The Art of the Follow-Up: Making Instructional Coaching Stick

Consider this scenario: A teacher leaves an energizing coaching session with new strategies and renewed motivation. Then... implementation doesn't happen as planned. The strategies might remain ideas rather than practices, follow-up gets postponed, and both parties move on to something urgent that has come up.

Without effective follow-up, coaching conversations can become isolated events rather than catalysts for lasting change. Yet in the rush of school life, this vital piece of the coaching puzzle can easily fall through the cracks. So how can we improve follow-up and follow-through?

Why Teachers Might Not Follow Through

• Overload and overwhelm: The mental, skill, and time demands of integrating new strategies that compete with existing classroom demands may be underestimated.

• Implementation dip: While it's normal to experience initial struggles when trying something new, teachers or students might not be prepared for handling discouragement in the beginning of a new routine.

• Contextual roadblocks: Unexpected challenges can arise when applying strategies in real classrooms.

• Incomplete understanding: Clarity in the coaching room doesn't always translate to clarity in practice, which may not be evident until the teacher and students are trying new practices.

Why Coaches Might Drop the Ball

• Documentation gaps: Follow-up systems can be disconnected from daily workflow.

• Mental load: Tracking multiple teachers across different growth areas can become difficult to manage.

• Urgency bias: Emerging and competing needs might push aside follow-up on previous agreements.

• Unclear expectations: Ambiguity about how and when to follow up can create inconsistency.

• Administrative pull: Demands from leadership might divert attention from coaching commitments.

Our Why Frames Our How

Sometimes when follow-ups aren't going well, there's something about the approach that isn't quite sitting right for the teacher or for ourselves as coaches. Small shifts in our approach (and grounded in partnership, long-term growth, and student impact) can make follow-up feel less like another task and more like a natural component of a productive coaching partnership. Consider these perspective shifts:

Instead of	Approach It As
Checking on task completion	Supporting success
Monitoring compliance	Removing obstacles
Calendar reminders	Building ongoing support structures
Focusing on the strategy	Focusing on student outcomes
Assuming one-size-fits-all support	Differentiating follow-up intensity and approaches

High-Impact Follow-Up Practices

So what can we do? Here are four approaches that can make a significant difference in follow-up and follow-through:

1. End Every Conversation With Clear Commitments

Not just "We'll try discussion protocols," but:

• What specific protocol will be used?

• In which class period or lesson?

• What support is needed before implementation?

• How will success be measured?

• When and how will you follow up?

This specificity transforms vague intentions into actionable plans.

2. Create Lightweight Touch Points Between Meetings

Introduce a "traffic light" system:

• Green: Implementation going well, no support needed

• Yellow: Some challenges, might need resources or troubleshooting

• Red: Significant obstacles, need in-person support ASAP

Teachers quickly indicate their status via email or a shared document, allowing targeted follow-up without extensive time investment.

3. Begin Each Meeting Connecting to Previous Commitments

Start by explicitly connecting to previous work:

"When we left off, you were going to try exit tickets with three differentiated options. Should that be our focus today?"

"In our work to improve scientific reasoning, we said we would analyze student responses to plan a targeted mini-lesson. Is that still our objective?"

This creates continuity between conversations and provides teachers an opportunity to recommit to their goals. If competing demands have surfaced, you can partner around what to do rather than passively letting something else take over.

4. Make Documentation Work For You

Design your documentation system to serve as a visual reminder of commitments:

• Keep each teacher's long-term goal(s) at the top of your notes document so you see them every time you open it

• Include "follow-up on action steps" as part of your meeting template

• Share documentation with teachers for transparency

• Create enough structure to be consistent but enough flexibility to be responsive

Follow-Up Reinforces What Matters

At its core, consistent follow-up sends a powerful message: this work matters enough to revisit, refine, and sustain. It shows we're invested not just in introducing strategies, but in their successful implementation and impact on students. When we approach follow-up as an extension of professional integrity and respect for teaching and learning, rather than micromanagement, both teachers and coaches can become more invested in the process, and provide an experience of support rather than one of monitoring people.

In school environments where everyone is often stretched thin, thoughtful follow-up can be the difference between coaching that creates lasting change and coaching that merely creates busy calendars.

What simple follow-up practice could you implement this week to strengthen your coaching impact?