About Steve

Steve Ventura is the president and lead consultant at Advanced Collaborative Solutions. He is a highly motivational and knowledgeable speaker who approaches high-stakes professional development armed with practical, research-based strategies. Steve is a former elementary and secondary teacher as well as both a school and district-level administrator. Steve has published multiple books and articles, and regularly presents and keynotes at major global education events.

Keynote Address

Giddy Up: Forging a Research-Based Path to Improved Coaching Outcomes

Coaching, when rooted in research, continues to prove its efficacy in building teacher capacity and accelerating student achievement. Despite its proven potential, discrepancies exist between research findings and actual coaching practices.

Methodologies can be inconsistent and ineffective. So, how do coaches find their focus? Through research-based approaches, coaches can empower educators to reflect on their practice and refine their skills. Ultimately, teachers and coaches who partner together to monitor their progress, as it relates to professional goals, will be able to see evidence of their instructional success and impact.

In this interactive and engaging keynote, participants will learn those high-yield coaching skills that transfer to job-embedded implementation. Remember, the particular skills of the coach can outweigh the method, as coaching skills have the highest probability of making a difference.

Breakout Session

Top 25 Instructional Strategies for Coaching Cycles

According to Jim Knight (2019), there are three phases of instructional coaching, one being that the coach and teacher agree on a powerful, compelling, reachable and student focused goal. In order to accomplish this, the coach helps prepare the teacher to hit the goal by “clearly describing the strategy to be implemented and then provides a model of the strategy” (Hattie 2023).

If you are looking for an immediate “take away” session – here it is! Participants will learn how to combine our Achievement Teams Instructional Strategy Flip book (free digital download) with a high impact coaching cycle. Each strategy contained in this flip book has been selected based on its effect on achievement and progress. This means that the instructional strategies included have the ability to double the speed of progress for students – in one instructional year!