Instructional Coach - Breakthrough (Summer Session 2026)

Breakthrough Pittsburgh Overview

Breakthrough Pittsburgh at Sewickley Academy provides six years of academic enrichment and college preparation to motivated Pittsburgh students with limited educational opportunities, ensuring they are academically successful and on the path to college. Breakthrough also inspires talented college and high school students to become educators and engaged citizens by giving them responsibility for teaching in its programs. Breakthrough Pittsburgh is an affiliate of the national Breakthrough Collaborative.

The intensive six-week summer program for rising seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth graders is a key component of Breakthrough’s effort to ensure students are receiving academically rigorous instruction through middle and high school. Summer programming consists of four core academic classes (math, literature, writing, and science), as well as electives, such as 3DArt, Japanese, and cryptozoology. Because Breakthrough’s utilizes a “students teaching students” model, all summer classes are planned and taught by our exceptional college-aged fellows. Teaching Fellows bring energy, commitment, and a willingness to learn, and Instructional Coaches bring experience and knowledge. The program has served nearly 1,000 youth since its inception in 1994, with the goal of ensuring that each student has the confidence and academic skills to thrive at rigorous college preparatory high schools and go on to pursue a college education. In our most recent cohort of high school graduates, 90% are now pursuing a post-secondary degree. In this way, Breakthrough’s Pittsburgh is making good on its promise to increase opportunity for our students through college access programming, combat summer learning loss through a rigorous summer educational experience, and improve our schools through intensive teacher training.

Job Description

Instructional Coaches (ICs) are experienced and successful professional educators who provide content-specific support and mentoring for Breakthrough’s Teaching Fellows (TFs) and engage fully in the Breakthrough Pittsburgh community. ICs dictate the level of academic rigor during the summer program through their interactions with TFs. Each IC supervises six to eight TFs in one subject area, leading weekly department meetings, visiting classes, evaluating lesson plans, and meeting frequently with individual Teaching Fellows regarding their on-going work. As the only professional teachers on-site, ICs are accountable for the quality of instruction Breakthrough students receive and are responsible for supporting Breakthrough TFs through their first teaching experience.

Specific Instructional Coach Duties  Pre-summer:  

• Complete two training sessions (to be scheduled in May)  
• Complete pre-summer readings  
• Consult with Breakthrough staff regarding curriculum in specific content area  
• Refine existing unit plans in specific content area as needed  

Teacher Orientation:  

• Help facilitate teacher training workshops on topics such as classroom management, lesson planning, and teaching practices specific to content area (optional) 
• Participate fully in orientation workshops  
• Guide TFs through lesson planning and general preparation for the summer 

Six-Week Summer Program:  

• Provide six-eight TFs with support and regular feedback as they design and revise lesson plans  
• Maintain a big picture understanding of the curriculum and guide TFs in making adjustments as necessary  
• Observe each TF in classroom at least once weekly  
• Conduct once weekly one-on-one debrief sessions with TFs, in which they receive concrete feedback based on Breakthrough’s Teacher Excellence Rubric  

Plan and lead weekly departmental meetings  

• Work with Instructional Coach team to determine professional development needs for TFs and lead at least one large group professional development session (optional) 
• Communicate regularly with the Executive Director regarding TF progress  

Teacher Wrap-Up: (attendance optional) 

• Submit a final narrative evaluation for each assigned TF (letters of recommendation upon request) 
• Provide revisions and suggestions on curriculum for next summer’s TFs and coaches  
• Evaluate overall summer program  

• Bachelor’s degree required
• Outstanding track record as a professional classroom teacher for at least three years (preferably
• in grades 7-10)
• Outstanding knowledge of subject matter and broad knowledge of available resources
• Superior presentation, writing, and organizational skills
• Ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously
• Exceptional interpersonal skills: ability to hold others to high standards while also offering
• support and maintaining positive relationships
• Ability to deliver positive, constructive, and honest feedback, both written and verbal
• Experience with curriculum development and implementation
• Creativity, energy, and commitment to excellence
• Prior experience with Breakthrough or Summerbridge is highly desirable
• Familiarity with Pittsburgh schools is highly desirable
• Experience teaching in an academically rigorous college preparatory institution is highly
• desirable

Commitment  

Pre-summer training and preparation

• 3 IC Training Meetings, to be scheduled at the beginning of May  (2 hrs) 
• Curriculum refinement and teacher training preparation, to be done independently 
• Teacher orientation, June 8 - 18 (approx. 20 – 25 hrs.)  

Six-week program, June 22 –July 24 (20 hours/week)  

• Monday-Thursday from 8:30 am to 12:45 pm  
• One late afternoon event over the course of the summer  (optional) 
• End-of-summer Celebration/Graduation Party, Thursday, July 23rd at 6 PM(optional)  
• May require some work off-site via email or phone with TFs as needed  

Teacher Wrap-Up, July 25 (optional) 

Click To Apply

Questions: Contact Carrie Miller, Executive Director, at 412-741-2230, ext 3141 or [email protected]