Leadership magazine Jan/Feb 2016 V45 No 3 | Page 39

Based on our nation’s testing history from
the 1960s to current, the student achievement outcomes have moved almost every
five years. The target is not to increase student achievement. The target is to improve
teacher efficacy.
School leaders must make it their top priority to coach teachers up. Districts and site
leaders no longer teach the “little kids” in
classes. Their classes have the “big kids” in
them. Their faculty meetings and whenever
they engage their teachers is their classroom.
When I coach principals, I narrow their
focus of “stuff to do” as a leader to one priority: coaching teachers and providing quality
feedback to teachers. If what they are doing
doesn’t directly impact teacher efficacy, they
are not keeping their eyes on the prize. The
other stuff can be done by empowered people in the building.
The coaching of teachers must have a direct and profound impact on teachers’ beliefs
that they have the skill and will to increase
student learning for every child in the class.
Teacher efficacy has three essential components: Mind-set (direct factor), planning,
and instructional delivery (indirect factors).
Current research on mind-set is having
resounding inf luence on teacher efficacy.
Both fixed and growth mind-sets have negative and positive impacts on student learning. Information on mind-set must be an
integral coaching element for site leaders.
Unfortunately our current principal evaluation frameworks don’t have explicit goals,
and objectives on the coaching of mind-set.
Noteworthy to teacher mind-set in efficacy, instructional planning is key. I have
shared that “the proof is in the data, but
the details are in the planning.” Efficacious
teachers of all students, and especially with
students of color, know the importance of
planning.
I no longer think, but I now know, that
instructional rigor is won or lost in the
planning of lessons and not so much in the
delivery. If our teachers are not engaged in
rigorous planning of lessons and student
engagement, the likelihood we see it in the
classroom is drastically minimized.
Efficacious teachers constantly reflect and
plan for those students who will struggle in
the lesson and also those students who will

need extension to the content or skills being
learned. The teacher actually keeps the questions “What will we do for the students who
do not get it?” and “What will we do for the
student who will get it?” in their consciousness all the time, not just when they have
professional learning community meetings.
The efficacious teacher knows the importance of culture and race as positive antecedents to power student learning for students
of color. They use powerful text selection to
have students engaged in sophisticated deep
learning and critical analysis. The teacher
has an uncanny way of using positive descriptive feedback in an effort to keep even
the struggling learner engaged and displaying multiple levels of resiliency. Validation
and affirmation of effort is rewarded, and
“peacock moments” for students are easily
observed.
Yes, I found the pill to closing the gap.
Change our target from student achievement to improving teacher efficacy. Principals coaching teachers up and teachers’ efficacy will lead to increased student learning.

So, the plan breaks down to this simple formula: A+B=C: Coaching + Teacher Efficacy
= Student Learning.
We must remember, not everyone who
goes to the doctor actually takes the pill to
get better. If we K.I.S.S. it (keep it super
simple) and be aggressive in answering the
question rather than posing another question, we will solve the problem. The pill is
not for the little kids; it’s for the big kids. I
found it y’all. No water is needed.

Edwin Lou Javius is CEO/president
of EDEquity, an executive principal
coach, equity team facilitator, and
reflective question coaching expert.
He can be reached at javius@
edequity.com, @edequity, or www.
edequity.com.

January | February 2016

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