This school year, Phalen Leadership Academies is launching the PLA Coaching Cycle--a program designed to support teacher and scholar success.

“At Phalen Leadership Academies, we are really blessed with amazing teachers and scholars,” said PLA Founder and CEO Earl Martin Phalen. “If we want to continue to be our best, we have to consciously seek opportunities to grow and get better each day. We’ll use the PLA Coaching Cycle to empower and support our schools, our teachers and our scholars. Our teachers and building leaders will have access to data insights and improvement opportunities that truly help make a difference.”

The PLA Coaching Cycle is an online system that allows leaders at both the national and the school levels to cull data on performance and identify strengths and opportunities for improvement in both student learning and teacher practices. The very sophisticated analytics provide leaders with insight to ensure they are coaching up and empowering teachers to provide PLA scholars with a quality education.  

The program sets clear objectives, models instruction, implements the gradual release, and provides formal and informal assessments.  For scholars, teachers and building leaders will have the tools to check for understanding, differentiate to meet individual learning needs, provide small group instruction for specific needs and offer endless guided practice. 

The platform includes 6 domains or focused areas of observations based on Charlotte Danielson’s framework.  The six domains include:

• Culture and Behavior Management Walk-Through
• Classroom Management and Environment
• Scholar Engagement
• Effective Lesson Components
• Level 1 Instructional Execution
• Level 2 Instructional Execution