Project COACH

A formative event occurred in February 2010, when HCDE and the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Public Education Foundation invited Kim Marshall, consultant and author of Rethinking Teacher Supervision and Evaluation, to be a guest speaker at an HCDE retreat. This initial training generated lots of excitement.

District Management Journal, Spring 2011

It was the right subject at the right time.

In the winter of 2010, PEF and HCDE hosted the 12th annual Leadership Institute for all principals of Hamilton County schools. The speaker was Kim Marshall, an expert on teacher evaluations.

Principals agreed on one key point: the evaluation system that was in place at the time – a planned, hour-long, tedious affair that occurred once every 5 years for each teacher – was useless in improving instruction. Marshall effectively demonstrated that a series of brief, unannounced observations with very quick feedback could be a powerful tool for supporting teachers and boosting their effectiveness. Good teachers would get better, and struggling teachers would be helped or, if necessary, encouraged to seek other employment.

From these beginnings came Project COACH.

Now, all eyes are on Tennessee and its efforts to embrace more effective teacher evaluations. The state was one of only two to win the first round of Race to the Top funds – an award that was based on Tennessee’s commitment to higher standards and new procedures, including teacher evaluation. Project COACH is one of four evaluation systems being implemented in the state, and, so far, it has been highly successful and well-liked by teachers and principals alike.

Read more about Project COACH:

• Hamilton County Department of Education: Rethinking Teacher Evaluation through Project COACH, by Jim Scales and Connie Atkins, The District Management Journal, Spring 2011.
• Instant Evaluations: Principals using new model to assess performance of teachers, by Kevin Hardy, Chattanooga Times Free Press, November 22, 2011.