A PSA study of the work of these campus instructional coordinators indicates that the school district's investment in this form of professional development is paying off. Findings show that the coordinators have established working relationships with a large majority of teachers in their schools and that teachers think the coordinators are easily accessible to them. Teachers generally believe that the workshops and other training that coordinators provide meet their needs, have plenty of opportunity to have their questions answered, and help them implement new instructional strategies. Over 40 percent of teachers said they had implemented new instructional practices as a result of their interaction with their school's campus instructional coordinator.

Principals tend to agree. More than 80 percent rate the coordinators "very effective" or "effective" in using various strategies to assist teachers, and a large majority of both principals and coordinators agree that they have established strong working relationships. When problem areas develop, they usually center around the need to clarify a school's priorities for improving instruction, increase communications, or spend more time planning and working together.

Based on these and other findings, the study concludes with three factors likely to govern the effectiveness of campus instructional coordinators:

• The working relationships between campus instructional coordinators and principals
  
  
• The quality of a school's environment for professional development and school improvement, a factor that coordinators can, in turn, oftentimes affect by the way they shape and do their jobs
  
  
• The knowledge and skills of individual campus instructional coordinators
  
  

Full report available from PSA.