A lesson for educators from the NFL

If you are an American football fan you are sure to have seen images like this numerous times over the past season:

Players on offense or defense hustle to the sideline after a change in possession and are immediately greeted by a coach, or coaches, with tablets, photos, and information about what just took place.  They communicate what went well, what went poorly, and the changes that need to be made to increase the probability of future success.  Generally there is a flurry of activity as coaches and players communicate, plan, and adjust in an effort to be better the next time they step on the field.  This is repeated on each change of possession throughout the game and often even the most casual of fans can notice the subtle, and not so subtle, changes that take place as a result of this action.

Last night I was talking to a good friend about this and how it could apply to the field of education.  He believes we should apply the same concept to teaching.  He believes that we would see significant improvement if we had classroom-based coaches able to provide ongoing coaching to beginning teachers.  Coaches able to provide ongoing feedback to teachers throughout the day: pointing out what is good, identifying that which falls short of expectations, and offering suggestions for improvement.  Imagine if this relationship was able to drive improvement from one day to the next, if not from one period to the next—I have no doubt we would observe increased academic outcomes, but also increased job satisfaction, less teacher turnover, and increased student and staff morale.

One of the primary questions facing educational leaders is how to consistently build capacity in the people they lead.  The problems facing educators are not going away and, in fact, seem to grow increasingly worse as time passes: we are asked to do more with less; increasingly children begin school with more challenges and less preparation for what lies ahead; legislators consistently change the target in ill-guided attempts to do what is right for children; and society continues to point at teachers as the problem when they fail to fix all that is wrong.  There is no silver bullet that will provide an answer to all the challenges we face, but I believe my friend is on the right track when he suggests that we begin by building capacity in the folks on the front line—our teachers—and begin treating them like the professionals they are.