Isaac is Co-Director of Professional Learning with the Core Collaborative. Prior to his work at The Core Collaborative, he worked as a School Improvement Specialist and Instructional Coach for Henderson County Public Schools in North Carolina. He is able to transform research into practice and demonstrates this daily with the districts, schools, teachers, and students he serves.
Isaac has a passion for progress and focuses his own learning and his coaching around the question “What’s next?” For ten years as a teacher and in his third year as an instructional coach, the data is the guide. When writing scores dropped district-wide, he studied writing instruction and led his county through the North Carolina Phases of Writing professional development. When his school failed to meet annual yearly progress goals in math, he shifted his focus to math instruction and became a facilitator for the North Carolina Partners for Mathematics Learning. As a School Improvement Specialist, he has facilitated and coached a professional learning community model that gets results so that other teachers can follow where the data leads, adapt their instruction, and influence others.
Isaac is most proud of his school’s continued growth over the last two years. Their population of diverse learners have continued to improve on common formative assessments as well as College and Career Ready End of Grade Tests as schools nearby have leveled off or seen drops in their proficiency and growth. He attributes this progress to teachers’ engagement in professional learning communities focused on implementing high-yield instructional strategies with all students regardless of label or socio-economic status.
Isaac has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education from Elon University and is a National Board Certified Middle Childhood Generalist.
