Multilingual Learning Multilingual Learning
Coaching Coaching
Amplify educator learning with coaching aligned to your instructional focus Amplify educator learning with coaching aligned to your instructional focus
SupportEd understands the unprecedented stress faced by school systems and Multilingual Learner (ML) programs over the past few years. Empower your content and English language development (ELD) educators with one-to-one guidance and actionable strategies to champion ML student success with SupportEd Coaching.
Our Model
How It Works How It Works
SupportEd partners with schools and districts through a series of strategic coaching cycles. SupportEd ML Coaches collaborate with your team in real-time and provide in-the-field coaching through a range of targeted methods. Each partnership follows the SupportEd Coaching Model which includes three components.
Our Coaches
ML Experts ML Experts
SupportEd ML coaches are seasoned experts—including researchers, published authors, and former educators—who bring deep knowledge and practical experience to their work. Our coaches customize their coaching to align with your school or district’s unique goals, ensuring targeted, impactful support.
Instructional Strategies
Areas of Focus Areas of Focus
ML instructional strategies we emphasize during coaching cycles are customized to meet your team’s specific needs and goals. Grounded in data-driven research and targeted assessments, we focus on the areas with the greatest impact. Discover the key strategies we commonly highlight throughout our coaching work.
Sample Coaching Projects
Our Work Our Work
SupportEd has been collaborating with the Reading School District (RSD) to support the instruction of English learners (ELs) since 2018. Over the course of the collaboration, SupportEd has provided support to RSD central office staff, school administrators, and teachers working at the middle and elementary school levels.
SupportEd has conducted interviews, classroom observations, needs assessments, and community focus groups and incorporated the information into an EL Action Plan provided to the district.
SupportEd has also provided professional development and coaching for classroom and ESL teachers at all five middle schools in the RSD.
At the elementary level, SupportEd has provided school-wide professional development and coaching of selected teachers in best practices to support ELs.
SupportEd developed coaching tools to support teacher reflection and professional growth that are used in all coaching visits.
SupportEd shares coaching summaries with school administrators after each coaching cycle and a final written report for the Reading ESL Department, which summarizes the work, highlights successes, and suggests the next steps.
This work has led to an increased understanding of research-based practices for supporting ELs as well as greater implementation of these strategies in the Reading School District.
SupportEd has been collaborating with Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) since 2019, starting with a cohort of eight elementary schools. This eventually expanded into four cohorts of schools, including elementary, middle, and high school, each participating in a 2-year multi-faceted professional development program.
SupportEd developed a professional development plan for each cohort based on information collected during classroom observations, school-based focus groups, and analysis of student data.
Professional development focused in three areas:
- Oral language development
- Scaffolding
- Development of academic language
Additional components of the professional development plan included coaching and observation, online work and asynchronous work, and ongoing communication and feedback sessions with MCPS staff.
In partnership with co-teaching expert Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld, SupportEd contributed to a three-year project (2019-2022) designed to support the School District of Philadelphia's (SDP's) “Together is Better” Initiative to pilot and research effective co-teaching models in grades K – 3 in three city schools.
SupportEd conducted three baseline initiatives led by Kent Buckley-Ess including:
- Classroom walk-throughs
- Needs assessments
- Focus groups for ESOL and K-3 teachers
These initiatives were followed by multiple trainings for school leadership teams led by Dr. Honigsfeld. In 2021, SupportEd reconnected with SDP to roll out phase two of "Together is Better," a 2-year initiative.
During this second phase of the project, participation included one strategically selected K-2 co-teaching team from each of six city schools. SupportEd provided one full-day professional development session per term to this cohort of teachers and seven on-site coaching visits to each team throughout the school year.
“Our relationship with SupportEd has been a true model of professional collaboration. We have been working with SupportEd for the past few years as a district and the learning that they have provided has been exactly what our school’s needed at the time they needed it. The SupportEd team listens well to our needs, are open to suggestions, tweaks, and are very flexible, especially in the times that we are in. We have truly become partners in the work of building capacity of the staff of our emergent MLs.”
— Tamara Hewlett
Director, Curriculum Development and Instruction
Montgomery County Public Schools | Rockville, MD
Who benefits from a multilingual learner coaching partnership? Who benefits from a multilingual learner coaching partnership?
K-12 District Administrators
K-12 Educators
Students
ML Families
What principles guide SupportEd’s approach to coaching? What principles guide SupportEd’s approach to coaching?
SupportEd’s team is comprised of former teachers and administrators who use their practical experience to provide realistic and applicable advice. This real-world knowledge orients our approach to coaching along the following principles:
Collaborate and Share Expertise
Our team collaborates with your teachers to set and review shared goals for classroom implementation of instructional strategies from the PD sessions. We build on each teacher’s expertise by practicing evidence-based strategies, encouraging self-reflection and problem solving, and providing supportive guidance.
Bridge Research with Actionable Strategies
Our team connects educational research with proven classroom strategies, creating practical and actionable suggestions. This focus on combining evidence-based practices with real-world experience ensures recommendations are feasible and teacher friendly.
Tailor Recommendations to Specific Contexts
Our team prioritizes understanding the unique circumstances of your schools and district using the needs assessment, stakeholder interviews, and active communication inform our recommendations. This approach ensures our strategies are relevant and targeted to address the specific goals and challenges of your district.
Provide Concrete Tools and Personalized Strategies
Our team’s approach goes beyond theoretical concepts by equipping educators with practical tools and resources they can readily implement. SupportEd ML Coaches develop personalized coaching tools, professional development materials, and classroom visit forms, all designed to make the implementation of ML best practices more manageable for teachers.
Implement Coaching in Your School or District
Take the first step — schedule a discovery meeting
Free consultation
Schedule a coaching discovery meeting so we can learn more about your organization's needs, project requirements, and overarching goals.
Meet with experts
Intended for directors, superintendents, principals, decision makers, and programs who require the support of our team of nationally recognized multilingual learner experts.
Explore next steps
After we learn about your goals and needs, SupportEd will develop a proposal to support the growth of your multilingual learner program.
Speaking Engagements
Experience a dynamic and inspiring interactive session with actionable strategies and takeaways that leave a lasting impact.
Online Courses
Designed to fit educators’ busy schedules, start and stop at your own pace and earn PD certificate hours conveniently online.
Meet Our Team
SupportEd is made up of nationally recognized Multilingual Learner experts, best-selling authors, and accomplished researchers.