Coaching with ECERS

This title is in the Environment Rating Scale® Family of Products—the leading research-based tools to optimize the quality of children’s early learning.

ECERS is widely used in the United States and internationally to assess the overall quality of preschool and kindergarten classrooms and to provide a framework for continuous quality improvement. This book presents best practices to help coaches build trusting relationships with teachers, program directors, and administrators that will improve classroom environments and teaching practices.

By using ECERS-3 and ECERS-R as a coaching tool, Holly Seplocha shows coaches and teachers how to work together to implement what is best for children. Each ECERS subscale chapter offers suggestions for quick and easy solutions, as well as strategies for classroom change that generally take more time for teachers to understand and incorporate into daily practice. This resource also includes guidance and activities for facilitating group meetings, professional learning communities, and staff workshops.

Coaching with ECERS will help refine classroom practices and environments so that scores will rise, not just for the day, but for every day.

Book Features:

• Outlines the nuts and bolts of coaching with ECERS in a way that has meaning and impacts classroom practice.
• Provides an overview of adult learning and coaching strategies, incorporating techniques for coaching novice and experienced teachers, as well as administrators.
• Examines the diversity of roles, from peer coaching to coaching from the inside or outside of the program, to administrators and supervisors who coach within their role.
• Presents the case for building onsite program capacity for coaches who target their efforts with administrators.
• Offers hands-on advice, strategies, and tools including “ECERS Tips” and “No, No, Never, Nevers,” as well as helpful resources to support coaches and administrators.

Holly Seplocha is professor of early childhood education at William Paterson University and project director at the New Jersey Center for Quality Ratings.

“Both experienced and novice coaches will find this resource of great value. It will be a reminder and a source of new ideas for the experienced, while acting as a clear and realistic source of the basics of TA for the new coach. It provides the theory and the facts, both necessary for coaching. We, the authors of the ECERS, thank Holly for writing this much-needed resource, and hope that the book eases the challenges that coaches face every day.”
—From the Foreword by Debby Cryer, Richard M. Clifford, Thelma Harms, and Noreen Yazejian, authors of the ERS

"Dr. Seplocha offers coaching ideas to use with both teachers and directors and emphasizes how best practices result in benefits for children. In her very practical and straightforward style, she breaks down the ECERS subscales into easy-to-tackle steps that will more readily lead to improvements in program quality."
— Judy Jablon, Leading for Children

“In this book, Holly Seplocha provides a thorough and well-organized tool box for those working with teachers to improve the quality of early childhood programs. The book not only deeply explores all aspects of implementing the research-based framework for quality, the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, it also digs into the mechanics of effective coaching and mentoring and the ways that adults learn. Seplocha’s approach helps coaches focus their efforts beyond getting a good ECERS score to what is truly critical: getting the best results for children.”
—Deborah Stahl, consultant, early childhood policies, programs, and implementation strategies

"This is a must-have resource if you direct an early childhood program, coach programs in a QRIS, or supervise teachers in public schools, Head Start, or any early care and education program. With a practical and realistic approach, Coaching with ECERS: Strategies and Tools to Improve Quality in Pre-K and K Classrooms delivers a framework for effective coaching and mentoring of teachers to ensure high-quality classrooms for young children. Using the ECERS subscales as a backdrop, Holly Seplocha offers tips, tools, and techniques for making improvements that last. By focusing on the benefits to children, she advances coaching practice to support genuine growth and durable improvement for early childhood educators and programs for children."
— Anne Mitchell, MS, Ed Leadership and President, Early Childhood Policy Research

Contents

Foreword by Debby Cryer, Richard M. Clifford, Thelma Harms, and Noreen Yazejian

Acknowledgments

Introduction
   Design of the Book

PART I: ALL ABOUT COACHING

1. Basic Tenets of Coaching
   Adult Learning
   Adult Learners
   Adults in Preschool and Kindergarten
   Building a Relationship
   Reflection

2. Many Hats of Coaches
   Role Clarity
   QRIS Team Supporting the Director as Coach
   Coaches Come in Many Roles
   Using Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Coaching
   Reflection

3. Coaching Using ECERS
   Quality for Children is the Common Ground
   Giving Feedback to Support Growth 
   Strengths-Based Coaching
   Where to Begin
   Reflection

PART II: COACHING WITH ECERS SUBSCALES

4. Using the Subscales
   Overview
   Differences Between ECERS-3 and ECERS-R

5. Coaching to Support Space and Furnishings
   Benefits to Children 
   Quick and Easy Fixes
   Pathway to Change Over Time
   Fine-Tuning
   Ideas and Hands-On Activities for Group Meetings, PLCs, and Workshops
   Reflection

6. Coaching to Support Personal Care Routines
   Benefits to Children 
   Quick & Easy Fixes
   Pathway to Change Over Time
   Fine-Tuning
   Ideas and Hands-On Activities for Group Meetings, PLCs, and Workshops
   Reflection

7. Coaching to Support Language & Literacy
   Benefits to Children 
   Quick & Easy Fixes
   Pathway to Change Over Time 
   Fine-Tuning 
   Ideas and Hands-On Activities for Group Meetings, PLCs, and Workshops
   Reflection

8. Coaching to Support Learning Activities
   Benefits to Children 
   Quick & Easy Fixes
   Pathway to Change Over Time
   Fine-Tuning 
   Ideas and Hands-On Activities for Group Meetings, PLCs, and Workshops
   Reflection

9. Coaching to Support Interaction
   Benefits to Children  
   Quick & Easy Fixes 
   Pathway to Change Over Time 
   Fine-Tuning 
   Ideas and Hands-On Activities for Group Meetings, PLCs, and Workshops
   Reflection

10. Coaching to Support Program Structure
   Benefits to Children  
   Quick & Easy Fixes 
   Pathway to Change Over Time 
   Fine-Tuning 
   Ideas and Hands-On Activities for Group Meetings, PLCs, and Workshops
   Reflection

PART III: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER 

11. Nuts and Bolts
   Coaching in Staff Meetings, PLCs, and Workshops
   Coaches and Administrator Partnerships
   ECERS Tips
   Reflection

12. Last Thoughts and Selected Resources
   Improving Quality for Children
   Communication Blocks
   Pussyfooting Around
   No, No, Never, Nevers
   Reflection

Resources
   Some Favorite Books
   Online Resources on ECERS
   Additional Online Resources

Appendix A.1: Coach's Information Form

Appendix A.2: Group or Individual Coaching Questions

Appendix B: ECERS-3 List of Interactions

Appendix C: ECERS-3 Materials Checklist

Appendix D: Determining Major and Minor Hazards

References

Index

About the Author