Specialists, Coaches, Coordinators, Oh My! Looking Back and Looking Forward on the Roles and Responsibilities of Specialized Literacy Professionals by Jacy Ippolito, Rita M. Bean, Diane Kern, and Allison Swan Dagen Jacy Ippolito is an associate professor and department chair in the School of Education at Salem State University. Jacy’s research and teaching focus on the intersection of adolescent and disciplinary literacy, literacy coaching, teacher leadership, and school reform. The results of Jacy’s research can be found in Educational Leadership, the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Professional Development in Education, the Journal of School Leadership, and books such as Disciplinary Literacy Inquiry and Instruction (2019), Unpacking Coaching Mindsets (2018), Investigating Disciplinary Literacy (2017), and Cultivating Coaching Mindsets (2016). You can find Jacy online at www.visualcv.com/jacyippolito or @Jippolito. Rita M. Bean is Professor Emerita, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Instruction and Learning. Dr. Bean has focused her research on the role and impact of reading specialists and literacy coaches in schools. She recently served as co-chair, ILA Standards for the Preparation of Literacy Professionals 2017. Recent books include The Reading Specialist: Leadership and Coaching for Classroom, School, and Community (2015), and Cultivating Coaching Mindsets: An Action Guide for Literacy Leaders (Bean & Ippolito, 2015). A recent study, Principals’ Perspectives on the Roles of Specialized Literacy Professionals, was published in Elementary School Journal (Bean, Dagen, Ippolito, & Kern, 2018).
The Critical and Complex Work of Specialized Literacy Professionals When we think about adult professional work in schools, the role of the classroom teacher looms large. From the one-room schoolhouses of the 19th and 20th centuries in the United States, to modern comprehensive high schools filled with thousands of students, teachers have been the single constant across a wide variety of school structures. Research has made clear that teacher quality is one of the most significant factors in determining student learning outcomes (Darling-Hammond, 2000). Recently the RAND Corporation (2018) made the statement that “Teachers matter more to student achievement than any other aspect of schooling” (para. 2). This notion certainly maps onto the lived experiences of those who have spent their careers working in PreK–12 education— teachers are the heart of all schools. Notwithstanding the truly important roles that
Diane Kern, PhD, is an associate professor in the School of Education at the University of Rhode Island. She is program coordinator for secondary English language arts education and teaches courses in educational foundations, classroom management, content area and disciplinary literacy. She has taught in public schools in urban, suburban, and rural school districts in Florida and Rhode Island. She has written approximately 35 publications. Dr. Kern was a lead writer of the IRA Standards for Reading Professionals—Revised 2010, co-chair of the ILA Standards for the Preparation of Literacy Professionals 2017, and currently serves as the International Reading Association’s SPA Coordinator for CAEP accreditation. Allison Swan Dagen, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction/Literacy Studies, College of Education & Human Services, at West Virginia University. Her research interests include the preparation of specialized reading professionals (reading specialists/literacy coaches), professional development, teacher leadership, and National Board Teaching Certification.
teachers play, we have witnessed the proliferation of a variety of other critical professional roles in schools over the past hundred years generally, and the past 30 years specifically. Teaching students to read, understand, and write complex text within and across disciplines is one of the most important purposes of school. Given this fundamental purpose—creating a literate citizenry—then there are arguably several other crucial adult professional roles that must be considered when looking across the educational landscape. Reading/literacy specialists, literacy coaches, and literacy coordinators are three interconnected (yet distinct) roles that have emerged slowly across the 20th and 21st centuries in the United States. While these roles may not feature prominently in the public’s consciousness about schooling, they are essential to the everyday work and success of many teachers and students. However, the field of education has been slow to define and evaluate these relatively new and 19
