Instructional coaching isn’t a panacea for every challenge facing teachers in the classroom, but if done with careful assessment, it can help reinforce positive mindsets for both students and teachers, especially new teachers. “Co-teaching can be effective at accelerating teacher skill-building,” writes Jo Lein, founder of a coaching nonprofit. After years of testing and refining—as well as making mistakes along the way—Lein and her colleagues came up with a decision-making matrix for intervening when a teacher needs support. The matrix is built around two factors: the teacher’s level of self-efficacy and their level of belief in students. Team Teach: If the teacher has high self-efficacy and low belief in their students, the teacher and coach teach the class together after carefully dividing responsibilities, like alternating roles between opening the lesson and providing guided practice. This strategy helps the teacher understand “that the students are capable of meeting expectatio...