A Special Listen: The Power of Coaching Teachers
In Recovery
Lemonada Media
4.8 • 718 Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Great teaching changes lives, but even the best teachers need support. In this episode, we highlight a bright spot in New York City Public Schools where students achieved remarkable gains in reading proficiency. To uncover what led to these results, host Gloria Riviera speaks with Teaching Lab CEO Sarah Johnson and explores how investing in teachers can transform classrooms, boost student learning, and create a ripple effect of success. You’ll also hear from a New York City teacher and his teaching coach about what coaching looks like in practice – and the tangible impact it has in the classroom.
This episode is created in partnership with Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies.
Learn more about Teaching Lab at teachinglab.org.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's morning in New York. |
| 0:06.2 | Hey, everybody, I'm Mandy Patinkin. |
| 0:08.7 | And I'm Catherine Grady. |
| 0:09.8 | And we have a new podcast. |
| 0:11.7 | It's called Don't Listen to Us. |
| 0:14.1 | Many of you've asked for our advice. |
| 0:16.1 | Tell me, what is wrong with you people? |
| 0:19.2 | Don't listen to us. |
| 0:20.2 | Our Take It or Leave It Advice show is out every Wednesday, |
| 0:23.6 | premiering October 15th, a Lemonada Media Original. |
| 0:32.1 | Lemonada. |
| 0:36.9 | Music This past year, something really extraordinary happened in New York City schools. |
| 0:57.5 | As a result of a beautiful citywide initiative called NYC Reeds, the whole city improved by 7.2 percentage points in literacy on the standardized state assessments. |
| 1:08.4 | And in teaching lab schools, we saw a 10.2% improvement. |
| 1:13.2 | And three percentage points, that difference is a significant difference. |
| 1:18.0 | That's Sarah Johnson, CEO of Teaching Lab. |
| 1:21.5 | Sarah has worked closely with New York City Public Schools on literacy. |
| 1:25.9 | That 10 percentage point jump is a big deal. Progress in |
| 1:30.7 | past years was tiny in comparison. And actually, the year prior, Sarah says reading outcomes had |
| 1:36.6 | actually declined. NYC Reads incorporates a new curriculum and intensive teacher coaching. |
| 1:47.2 | That coaching is key. Without evidence-based coaching, you do not see those improvements. We engage in this do whatever it takes approach, |
| 1:51.8 | where we're looking at data, we're looking at the curriculum, we're supporting teachers to practice, |
... |
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