Introduction

Practice-Based Coaching is a model of coaching that is culturally responsive and relationship-centered. This approach promotes positive change in clients’ practices that are known to support and enhance high-quality early learning programs and expanded learning opportunities for children and youth. It clearly identifies the strategies and skills coaches need to effectively collaborate with all adults who prepare children for success in school and in out-of-school time programs.

In this certificate, we present a broad framework for a model of Practice-Based Coaching that we hope is easily understandable and can be generalized to all aspects of coaching partnerships. We use the term coachee to represent any person with whom a coach works, including, but not limited to, caregivers, teachers, administrative staff, and the adult family members who also might be involved in this work.

The essential characteristics of interpersonal coaching (and, therefore, different coaching approaches such as Practice-Based Coaching) overlap substantially with Washington State’s professional development standards, which are embedded in the state’s outline of Relationship-Based Professional Development Standards.

Interpersonal coaching, from which Practice-Based Coaching draws many principles,
embodies a positive philosophy of human potential and works best when it addresses the
whole person in the context of their life experiences.