Blended Coaching: Skills and Strategies to Support Principal Development

"At last we have a comprehensive book that teaches us about the practice of coaching and the principalship! There are skills, strategies, tools, and stories of practicing leaders that can help a prospective leader grow and learn in this engagingly written book. This is clearly a must read for principals-new and experienced-and those who coach them."
-Ann Lieberman, Senior Scholar Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

"One of the few books on education in the last decade that has the touch of genius, Blended Coaching gives principals the inspiration they need to shift from administrator to school leader, from cop to coach, from boss to mentor. It provides proven strategies, skills that can be practically and immediately applied to positively impact every teacher and student in America."
-Robert Hargrove, Author, Masterful Coaching

"Bloom, Castagna, Moir, and Warren have achieved new heights in our profession by building upon the best knowledge in coaching and systems change, and constructing blended leadership coaching founded on substantive research in cognition, linguistics, emotional intelligence, and cultural competency. Blended Coaching gives expression to a coaching conceptual framework erected with skills, tools, and vibrant examples."
-Linda Lambert, Professor Emeritus
California State University, Hayward

Support new and veteran principals through coaching-based professional development!

Research shows conclusively that principals and other school leaders are essential to school improvement, and that these individuals benefit from the intensive, contextualized support that a coach or mentor can provide. But how does a coach support a school leader in mastering the professional and emotional challenges of school leadership for a meaningful and positive impact on students?

This book, grounded in research and theory, provides readers with practical skills and strategies for leadership coaching explicitly tied to the needs of principals and other school leaders. It makes sense of the often contradictory literature on coaching by promoting a new approach, that of "Blended Coaching."  This model-based on more than 15 years of fieldwork at the renowned New Teacher Center, University of California, Santa Cruz-recognizes that effective coaches move between facilitative and instructional approaches in their practice, and has made a meaningful difference in dozens of school districts nationwide.

Designed for individuals and institutions charged with improving principal retention, teacher satisfaction, and student achievement, this indispensable resource features:

• Real-life examples to enforce key concepts
• Reflective prompts to enhance assimilation
• Insightful exercises for coaches, principals, and colleagues
• Comprehensive resources, including worksheets, sample forms, and assessments

Gary Bloom is the lead author of Blended Coaching: Supporting the Development and Supervision of School Leaders. Gary has 40 years of K–12 education experience, having served as a bilingual teacher, principal, director of curriculum, and assistant superintendent. He served as the superintendent of the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District, known for its innovative programs, such as graduation exhibitions, a teacher-led high school, and teacher peer review. More recently he served as superintendent of Santa Cruz City Schools. He was a founder and Associate Director of the New Teacher Center at the University of California Santa Cruz. Gary is a Kellogg National Fellow, was adjunct faculty to San Jose State University’s Educational Administration graduate program, and has consulted, trained, and presented on a variety of topics throughout the United States and in Latin America. He is the primary author of a number of professional development programs for leadership coaches and school principals. He has published articles in a variety of journals, most recently on the topics of teacher leadership, principal development, professional learning communities, new teacher support, and the appropriate use of technology. He authored, with his friend Marty Krovetz, the book Powerful Partnerships, a guide for the development of assistant principals in collaboration with their supervising principals available from Corwin Press. Gary currently consults with school districts around the United States, provides executive coaching to superintendents and principal supervisors, does volunteer work in California and Central America.

Claire Castagna is a program director and outreach consultant for the New Teacher Center’s administrator induction program, Coaching School Leaders to Attain Student Success.  She has 28 years experience in education as a bilingual teacher, bilingual program coordinator, assistant principal and principal.  Throughout her career, Claire has focused on implementing programs that ensure that second language learners achieve excellence. She has presented her work in second language literacy at TESOL and CABE conferences. As a principal, Claire led her school to a California Distinguished School Award and became a mentor principal for the Santa Cruz County Baldrige in Education Consortium. Since 2001, Claire has coached beginning principals as they learn to balance the daily demands of the principalship with their role as instructional leader and change agent.  She has collaborated in the development of CLASS as a model of support for beginning principals and leads the development of the Improving Student Achievement series of workshops for site administrators on standards based supervision.

Ellen Moir is founder and executive director of the New Teacher Center, which is committed to the development of an inspired, dedicated, and highly quali¬fied teaching force by supporting new teachers as they enter the profession. For more than 20 years, she has pioneered innovative approaches to new teacher development, research on new teacher practice, and the design and administration of teacher induction programs. Moir continues to work with the Santa Cruz/Silicon Valley New Teacher Project and is an advocate for new teachers across the country. Moir has received national recognition for her work, including the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. 2005 Prize in Education and the 2003 Distinguished Teacher Educator Award from the California Council on Teacher Education. Moir is the author of several articles and book chapters and has produced video series related to new teacher development. Her work has been supported by over 20 private foundations and donors, the National Science Foundation, and several state and federal agencies.

Betsy Warren has worked in the field of education for thirty years. As a classroom teacher she taught grades 6-12 in four states. She was a teacher leader active in both local and state levels of teacher association activities. After completing her Masters degree in School Administration, she worked as district coordinator of curriculum and staff development. She went on to become a site level administrator where, she confesses, she learned more about herself, schools, and systems than she ever imagined possible. Betsy currently serves as outreach coordinator for the New Teacher Center working with the CLASS Team’s New Administrator Project. She also presents professional development seminars for new and veteran administrators. Betsy is a recipient of the Women Leaders in Education Leadership Award and a recent nominee for the Excellence in Education Award sponsored by the Office of the Mayor of San Jose.