Michael Neary / The Meridian StarJohn Taylor, left, Jacob Drury, Yesenia Smith, Melanie Jackson, Kristen Barnes, Kiera Ezell, Mable Moore, Heather Pouncey and Melody Craft meet at the Meridian Public School District's Harris Complex on Friday. All are academic coaches for the Meridian Public School District except for Taylor, who is the assistant superintendent for curriculum. Not pictured is academic coach Yolanda Davis, with Parkview Elementary School.

A student entering a classroom might expect to see one teacher, alone, instructing the class. But with other adults assisting in the classroom — including academic coaches — that’s not necessarily the case.

Academic coaches are new positions in the Meridian Public School District, as experienced educators work with teachers throughout the district to offer support — both inside and outside of the classroom.

John Taylor, assistant superintendent for curriculum, said the academic coaching positions are funded through the Title 1 portion of the budget. He said last year the district had four instructional specialists who visited schools as requested. But, he said it was difficult for them to “focus their coaching to any one site.”

So, he said, district officials decided to reallocate the budget so a coach could be on each campus, to offer teachers a consistent go-to person for resources, modeling, co-teaching and other modes of support.

Nine academic coaches work in the district.

“We model ways for (teachers) to teach the students in a way that’s engaging,” said Melanie Jackson, an academic coach at T.J. Harris Lower Elementary School.

Jacob Drury, the academic coach at Carver Middle School, explained how some of the process works.

“During our planning period, we ask teachers what they’re going to be doing, how they’re going to teach this (lesson),” Drury said. “Then we’re able to model how we would teach it … if we think they might need a little help.”

As academic coaches talked about their work on a recent morning, they noted the importance of helping teachers apply Mississippi College- and Career-Ready Standards to their lessons — standards to which the state recently shifted.

“We are able to provide support for those teachers to understand (the standards),” said Mable Moore, academic the coach at Oakland Heights Elementary School.

Heather Pouncey, an academic coach at West Hills Elementary School, noted, for instance, the importance of “balancing informational and literary texts in the classroom.

The role of the academic coach can be particularly important in helping new teachers grow comfortable in the classroom, the coaches noted. The school district hired about 100 teachers at the start of the school year.

“There are some fresh out of college, so having me there to assist them with the academic portion has been very helpful to them,” said Kiera Ezell, an academic coach at T.J. Harris Upper Elementary School.

The academic coaches noted that even with good education and training, a teacher stepping into a classroom for the first time faces fresh challenges.

“When they’re in their practicum, they’re actually in someone else’s classroom, building off of someone else’s rules and strategies,” said Kristen Barnes, the academic coach at Crestwood Elementary School. “When they get to their own classroom, they’re starting fresh, they’re creating their own rules and whatever instruction they’re going to use for their students.”

Yesenia Smith, an academic coach at Northwest Middle School, noted that not all teachers move through the regular teacher-education steps.

“We’re having an increasing number of teachers coming through an alternate route who haven’t had that practicum,” Smith said. “When they walk into the classroom, this is their first opportunity to be there.”

Melody Craft stressed that such teachers may have a firm command of content.

“But taking content and turning it into teaching is difficult,” she added, “so you just kind of need a guide.”

The academic coaches also talked about the supreme importance of caring — and of talking to students in all sorts of different situations within a classroom.

Taylor said the use of academic coaches on this scale is unusual within the state.

“There are definitely not many districts this size committed to this many (academic) coaches to do this work,” he said.