Case Studies

Daniel Webster Elementary School

OUR CLIENT

Daniel Webster Elementary School is part of Dallas Independent School District.  The school’s mission is to teach students to develop and sustain a high regard for academic achievement in order to attain the functional literacy and life skills to be successful at each stage of their lives.

Daniel Webster Elementary educates more than 500 students. The educational program of Daniel Webster Elementary School stresses the Experienced-Based Approach of learning. The curriculum includes reading, language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, physical education, music, computer science, and art.

THE NEED for the project

The campus was committed to dramatic acceleration of student achievement. After conducting a root cause analysis and strategically planning for the year ahead by creating big rocks (i.e. priorities) to drive goal achievement, the Daniel Webster principal sought to ensure the big rocks the team had identified for the 2017-2018 school year were implemented with fidelity and corresponding goals were achieved.  Given the size of the campus, critical to the team’s success would be that all members of the leadership team (assistant principals and campus instructional coaches) were well-equipped to execute on the team’s big rocks and could appropriately coach their teachers. As part of the implementation plan, the principal required a system for development and accountability of his leadership team that would serve to ensure they had the ongoing development necessary to effectively support fidelity to implementation.

what was the project?

• Leadership team coaching system created which outlines the steps to facilitate effective coaching sessions between the principal, assistant principals, and campus instructional coaches. It also includes a script for what to say and do for each step of the coaching process.
• In the moment coaching sessions occurred between BRES and the principal during his leadership team meetings and 1:1 coaching sessions to ensure effective coaching of his leadership team that was aligned to previously agreed upon expectations and goals.

WHY was this project chosen?

In order to guarantee fidelity to implementation of the campus big rocks, the principal must ensure the leadership team is equipped to monitor implementation, understands what fidelity looks like, and can appropriately develop others around gaps in fidelity. Effective coaching sessions delivered by the principal to the leadership team at regular intervals is a critical lever in achieving campus goals given that the principal cannot solely be responsible for monitoring implementation of big rocks and delivering the corresponding teacher coaching and staff development necessary to attack gaps.  Nor can he just “tell” his leadership team to coach teachers.  To help teachers execute at a high level of fidelity, the principal must ensure his leadership team has the appropriate skill sets to coach them.  A comprehensive, easy to follow system created by BRES ensures the leaders are appropriately developed and thus teachers receive the coaching they need.

PROCESS FOR how the project was implemented

• Collaborative conversations occurred with the Daniel Webster Elementary principal to determine the greatest area of need

• Coach the coach system document created outlines the steps and script for how to coach any member of the leadership team (assistant principals and campus instructional coaches)

• Coach the coach sessions performed bi-weekly using the BRES Effective Coaching Framework between the BRES consultant and principal as he executed coaching sessions with his leadership team.  

CLIENT BENEFIT – where are they now?

• The leadership team coaching system provided a protocol that enabled the Daniel Webster leadership team to consistently coach teams on their campus big rocks with high fidelity. In turn, the leadership team’s coaching impact is that the campus achieves goals, leadership capacity is accelerated, and student achievement skyrockets.
• Click here for student achievement results!