His research focuses on large-scale, network-based improvement initiatives as operated by comprehensive school reform providers, charter management organizations, and education management organizations. He is the author of Seeing Complexity in Public Education: Problems, Possibilities, and Success for All (Oxford University Press, 2011) and a coauthor of Improvement by Design: The Promise of Better Schools (University of Chicago Press, 2014). Previously, Peurach was an assistant professor at Michigan State University and Eastern Michigan University, a high school mathematics teacher, and a systems analyst.