This case study dissertation was designed to examine the sustainability of instructional improvement for teachers and students working with an instructional coach. The methodology was grounded in a qualitative approach. The end results of this research exposed barriers as well as benefits to working with an instructional coach as portrayed by teachers, on staff, in a building supported by the coaching role. A stratified purposeful sampling was used to include several cases at distinct levels of involvement with respect to the phenomenon examined. The rationale for including several cases of each type permitted the researcher to develop insights into the characteristics of each type, as well as insights into the variations that exist across types. The research compared and contrasted the collected data and coded for categorization. Analysis of the data revealed that changing the beliefs of teachers is central to change occurring in the classroom. Teachers were most receptive to instructional coaching when the teacher and the coach shared similar classroom experiences. A comprehensive examination of one teacher working with an instructional coach is recommended to generate a potential best practice that could be replicated in other schools to achieve maximum benefits.