Committee weighs instructional coaching after declines in ELA scores; member calls for targeted data

Sherry Kennedy, school committee member and co-chair, presented an email she received saying district leaders "recommend that districts invest in instructional coaching" and that coaching provides teachers with focused feedback and collaborative support to implement higher-quality Tier 1 instruction.

Kennedy said several districts that performed well, including Portsmouth and Barrington, invested in instructional coaching; administrators confirmed a prior RIDE-funded literacy coach had been deployed previously for a limited time. Kennedy noted interventionists provide Tier 3 support for an estimated 5 percent of the student population and said interventions alone would not raise broad achievement across the district.

Robert Jones, community member, criticized the coaching recommendation as "woefully lacking" without deeper analysis and cited significant gender gaps in ELA at middle schools: "There's a 30 gap in DMS ELA between male and female," he said, and he urged tracking cohorts of students who have remained in the district to identify root causes. Jones and other members asked administration for more detailed analysis comparing recovery patterns in districts that saw post-COVID score improvements.

Why it matters: decisions about adding coaching positions or reallocating resources affect staffing and the district's ability to address persistent achievement gaps.

What comes next: administration was asked to provide follow-up data, cohort tracking and comparisons with peer districts to inform whether coaching or other targeted interventions should be prioritized in the budget.