: 10.1080/19388071.2014.998355