The Teacher Academy has trained ninety-seven literacy coaches in response to Governor Easley’s NC Middle School Literacy Coach Initiative.  The 2006 General Assembly  appropriated funds to support the selection and hiring of coaches in the 100 schools with the lowest average scores on the eighth grade end-of-grade reading test over the most recent three years for which data was available.

The literacy coaches work in the classroom seventy-five per cent of the time collaborating with eighth grade classroom teachers to improve reading, writing, and content learning through literacy infusion into instructional practices.  Large group, small group, modeling, and coaching are broad overviews of how a coaching program is established.

Coaches also design, prepare, and deliver professional development in order to create a process that supports both the development and implementation of a literacy program.  A literacy coach is a teacher-leader.  Literacy coaches have participated in twenty-four training sessions in the following areas:

• Adult learning, presentation skills, and teambuilding
• Contracts, coaching, and pre- and post- conferencing
• Qualitative Reading Inventory(QRI-4)
• Instructional strategies, action plans, and reflections in the content areas
• Differentiated Instruction in using brain research to improve classroom instruction

Middle School Literacy Coaches will participate in two five-day summer academies in Instructional Technology and Using Data to Drive Instruction.

View video - Alexander County Schools - Jack Hoke, Superintendent - 21^st Century Literacy Coach