The Researcher Who Never Left the Classroom

I'm John Lambersky. I'm a practicing teacher with a PhD in education, a published scholar, and a certified principal.My doctoral research examined key features of school culture: how to improve teacher morale, efficacy, commitment, and retention, in order to reach every student. That work was published in Leadership and Policy in Schools. My book on research and writing, Style & Substance: Finding and Joining the Academic Conversation is assigned reading at several universities. In 2017, I founded The Young Researcher, a pioneering scholarly journal for students by students, which has reached more than 300,000 readers and built a partnership with Harvard University. I'm currently directing a longitudinal study of graduate outcomes, following alumni well beyond the destination list.I've been a Department Head at CAIS/CIS schools for over a decade, and served a term as Director of Advancement. I've built programs and evaluated them: I launched AP Capstone at my school and grew it from a pilot to forty per cent school-wide participation. I've been active in every part of school life, from coaching to curriculum to working with leadership and boards, and I've presented at NAIS, CAIS, IBSC and AP conferences on curriculum and teacher development.I know what works in classrooms because I'm still in one. I know what the research says because I've contributed to it.I help schools bridge that gap.

The Better Schools Report

A look at what the research actually says about the questions schools care about most: why teachers leave, what families are really telling you, what happens to graduates after the destination list, and whether anyone can yet say what AI is doing to learning.Read the report(Free, 37 pages, no email required.)

What I Offer:
Evidence-Based School Improvement

Most schools are so busy they make important decisions based on anecdotes and intuition. Let's do better than that.Three key groups show us what's going well and what we should change: the families who choose it, the people who teach in it, and the graduates it sends into the world. I study all three with the same rigour, and I help build the academic programs that act on what they reveal.

Family Experience Study

Families don't just "enrol": they choose you, and every year they choose again. Through surveys and interviews with new and current families, I help you understand what drew them in, what their experience has actually been, and what would make them stay and recommend you. We're looking to make sure the lived experience matches the promise – and to find out where it doesn't.Ideal for schools facing enrolment pressure, strengthening their onboarding and admissions experience, or wanting to understand why families choose them, and why some leave.

School Culture Diagnostic

Now, more than ever, teacher retention is your competitive advantage. Through systematic surveys and in-depth interviews, I help you understand what's actually happening in your school culture. You receive a comprehensive diagnostic report with specific, actionable recommendations grounded in both data and research.Ideal for schools facing turnover, leadership transitions, or wanting to strengthen faculty morale and commitment.

Graduate Outcomes Research

Most schools are aware of inputs – what we do for students, what our programs look like overall – but they don't have the time or the objectivity to systematically track the results: how well they're preparing students for what comes next.Through surveys and interviews with recent graduates, I help you understand what's working, what isn't, and how your current curriculum and programming should evolve based on the student experience. Without an eye on these results, the day-to-day decision making can be untethered to the needs of your students.This key information – student experience, student success, student struggles – informs strategic planning, accreditation self-studies, curriculum development, and advancement messaging with evidence rather than assumption.Ideal for schools preparing for accreditation, strategic planning cycles, or wanting to close the feedback loop between your program and student outcomes.

Academic Program Design

Studies tell you what's true. This is where I help you act on it.Understandably, schools increasingly want their students to do real intellectual work: to research, to write, and to think for themselves. Building a program that grows these skills is hard, and ever-more complex in an age of generative AI. This is the work I know best. I help schools design and strengthen writing and research programs (AP Capstone, independent study, extended essays, student scholarship, writing across the curriculum) and take on broader curriculum and assessment work where it serves the school.Ideal for schools launching or deepening a research or writing program, building a culture of student scholarship, or strengthening curriculum and assessment more broadly.

Approach

My work is driven by passion, not the need for scale. I focus on schools that are serious about improvement and ready to act on findings. I believe in the moral necessity of building better schools, for now and for the future.I believe in evidence-based practice: findings a school can act on, not a report that sits on a shelf. We are looking for quick wins alongside longer-term sustainable change, rooted in data, not merely gut instinct.