Making Coaching Matter:
Leading Continuous Improvement in Schools

Making Coaching Matter is a guide to how schools and districts can maximize their investment in coaching by better understanding:


“Essential reading for practitioners, policymakers, and scholars who want to learn about coaching as a component of a strategic approach to educational improvement.”

—James P. Spillane, Northwestern University


“A roadmap for making coaching an effective and equity-based investment in our nation's education system.”

—Matthew A. Kraft, Brown University

The authors of Making Coaching Matter have decades of combined experience in the research and practice of coaching.

Sarah Woulfin

Dr. Sarah Woulfin is an associate professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. She has studied instructional coaching across multiple states and, in the early 2000s, served as a Reading First coach in California. With a focus on creating more just schools, Sarah views coaching as a strategy to promote and sustain adult learning and organizational improvement.

Isobel Stevenson

I have been interested & invested in coaching since I was a first year principal looking for better ways to interact with my colleagues. When I realized that coaching skills were extremely helpful in becoming a better leader, I was all in. Since then I have coached scores of clients, facilitated coaching workshops with Kerry, helped many districts with their coaching models, and written about coaching for several publications and in a Substack newsletter called The Coaching Letter. Making Coaching Matter is my second book; the first, The Strategy Playbook, was written with Jennie Weiner.

Kerry Lord

When I'm being coached I am amazed by the possibilities that emerge--the thinking and breathing space that opens up as a result of pausing and musing.  Coaching invites transformation, unfolds potential and demands our honesty.  It's our way forward so that we can be better.  At everything.