Technical assistance is designed to build the capacity of individuals and organizations to achieve desired outcomes. During the past decade, technical assistance has been reconceptualized as a multi-tiered approach along a continuum from basic to intensive. Basic technical assistance is the most efficient foundation for facilitating change and effective in many contexts but recognized as insufficient to achieve systems change in all contexts. When the scale or depth of change is more extensive, basic technical assistance needs to be supplemented with more intensive technical assistance or coaching.
Basic Technical Assistance. Innovations provides basic technical assistance to programs that includes: (a) disseminating documentation of evidence-based practices, (b) sharing examples of success and materials that facilitate success (e.g., classroom friendly forms, matrices, checklists), and (c) offering immediate support based on individual needs. Basic technical assistance is tied to foundational training content.
Coaching. Coaching includes facilitated teaching and learning experiences that are transactional and designed to support the acquisition of professional knowledge and the application of this knowledge into instructional practices. Innovations uses Master’s level professionals to implement an integrated approach to intensive technical assistance using an evidence-based model of coaching (Sheldon & Rush, 2012). This approach allows ongoing collaboration and feedback to leaders and teachers with a focus on the quality of teacher-child interactions to improve school readiness. The coaching model is grounded in a strategic and comprehensive process that is implemented at both the center leader and individual teacher level. This Coaching Model has 5 phases implemented in weekly sessions across 8 weeks at an individual center.