From Odessa American, by Ruth Campbell, November 7, 2024
Now in its fifth year of implementing Opportunity Culture, Ector County ISD got some visitors from across the state and country Thursday to see how it’s done.
Educators from Florida and Fort Worth and officials from the Texas Education Agency and Public Impact, which deploys the Opportunity Culture initiative, were in town.
The Opportunity Culture model multiplies the impact of highly effective teachers, thereby improving student performance. It also enhances efforts to recruit and retain highly qualified instructors by offering career advancement opportunities, sustainable higher pay, and on-the-job professional development and support, a news release said.
The delegation visited Ross Elementary, Bowie Middle School and Permian High School to see how it works.
Chandler Rowan, consulting manager with Public Impact, said Opportunity Culture is a national initiative that started in North Carolina. It has been started at districts in Arkansas, Texas and Arizona, to name a few, in districts large and small.
Stephanie Dean, senior vice president of Opportunity Culture policy and outreach at Public Impact, said they now have 366 schools that are certified as Opportunity Culture schools.
“We’re able to look at our data and know which characteristics of design correlate with the best student learning results, and as a way to encourage schools, when they go through their design process, to adhere to those characteristics. … Almost 20% of those schools are in Texas … and ECISD has been a major part of that. Schools that are implementing Opportunity Culture are transforming their roles, their pay, their budgets and their schedules,” Dean said.
Whitaker Brown, consulting manager with Public Impact, said they have been organizing the visit to West Texas for a while. They stopped at Midland ISD on Nov. 6. This is a chance for educators to see Opportunity Culture in action and find out what is working for districts and students.
Ross Principal Raquel Rodriguez gave the group an overview of the campus. She said about 77 percent of the students are economically disadvantaged and students are quite mobile.
“Just this last month, we had 100 new students. What is very important to us here at Ross is that we build this system where there is incredible teaching going on in every classroom. What is important to us here at Ross is that we create this environment for our students where they feel safe and welcome,” Rodriguez said.
Brown from Public Impact said he was really struck by how well Ross has implemented Opportunity Culture.
“I think the schedules, the way they use time, the collaboration that we saw in the small group, both in the classroom and also in their PLC meetings, I think it is such a testament. This has been year five and they have continued to be really consistent with the components of design that we know are leading to student outcomes. I think it’s been really neat to be able to actually see the people doing the work, and be able to observe that in action,” Brown said.
PLC stands for Professional Learning Communities.
He was pleased they had educators from Florida join the group.
“We are now starting to speak more broadly nationally, as you saw the map. We’re in a lot of different districts across the country and I think as we go to different events or speak on different panels, piquing the interest of a lot of districts and school leaders who attend those to say, this is something I want to learn a little bit more about … I think that’s a big piece of what a lot of folks ask us is … we hear it, we see the vision, but we’d love to actually see it in action. I think here in Ector County, we continue to highlight them as a spotlight of where this work is working well, where they’re getting great results for students and for teachers. It really is a great kind of spotlight for showcasing that for people who want to see it and are interested in it so people are flying from Florida to come here to be able to see the work,” Brown said.
Click here for information on attending upcoming site visits to districts using Opportunity Culture® models.