Gathering Relevant Documents:

Gathering pertinent information about a new site or client can begin before ever setting foot in
the school or meeting the client. There are documents that are available on the Internet such as
state or common core standards, state assessment data, student enrollment, student ethnicity, and
vision and mission statements. It may be necessary to collect master schedules, pacing guides,
etc. When working with a new site or teacher or principal client it is important to keep all the
documents organized. Understanding these documents will allow insight into systems,
structures, and how decisions and made. The clients knowledge about the document and how to
use them and his or her feelings are also important to understand how the teacher or principal
operates within the organization. The following lists some documents to collect in becoming
aware of everything surrounding the school or clients environment and gain a better
understanding of what their needs are (Aguilar, 2013).
1. School calendar
2. Master schedule

8. State Content/Common Core

standards,

3. Organizational maps

9. Assessment tools,

4. Descriptors of roles and

10. Report cards,

responsibilities,
5. Professional development

plans and calendars,

6. Curriculum maps,
7. Pacing guides,

Gather and Analyze Formal Data:

11. Site plans,

12. Vision and mission

statements,
13. Strategic district plans

Once becoming familiar with the documents in the first step, there may be data that stands out.
Analyze data the data looking for outliers in the data will provide insight to which strengths and
challenges for the school site or client. Analyzing data from five to ten years will also improve
the perspective of which strengths and challenges and indicate either which changes have taken
place or need to take place. Once again, as with documents, the clients attitudes and feelings
about data will reveal to the coach how to use the data with the client. The following list
contains item of particular interest (Aguilar,2013).
1. Graduation rates
2. Percentage of students

promoted to the following

grade
3. Attendance data
4. Suspension and expulsion

reports
5. Standardized test score data

7. English language competency

data
8. Reports on special education

populations
9. Data on socioeconomic status

of students
10. Neighborhood and city

demographics

6. Internal district assessment

data
Initiate Informal Conversations:
Informal conversations with students, parents, and staff will help build relationships and
further expand understanding of the school site and the client. Getting to know how
everything works together that impacts the students experience is important because the
coachs efforts will ultimately impact them. During these informal conversations, ask
general, open-ended questions. Aguilar (2013) suggests some questions such as:


1. How are things going for you this year?
2. How's that new reading program working for your students?
3. How have you dealt with the latest budget cuts?
4. How's your child doing in third grade?

References
Aguilar, E. (2013). The art of coaching: Effective Strategies for school transformation. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.