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Opportunity Culture® Year in Review

by | June 19, 2019

By Paola Gilliam, June 24, 2019

Congratulations to all educators for completing another great school year or reaching a summer intercession in Opportunity Culture® schools! It’s always exciting to watch what schools using Opportunity Culture® do to improve schooling for their teachers and students. Here are just a few highlights of Opportunity Culture® news and resources from the year.

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How many reached?
New Opportunity Culture® Districts
Opportunity Culture® Fellows
Remotely Located Multi-Classroom Leadership Pilot
Rethinking Teacher Residencies Using Opportunity Culture®
Help for Summer Planning for Principals and Multi-Classroom Leaders
Opportunity Culture® in Action

Extending the Reach of Excellent Teaching

In the 2018-19 school year, more than 1,800 teachers received advanced roles or on-the-job development through Opportunity Culture®, and more than 56,000 students were reached by at least one Opportunity Culture® teacher. As Opportunity Culture® continues to spread to more districts and schools, thank you to all Opportunity Culture® educators for leading the way in reaching more students with excellent teaching!

New Opportunity Culture® Districts

This year, the school districts of Forrest City, Lead Hill, and Lincoln in Arkansas joined the Opportunity Culture® initiative. North Carolina added three new districts—Halifax County, Hertford County, and Lexington City Schools. More districts will be formally announced later. Welcome to all these districts!

Opportunity Culture® Fellows

We recently announced our newest cohort of Opportunity Culture® Fellows. Fellows provide support to their cohort, take one another’s ideas back to their schools, write columns about their experiences, and speak locally and nationally about their Opportunity Culture® roles. Their feedback and leadership are invaluable in helping to improve the Opportunity Culture® initiative, and all materials related to it. This year’s fellows come from Arizona, Illinois, and four North Carolina school districts, and will join all previous cohorts at a convening in September. Check out the trove of Opportunity Culture® Fellows’ columns here.

Remotely Located Multi-Classroom Leadership Pilot

In spring, the College Board and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics joined with Public Impact®’s Opportunity Culture® initiative to test aspects of Remotely Located Multi-Classroom Leadership, with a math teacher from the School of Science and Mathematics leading a team of five precalculus teachers located at four rural schools spread across North Carolina. Midway through the semester, Sharon Kebschull Barrett, vice president of editorial services & communications at Public Impact®, checked in to hear early impressions of the pilot’s benefits and challenges in this piece published on EducationNC.

Rethinking Teacher Residencies Using Opportunity Culture®

Building on our vision released in 2016 for teacher and principal residencies, we published more detailed materials: a summary of the teacher residency paths, an introductory slide deck, and job descriptions. And don’t miss 3 short videos from educators on the early-career benefits of multi-classroom leader teams and residencies.

Help for Summer Planning for Principals and Multi-Classroom Leaders

Looking for resources you can use for summer planning to start strong with Opportunity Culture® next year? The Opportunity Culture® website provides an instructional leadership and excellence section to help! Check out other summer planning tools below.

Summer planning tools for multi-classroom leaders:

Summer planning tools for principals:

Don’t miss new short videos—and keep checking back as we continue to post more clips throughout the year! Recent video clips include Opportunity Culture® educators talking about difficult conversations, behavior management protocols, behavioral event interviews, and much, much more!

Opportunity Culture® in Action

It’s been great to see the ways districts highlight their Opportunity Culture® work! Check out some examples below.

  • Vance County Schools created a website for information on Opportunity Culture® in their district, including videos, frequently asked questions, and an integrated application for Opportunity Culture® roles.
  • In a series of short videos from Guilford County Schools, Multi-Classroom Leaders Fred Hoffman of Ferndale Middle School (just named as an Opportunity Culture® Fellow), Ashley Ekwem-Thorpe of Hairston Middle School, Jessica Grant of Falkener Elementary School, and Mecia Moore of Jackson Middle School discuss the impact their role has on teachers and students.
  • In Arizona, the Office of the Maricopa County School Superintendent publishes a regular newsletter that features information on Opportunity Culture® in their district.
  • Edgecombe County Public Schools publishes a seasonal newsletter that provides updates and information on Opportunity Culture® as well as other aspects of Innovation ECPS.

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