Although many academically underprepared students are able to attend community colleges via open access policies, these students struggle with completing their degrees. At a rural community college in the southeastern United States, students who tested into developmental education courses have struggled more with persistence and completion than have their college-ready counterparts. The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to evaluate the influence that student coaching had on student success in developmental math at this community college. Tinto's dropout theory and Astin's engagement theory provided the theoretical framework for a study of 62 developmental math students who were offered student coaching services during the course. Multiple one-way ANOVAs were performed to determine if student coaching had any influence on the dependent COMPASS test scores based on students' level of participation with the service. Students who participated in 0-2 coaching sessions (n = 32) had statistically significantly lower COMPASS test scores than students who participated in 3 or more coaching sessions (n = 30). None of the demographic characteristics had an effect on coaching participation. An evidence-based project designed to enhance coaching participation is offered to increase student persistence and completion. Implications for positive social change include increased success rates in developmental courses which should lead to increased persistence. Positive social change occurs when students are able to achieve incremental successes in their developmental courses, which could better leverage them to achieve subsequent higher education goals of degree completion and to pursue careers with better salaries associated with higher education completers.

The main aim of the work is a closer examination of team cooperation issues, and evaluation team coaching efficiency as a tool of prevention or of subsequent team problems solving. Formally, the text is divided to two elemental parts. The first one is comprised of theoretical framework of team coaching. There is a principal of team functioning explained, difference from a group and possible dangers that are connected with effective team functioning. Further on, the work describes basic coaching theories, principles, structuring, procedures and a partial framework definition, where the coaching implication is desirable and where it is not. Team coaching is here introduced as not particularly specific branch of coaching, attention to it is paid mostly from a methodological point of view. Student coaching and school team coaching issues are also a part of the work, which is followed by the empirical section. The empirical part consists of a basic evaluation of the pilot project, which subject was team coaching in high schools. Such a project has not had a parallel in the Czech Republic so far. Its primary part therefore worked not only as a coaching application test on class teams, but also as verification of a tool for such a project evaluation.