LAURIE SPERANZO, Chief Educational Officer

Laurie taught elementary and middle school grades for almost 10 years before she became a math coach and science teacher in the New York City Public Schools. Subsequently, she took a job with an equity-focused math education non-profit based at Northeastern University that consulted to schools in the greater Boston area. In this role she coached math teachers, designed and facilitated math professional development for administrators, teachers, and after-school program coordinators, and taught graduate and undergraduate math content and methods classes. Prior to launching LS Educational Consulting, Laurie worked at the Institute for Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, where she supported teachers and leaders in math content and pedagogy through professional learning opportunities, in-class support, coaching (and coach training), and the creation of curricular materials, assessments, and tools. 

She contributed to state-wide IES-funded coaching research, was the lead designer of a middle school math Gates Foundation grant focused on emergent multilingual students, and served on the editorial board of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) middle school publication.

She has presented at regional, national, and international conferences on math education.

During the pandemic, she acquired a skillset in online teaching and learning, adopted an adorable rescue dog, and pursued her doctorate in STEM education! She lives a block from the Atlantic Ocean in Quincy, MA, just south of Boston.

Wishbone is a Boxer-mix who hails from Texas. She spends her time at the organization digging into real-world math contexts such as:

• the total number of treats today compared to yesterday;
• her miles per hour rate during on-leash walks versus her rate when taking off-leash hikes in the woods; 
• how many times a human can throw a ball before exhaustion sets in; and
• the parabolic trajectory of a thrown ball in order to catch it before it hits the ground.