Legitimizing the Role: Building State-Level Certification Pathways for Coaches

Instructional coaching is vital to school transformation, yet most states still lack official credentials for the role, leaving coaches in a professional gray area. This poster session explores how cross-state partnerships, such as the collaboration between Forward Edge and the Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE), are professionalizing the field through standards-aligned certification programs. You will examine a scalable framework for coach credentialing centered on equity, professional growth and system-wide alignment, and learn how the Core of Coaching Framework aligns coaching practice with ISTE Standards and state expectations. See real-world certification structures, participant feedback and lessons learned from building these pathways. Whether you are a district leader defining coaching expectations or a coach seeking professional recognition, you will leave with planning tools, sample certification documents and guiding questions to evaluate your coaching structures, co-design pathways with state organizations and turn coaching into a legitimate, credentialed profession.