The work

Proof, and what it produced.

Where the work has been, the numbers it moved, and the things I've shipped.

15+

years building
school systems

100+

multi-year
engagements

91%

year-over-year
client renewal

200+

leaders trained
and coached

1,000+

schools on DeansList
today

What the work produces

The coaching shows up in the numbers.

Collegiate Academies: average annual gain across the first three years of the 8-week coaching cycle.

Classroom culture
+14%
Student culture
+10%
Attendance
+3%
75%fewer suspensions at Collegiate
98%teacher retention
+6 ptsKIPP 9th-grade GPA, year over year
91%client renewal over 14 years

Things I've shipped

I build things other people use.

A book in classrooms, software in a thousand schools, a live AI app, and a working group that did not exist before I started it. The throughline is simple: I finish, and I hand it off.

Academic Health Coach

Live AI app · Playlab · free

An AI coach that walks leaders through academic-health routing: what the data says, what to do, who owns the next step. Built and published by me.

Open the app

DeansList

EdTech SaaS · 1,000+ schools · co-founded

School-culture software built from the systems we first ran on paper. I co-founded it; it now serves more than a thousand schools nationwide.

See DeansList

NYC EducAItion Lab

Founder · cross-network AI working group

A working group I founded for K-12 educators putting AI to real use, drawing members from KIPP, Uncommon, Brooklyn Prospect, Google, and beyond.

Ask me about it

Portfolio · Published work

Building Culture Back Better

When schools came back from COVID, every leader faced the same question: how do you rebuild trust and put the joy back into a community that has been through it? In 2021, while leading Brooklyn LAB, I served as editor-in-chief of Building Culture Back Better, a 124-page practitioner volume on exactly that, written with seven contributing authors from networks across the sector. It is the playbook we wished we had, with frameworks a school could run the next morning.

Building Culture Back Better, cover
Open full PDF

Free, full 124-page volume. No email gate.

What people say

From the leaders I've worked with

“Our school leaders name his coaching and support as having very high impact, and they push hard to get as many ‘Chris days' at their schools as possible. I would highly recommend Chris to any school, CMO, or district looking to make dramatic improvements.”

Doug McCurry

Doug McCurry

Co-Founder, Achievement First

“We built an organization culture that aligned to our mission by working with Chris. He built the capacity of our leadership team, created the systems and tools, and showed us what REAL change management looks like.”

Kinnari Patel-Smyth

Kinnari Patel-Smyth

President, KIPP Foundation

“Chris spent two days with us, but his impression has left a mark for years. In minutes he could identify the root causes of culture breakdowns, and equally important, tools and strategies to dramatically and immediately change them. He is always there for us, to talk, share, empathize and then help me make tough decisions.”

Rachel Yanof

Rachel Yanof

Founder · ASU Prep South Phoenix

“Chris's monthly visits were a catalyst for dramatic growth. On our network's evaluation system, we went from the lowest-performing middle school to the highest-performing in the history of our network. Truly, Chris was no small part of that.”

Tom Kaiser

Tom Kaiser

Founder, Authentic Leaders · former Principal, Achievement First Endeavor MS

Work with me

Let's talk about your year.

If you're heading into a launch, a leadership transition, or a stretch that has to go right, the first conversation is free and useful either way.

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