A Principal Leadership Framework for Enhancing Teacher Practice Through Coaching With Emotional Intelligence
Beginning with the 2016 2017 school year, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) has mandated school principals begin appraising teachers the new Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T TESS) Central to this new instrument is the necessity for principals and other appraisers to improve professional practice through the reciprocal interaction, open dialogue, and continuous learning inherent to coaching. While the T TESS rubric provides a structured process for the TEA's vision of what coaching should look like, that vision lacks the inclusion of the soft skills we know are needed for effective success coaching and healthy school environments. In this article, we fill the gap by introducing a research derived coaching framework that combines situational leadership with emotional intelligence for person centered coaching and learning. Research directions are suggested based on this more robust model for principal coaching. Students, teachers, schools, and communities benefit when education policy is balanced with social emotional learning.