Example Job Description
Academic Coach
A professional reference profile for reviewing, adapting, and modernizing this school district position.
Interview Planning Resource
Possible Interview Q&A: Academic Coach
How to use this resource: Select questions that measure competencies established through the district’s current job analysis. Ask candidates the same predetermined questions under comparable conditions and evaluate responses against the same job-related criteria.
The indicators below describe evidence a strong response may contain; they are not required scripts or the only acceptable answers.
- A teacher asks for help because students can complete practice exercises but cannot explain their reasoning. How would you plan a coaching cycle?
Strong response indicators: Agrees on a focused learning goal, examines student work and lesson evidence, identifies a teachable instructional move, models or co-plans it, observes implementation, and reviews changes in student reasoning with the teacher.
- Describe how you would build trust with an experienced teacher who sees coaching as an evaluation of their competence.
Strong response indicators: Listens without labeling resistance, clarifies the coaching purpose and locally defined confidentiality boundaries, respects teacher expertise, agrees on goals and evidence, and separates coaching support from supervisory decisions.
- How would you plan and conduct a demonstration lesson so it changes what teachers do after you leave?
Strong response indicators: Uses the adopted curriculum and student needs to co-plan a specific strategy, makes the intended teacher moves visible, arranges observation and debriefing, supports teacher practice, and schedules follow-up rather than treating the demonstration as a performance.
- A grade-level team draws conflicting conclusions from the same assessment results. How would you facilitate the discussion?
Strong response indicators: Checks the assessment purpose, definitions, student population, and learning opportunities; invites multiple interpretations; examines student work and instructional evidence; avoids unsupported explanations; and agrees on a small instructional test and review date.
- How would you help a team adjust pacing while maintaining access to the adopted core curriculum?
Strong response indicators: Identifies prerequisite needs and essential learning, reviews student evidence and available time, co-plans scaffolds and checks for understanding, coordinates with instructional leadership, and avoids simply omitting challenging content or replacing the core with disconnected activities.
- Describe how you would support a lesson serving English learners, students with disabilities, and students needing additional challenge.
Strong response indicators: Plans accessible goals, language supports, appropriate scaffolds and extensions with teachers and relevant specialists, respects established individual supports, checks participation and understanding, and maintains meaningful grade-level learning opportunities.
- How would you turn a professional-development session into sustained classroom improvement?
Strong response indicators: Starts with a documented instructional need, models the practice, gives teachers time to rehearse and plan, provides usable materials and coaching, and checks implementation and student evidence over time instead of relying only on satisfaction surveys.
- Two teachers and the principal request immediate coaching support. How would you set priorities?
Strong response indicators: Clarifies the students affected, urgency, agreed school goals, teacher readiness, and available capacity; makes the allocation process understandable; offers workable interim support; and documents follow-up without promising more than can be delivered.
- A teacher shares identifiable student work for a team learning session. How would you make the session useful while protecting the records?
Strong response indicators: Uses approved access and storage, limits identifying information and audience to the instructional purpose, follows local sharing procedures, avoids personal accounts or unapproved tools, and retains only the evidence needed for the agreed work.
- What would you bring to a regular progress meeting with the principal, and how would you know whether coaching is helping?
Strong response indicators: Reports agreed goals, coaching activities, implementation evidence, student-learning patterns, limitations, and next steps; respects the agreed boundaries around individual teacher information; and distinguishes evidence of improvement from a claim that coaching alone caused it.
Position Description
The Academic Coach, under the direction of the site principal provides specialized expertise and support for classroom teachers in assisting with the full implementation of the district core instructional program.
Reports To
Insert your school district’s specific reporting relationship here.
Required Education and Credentials
Insert your school district’s education and credential requirements here.
Required / Desired Experience
Required Experience
Five or more years of successful teaching.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
- Provides support and assistance to classroom teachers in the full and skillful implementation of the district’s core instructional program, support materials and instructional strategies;
- Conducts demonstration lessons to insure that teachers have been trained to an advanced level of delivery and are using the instructional materials appropriately;
- Provides staff development to ensure that teachers are knowledgeable about curriculum components and understand lesson design in order to teach the California content standards;
- Assists teachers in building an interactive classroom environment focused on the content and learning strategies embedded within lessons;
- Conducts classroom visitations and provides “next step” support for teachers;
- Serves as a resource in identifying appropriate instructional strategies and interventions to improve student achievement for all students including students with diverse learning needs;
- Assists teachers in preparation, mapping and pacing for instruction;
- Participates in collaborative grade level meetings to assist in the analysis and utilization of assessment data to improve student achievement;
- Assists grade level teams in setting goals for improved instruction;
- Meets regularly with the principal to review assessment data and to assess the outcomes of goals established by grade level teams, a minimum of every 6 weeks;
- Prepares forms, records, and reports as directed;
- Attends meetings and trainings as directed;
- Performs other duties as required.
Required Skills and Abilities
Knowledge of
- Recognized expertise in standards-based instruction, curriculum design, effective instructional strategies and techniques, multiple assessment tools and professional development delivery systems;
- District, school site and program policies and procedures;
- State and District curriculum requirements;
- Interpersonal skills using tact, patience and courtesy;
- Rules and regulations of State and Federal Programs;
- Oral and written communication skills;
- Public speaking techniques;
Ability to
- Serve diverse needs;
- Provide effective instructional leadership in getting students to standards;
- Identify needs to design and deliver effective professional training, including modeling of lessons, to improve teacher competency and capacity;
- Perform assignments independently;
- Provide in-service training;
- Communicate effectively both orally and in writing;
- Plan and organize work;
- Meet schedules and time lines;
- Understand program goals and objectives;
- Analyze situations accurately and adopt or recommend effective courses of action;
- Establish and maintain cooperative and effective working relationships with others;
- Prepare and deliver oral presentations;
- Training in Literacy Development.
Work Environment
Physical Requirements
PHYSICAL DEMANDS: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
The employee is required to: regularly stand, walk, sit, and talk or hear; occasionally reach with hands and arms; frequently lift and/or move up to 10 pounds such as boxes of books and teaching material; frequently interact with the public and other staff; and occasionally work extended hours. Specific abilities include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, the ability to adjust focus, the ability to hear conversations in quiet and noisy environments, and the ability to speak clearly in order to exchange information and make presentations. Some driving is necessary.
Work Environment
WORK ENVIRONMENT: The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
The noise level in the work environment is usually quiet to moderate. Work is performed mostly indoors with some outdoor work. The employee is required to interact occasionally with dissatisfied or abusive individuals. The employee is directly responsible for the safety, well-being and work output of students.
Other Requirements
Insert your school district’s additional requirements here.