Jim Knight, Senior Partner and CEO of the Instructional Coaching Group (ICG), is also a research associate at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. He has spent more than two decades studying professional learning and instructional coaching. Jim earned his PhD in Education from the University of Kansas and has won several university teaching, innovation, and service awards.

The pioneering work Jim and his colleagues have conducted has led to many innovations that are now central to professional development in schools. Jim wrote the first major article about instructional coaching for the Journal of Staff Development, and his book Instructional Coaching (2007) offered the first extended description of instructional coaching. Jim’s book Focus on Teaching (2014) was the first extended description of how video should be used for professional learning. Writing with Ann Hoffman, Michelle Harris, and Sharon Thomas, Jim introduced the idea of instructional playbooks and one-pagers with their book on that topic along with Evaluating Instructional Coaching (2021). 

In total, Jim has written or co-authored a dozen books on coaching and learning, including Unmistakable Impact (2011), High-Impact Instruction (2013), Better Conversations (2015), The Impact Cycle (2018), and The Definitive Guide to Instructional Coaching (2021). Jim’s most recent books are Data Rules, written with Michael Fagella-Luby and The IC Toolkit, written with Jessica Wise, Michelle Harris, and Amy Musante.

Knight also hosts the Coaching Conversations podcast, and he has partnered with organizations from all continents except Antarctica.