Teacher preparation programs (TPPs) can equip preservice teachers (PSTs) with skills to implement evidence-based interventions in reading with fidelity by engaging PSTs in carefully designed clinical experience opportunities. Providing PSTs with extensive feedback through coaching is one method to strengthen support for PSTs’ implementation of evidence-based interventions, improve PSTs’ fidelity of implementation, and increase the likelihood of positively impacting students’ reading outcomes. This study contributed to gaps in the literature on preparing elementary education PSTs to implement evidence-based practices (EBPs) in reading with fidelity and the impact of sustained and responsive feedback during an authentic reading tutoring clinical experience. To individualize coaching support and facilitate a responsive approach to coaching centered on PSTs’ levels of fidelity, first, this study examined the impact of a multilevel coaching intervention on PSTs’ fidelity of implementation of an evidence-based reading intervention during a tutoring clinical experience. Second, this study examined PSTs’ perceptions of the feasibility, effectiveness, and future impact of the multilevel coaching intervention.
Results of this single-case, multiple baseline across participants study indicated a functional relation between the multilevel coaching intervention and PSTs’ fidelity of implementation, inclusive of both structural and process dimensions of fidelity. Furthermore, PSTs found the multilevel coaching intervention to be socially valid, indicating the intervention was feasible, effective, and impactful on their future teaching experiences. The findings of this study provide relevant implications regarding teacher preparation and coaching support. Major implications include (a) providing PSTs as novice learners with authentic clinical experiences, inclusive of coaching support, when implementing EBPs; (b) viewing fidelity as a multidimensional construct that can inform coaching support and teacher practices; and (c) enhancing TPPs with experiences that impact PSTs’ beliefs and perceptions about teaching reading and their own ability to do so. A few suggestions for future research include (a) investigating the efficiency of various coaching models at supporting PSTs to implement EBPs with fidelity, (b) examining the role of instructional pacing and other factors that may impact the extent to which EBPs are implemented with fidelity, (c) determining the effects of multiple dimensions of fidelity (i.e., structure and process) and the interaction on student outcomes, and (d) extending research findings on coaching supports that impact PSTs’ knowledge and the subsequent impact on student outcomes in reading.