The Best Partnership Starts With Your Goals, Not Ours

There's a kind of coaching that shows up with a binder, a plan, and a schedule that doesn't budge, no matter what's actually going on in the building. That's not our approach. 

In Northwest Arkansas, we're working with four districts, Farmington, Huntsville, Prairie Grove, and Pea Ridge, on building leader coaching. Before we started anything, we sat down with every leader we'd be working with—instructional coaches, administrators—and asked: what are your goals for this year?

Each leader picked their own focus area based on what they'd learned and what their schools needed most. The goals are all over the map in the best way. Some are diving into UDL coaching in specific content areas like Social Studies or English. Others are working on maintaining high standards and ensuring Tier 1 curriculum is accessible for all students with disabilities. Every school has its own goal, its own focus, its own coaching cycle.

Between coaching rounds, we debrief and adjust, because what students and teachers need in October isn't always what they need in March. If something changes mid-year, we change with it. Participants have picked up on that:

Leaders walk out with strategies they can use with their teachers that same week. And because those strategies connect to goals they set themselves, it doesn't feel like someone else's checklist. It feels like movement toward something that already matters to them.

This is what we mean by customized care. It's not just tweaking content from one district to the next. It's believing that the people doing this work every day know things we don't, and our job is to build on that, not bulldoze it.

Ready to create something that works for your community? Click here to schedule a time to chat with our team. Let's see what we can build together!