In the Du Quoin Community Unit School District, instructional coaches Mandy Davis and Sammy Morris are helping teachers sharpen their skills and strengthen student learning across the district. Their work often happens quietly behind the scenes, but its impact can be seen in classrooms from the elementary grades through high school.

Instructional coaching is still a relatively new role in many school systems, and Du Quoin began developing its program only a few years ago. Mandy Davis explained that the district first introduced the idea through voluntary professional development sessions for teachers interested in learning more about coaching. After that initial year of training, the district opened instructional coach positions internally. Davis applied and was selected to help launch the program.

Today, Davis works primarily with elementary teachers, while Morris supports educators at the middle school and high school levels. Both also continue teaching part of the day, which helps them stay connected to the realities of classroom instruction. Davis teaches third- and fourth-grade special education reading, language arts, and math, while Morris teaches honors English and an Introduction to Teaching course for high school students interested in becoming educators.

Morris says continuing to teach helps the coaches remain grounded in classroom practice. It allows them to experiment with strategies themselves before sharing them with other teachers. As she explains, it gives them the chance to “try things out in our own classrooms first and see how it works before we bring it to other teachers.”

Instructional coaching in Du Quoin is built on collaboration rather than evaluation. Coaches are assigned groups of teachers and check in regularly to offer resources, answer questions, and help problem-solve classroom challenges.

For Madison Davis, a third-grade teacher in the district, that support made an immediate difference. Her first year at Du Quoin was also only her second year of teaching, and she was adjusting to both a new district and a new curriculum.

Working with Mandy Davis allowed her to sit down during planning periods and explore the curriculum before presenting it to students. That preparation helped her feel more confident in the classroom. She says the support continues to be valuable. Whenever she encounters a challenge, she can reach out for ideas and often receives multiple strategies or resources she can use right away.

Veteran teachers benefit as well. Amanda Casey, a seventh-grade reading and language arts teacher with more than two decades of experience—most of them in Du Quoin—says instructional coaching has helped her refresh her teaching methods and explore new approaches in the classroom.

Working with Morris introduced new strategies for teaching writing and literary concepts. One example is a writing program called Top Score Writing, which Casey says has strengthened student writing skills. Morris has also helped develop new classroom activities for teaching literary themes, giving students tools they continue to reference throughout the year.

Casey says the experience has reminded her that even experienced teachers can benefit from new ideas. Sometimes, she explains, it simply takes someone bringing a fresh perspective into the classroom to help teachers see new possibilities.

Instructional coaching has also led to improvements beyond individual classrooms. In the elementary grades, discussions with teachers revealed a need for stronger phonics instruction aligned with the science of reading. Those conversations led to professional development for teachers and the adoption of a new phonics curriculum for kindergarten through second grade.

Early results from pilot classrooms were encouraging. Some kindergarten students who used the program were already reading at mid–first grade levels by the end of the year, and many others reached grade-level expectations.

For Morris, one of the most rewarding parts of instructional coaching is watching ideas spread across the district. She described how one teacher became interested in student-led discussions and began experimenting with a method known as Harkness discussions, where students guide classroom conversations while the teacher facilitates. The approach proved successful and was later shared with other teachers during professional development.

Both coaches believe the goal of instructional coaching is simple: helping teachers grow so that students can succeed.

As Morris explains, when schools invest in supporting teachers and strengthening instruction, students are the ones who benefit the most. And in Du Quoin, that investment is helping classrooms grow stronger every day.