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INstructional coaching & Professional Development

Founded and led by NYC educators with real classroom experience and proven results on state-wide assessments.

SOLVED provides schools with highly customized professional development and coaching solutions.  

40+ expert coaches and consultants serving all content areas and grade levels. 

All coaching sessions and professional development workshops are eligible for CTLE credits. 
Check out this interview with Julio Penagos, education problem solver and co-founder of SOLVED. He shares his advice for helping students to learn math through experiences. He digs into examples of how to bring the world to math class, the benefits of incorporating stories in math class, and tips on content and engagement.

CTLE Certified

NY educators must collect 100 CTLE hours in each five-year cycle starting when they register with the NYSED. SOLVED is a state-approved provider of CTLE hours. All of our workshops and coaching sessions are eligible for CTLE hours. To learn more about CTLE requirements, visit the UFT overview page.

NYCDOE MTAC Vendor

SOLVED has experience navigating the work order, purchaser order, MTAC, invoicing and compliance standards of the NYC DOE, Jersey City Board of Education, Washington DC Charter Schools, Education Consortiums and various other local, state and national education institutions. We know the system!

Expert coaches

Our expert teach of coaches and consultants know and understand that each school is unique. We work collaboratively with administrative and instructional leaders to develop coaching priorities, problems of practice, Danielson and progress monitoring tools. Coaching is a team effort.  

SOLVED provides educators with highly customized professional development & coaching solutions

In-Person Coaching
Remote Coaching

Why Coaching?

It's no secret that nearly every elite athlete in the world has a coach—from individual sports such as tennis and golf, to team sports such as football and basketball. Every teacher, even the most highly effective, can improve classroom practices. 

​Professional athletes recognize that external judgment and perspective can help identify areas of improvement that they are simply unaware of or reluctant to acknowledge. A classroom coach brings a fresh set of eyes to the learning environment. 
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"Workshops lead teachers to use new skills in the classroom only ten per cent of the time.  Even when a practice session with demonstrations and personal feedback was added, fewer than 20 per cent made the change. But when coaching was introduced—when a colleague watched them try the new skills in their own classroom and provided suggestions—adoption rates passed 90 per cent. A spate of small randomized trials confirmed the effect. Coached teachers were more effective, and their students did better on tests." 

Instructional Coaching & Staff Development 

During coaching visits we work with school leaders and teachers to improve student learning outcomes by focusing on six major areas of instructional design and implementation:

Instill a Growth Mindset Learning Culture

Demonstrate Effective Feedback Strategies

Assess & Analyze Data to Target Individual Student Needs
  • Build a growth mindset learning culture to ensure communication, feedback, and pedagogy encourage students to persevere, learn from their mistakes, and take ownership over their own learning
  • Shift students' attitude towards learning to underscore how deliberate practice, focus and dedication strengthen the brain and wire it's capacity for intellectual growth
  • Model feedback strategies that promote ongoing growth, iteration and progress rather than a simple letter grade
  • Demonstrate how to use real-time verbal feedback to deepen student understanding during lessons
  • Use research-driven feedback strategies to analyze and grade students' work 
  • Integrate proven technologies into the everday classroom experience to systematically collect data on student performance
  • Design assessments aligned to the Common Core and run detailed itemized analyses to determine instructional efficacy

Increase Student Engagement through Discourse

Deepen Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Develop Rich Curriculum, Unit, & Lesson Plans
  • Leverage students' natural desire to communicate (talk!) to ensure 100%  engagement 100%  of the time
  • Facilitate classroom discussions in small-groups to deepen student learning and acknowledge the variety of ways students problem-solve think, and learn
  • Use the concrete-pictorial-abstract approach to build understanding through tangible-hands-on learning, to representational (drawing pictures) and finally to abstract mathematics
  • Demonstrate how to use manipulatives and  visual models such as the double number line, fractions strips, and counters
  • Write rich curriculum, unit & lesson plans aligned to the Common Core State Standards
  • Design differentiated problem-solving tasks that engage learners with multiple access points and encourage deep thinking

Proven Improvements on Student
​Performance Outcomes

PS 21 MARGARET EMERY-ELM PARK GRADES 3-8 MATHEMATICS ASSESSMENT DATA​ improvement from 2018-2019 with the support & collaboration of SOLVED! Congratulations to the PS 21 team of dedicated educators!