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Keys to great math coaching (ONLINE EXCLUSIVE)
By Hanan Perlman, Richard Correnti and Jennifer Lin Russell
Categories: CoachingJune 2026
If you step into a U.S. math classroom today, there’s a good chance you will see a teacher dryly working through a problem on the board trying to keep the class’s attention. While some students are likely following the teacher’s every move, others are probably struggling to keep up or waiting for the “plug and chug” part of the lesson. A few may not understand the problem or can’t connect it to their life beyond the classroom. This form of direct teaching, where the teacher demonstrates a procedure and students then do similar problems using that same procedure without an opportunity to make meaning of the concepts, is common in many mathematics classrooms across the country. Subsequently, national 4th-grade math scores have remained unchanged over
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Dr. Hanan Perlman is an education researcher specializing in large-scale, equity-focused continuous improvement initiatives that strengthen instructional practice and student outcomes. This fall, he will step into the role of Director of Strategic Impact and Measurement at Allentown School District, serving as a Strategic Data Project Fellow, a program of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University. He holds a Ph.D. in Learning Sciences and Policy from the University of Pittsburgh and draws on extensive practical experience as an educator to translate complex data into strategic systemic change.
Richard Correnti is a Senior Research Scientist at the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research and Development Center and Professor in the School of Education. His research examines mechanisms for how interventions improve teaching practice. Recent projects focus on developing explanatory models for how literacy coaching and mathematics coaching improve; curricular rigor, dialogic teaching and student learning.
Jennifer Lin Russell is Chair and Professor of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College and Co-Director of the Improvement Scholars Network. Her research focuses on organizing educational systems for improvement, with a particular emphasis on networked continuous improvement. She is co-editor of The Foundational Handbook on Improvement Research in Education (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022). She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, an M.A. from the University of San Francisco, and a B.A. from Northwestern University.
Categories: Coaching
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