The structural and functional implications of a school district's creation of subject-area supervisor positions

Exploring practices of science coordinators participating in targeted professional development

“…However, unlike the principals in Blase and Blase () study, the science coordinators in our study developed coaching relationships with teachers themselves in addition to creating coaching relationships by developing teacher leaders. This is consistent with the research that coordinators support teachers in ways principals cannot by providing content specific suggestions, feedback, and developing a nonevaluative relationship (Tracy, ; Tracy & MacNaughton, ). These findings further support the inclusion of district leadership in a model for investigating the links between professional development and student achievement rather than simply an influencing contextual factor found in previous models (Figure ).…”

“…However, science coordinators often have other roles and responsibilities in supporting teachers within a school district (Whitworth, Maeng, Wheeler, & Chiu, ). Despite these competing responsibilities, district stakeholders including teachers, principals, and other supervisors agree science coordinators are well‐positioned to improve science instruction by proactively responding to teachers’ needs (Tracy, , ; Tracy & MacNaughton, ). Science coordinators are typically responsible for planning and conducting district and school‐based professional development for science teachers (Dillon, ), which is the primary source of professional development for most teachers (Pianta, ; Wilson, ).…”

“…Two critical responsibilities of science district leaders are providing content/pedagogical supports and effective communication with teachers about expectations (Perrine, ). Overall, the literature is clear that district science coordinators play an important role in supporting high‐quality science instruction (Perrine, ; Tracy, , ; Whitworth & Chiu, ) and subsequent student achievement (Beinsenherz & Yager, ; PCAST ; Reinisch, ). However, there has been increasing recognition of the lack of research in this area and the need to gain a deeper understanding of those who support teachers and provide professional development (Domina, Lewis, Agarwal, & Hanselman, ; Kennedy, ; Luft & Hewson, ).…”