Teaching Excellence: A Field Guide For Coaching and Developing Novice Teachers

Teaching Excellence: A Field Guide for Coaching and Developing Novice Teachers is the cumulative learnings of the Teaching Excellence team at YES Prep Public Schools in Houston, TX. Since 2004, this group has been charged with accelerating the onboarding and effectiveness of their districts’ novice teachers and ensuring that they support their students in reaching the lofty goals set for them. In that time, YES Prep’s networks of 6-12th grade campuses has consistently ranked among the top of city-wide, state-wide, and nation-wide lists of schools which are both the most challenging and the most successful at closing opportunity gaps. Having been awarded the first ever Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools in 2012, YES Prep’s students persist through college at a rate much higher than their socioeconomic peers. These results are sustained through YES Prep’s growth throughout the city and it is accomplished with an incredibly powerful teaching force; one that is regularly 20-25% brand new to the profession. Their new teacher persistence also outpaces national expectations. The Teaching Excellence team, housed within YES Prep Public Schools, has partnered with both public and charter school districts throughout Texas and served as a collaborator and thought leader with novice-teacher development organizations all across the nation. What was once a small team of teacher educators experimenting with new techniques and methods has become a comprehensive system of supports and best practices. As a result of implementing these techniques, strong teachers have become highly effective instructional coaches that then become strong campus leaders themselves. The practices, contained in this book can be applied at the grade level, campus, organization, or district level and ensure new teachers have what they need to be successful. This book is this team’s attempt to remove the site-specific information and communicate teacher educator best practices in a way that can be adapted by anyone who supports novice teachers and who wants to improve their own effectiveness, regardless of their role or environment.