A record number of school systems will begin using Opportunity Culture® staffing designs this year, with 25 systems across New Mexico, North Carolina, and Oklahoma joining the Opportunity Culture in 2026® initiative—read more about this exciting news in our latest newsletter. Plus we shine a spotlight on Carlsbad Municipal School to reveal how district leaders, principals, and MCL™ teams supported changes that led to state-leading growth. All that, plus news, upcoming events, and tools to use now in our February 2026 newsletter!
Public Impact
Press Release: Record Number of School Systems to Begin Using Opportunity Culture® Staffing Design
February 3, 2026, CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—With state funding in New Mexico and North Carolina and private funding in Oklahoma, 25 school systems will join the national Opportunity Culture® initiative in 2026, extending the reach of excellent teaching to more students, for more pay, within regular budgets. The initiative’s designs have boosted student learning and reduced vacancies nationally.
In Oklahoma, applications are being accepted now for 16 school systems to receive support for innovative staffing redesign and professional learning for educators in new roles. Up to eight systems will begin planning their redesign, using proven Opportunity Culture models that fit district priorities, as early as February to implement in the 2026–27 school year, and the remainder will design this fall. The Oklahoma Public School Resource Center is conducting extensive outreach to school districts and charter networks statewide to encourage them to apply to Public Impact, founder of the Opportunity Culture initiative. Public Impact anticipates collaborating with many partner organizations to mesh this work with ongoing efforts in the state. A private philanthropy is funding the design work as well as an evaluation of the effect on student learning and teacher vacancies in Oklahoma.
In New Mexico, state leaders appropriated three years of funding for innovative staffing redesign to increase educator satisfaction and student learning. The Opportunity Culture initiative received the contract to support up to seven school systems in planning their redesigns. That includes Carlsbad Municipal Schools, which in 2023 became the first New Mexico system to use these models in three schools, leading to reduced teacher vacancies and increased student learning; the models will be in use in all its traditional schools by the 2026–27 school year. The state is also rolling out high-quality instructional materials and methods in some of the same schools, and funding will support evaluation of all sites’ outcomes.
In North Carolina, the Alamance-Burlington and Mooresville districts received state advanced teaching roles grants to plan their Opportunity Culture designs, joining 25 other districts, and more than 300 schools, already using the designs in the state. This grant program, now part of the state’s recurring budget, was created after Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) worked with Public Impact to become the first in the nation to use the designs in 2013–14. Its initial pilot was funded by local philanthropists and the district’s own investment. The state grant program has enjoyed consistent bipartisan support, increased pay for thousands of educators, and achieved strong schoolwide learning results overall.
Nationally, Public Impact expects more systems to join in 2026, and several other states are considering similar efforts.
Welcome to the Opportunity Culture® Portal
This short video offers a virtual tour of our online platform for supporting school design and professional learning for educators, with visits to the Design, Learn, Monitor and Tools rooms. Learn more about the portal here.
December 2025 Newsletter: How Teaching Teams Mesh for Success
In two new podcasts, hear superintendents from Carlsbad, New Mexico, and Madison Parish, Louisiana speak about how Opportunity Culture® staffing designs have led to state-leading student growth. In a new video, watch Carlsbad teaching team members as they support one another to drive student success. Plus catch the latest news on certification, upcoming events, and tools to use now. Read the December 2025 newsletter here!
Carlsbad Connections: How Teaching Teams Mesh for Success
In this video, MCL™ team members share how MCL™, MTRT, and RA™ roles support one another to drive student success, with their schools in Carlsbad, New Mexico, posting state-leading math and literacy results this year.
20. For Louisiana District, HQIM + Opportunity Culture® Teams Sparks Early Wins
When Charlie Butler returned to his hometown to become superintendent of the Madison Parish School District in northeastern Louisiana, he was looking for innovative ways to help the persistently low-performing system. With help from a state “instructional coherence cohort,” the district combined the support of Opportunity Culture® teaching teams with a focus on the implementation of high-quality instructional materials to address longstanding issues—and quickly started to see successes for both students and educators. In this podcast, district and state leaders describe how they worked together to make it happen.
So You Got High Learning Growth—Now What?
As learning growth results continue to come in across the U.S. for the 2024–25 year, educators in many high-growth schools may find their celebrations tinged with an edge of dread. They and their students worked so hard for their results—but what now?
Many organizations, not just schools, find sustaining high performance just as hard as achieving it. In schools, the challenges include:
19. Superintendents Speak: Vacancies Plummet, Student Results Rocket in Carlsbad, New Mexico
When Carlsbad Municipal Schools Superintendent Gerry Washburn joined the district, it was facing high teacher vacancies and low student success—and a lot of low morale. A chance conversation with Ector County, Texas, Superintendent Scott Muri showed Washburn a new option—Opportunity Culture® school redesign. With inclusive leadership and a determination to get design and implementation of new staffing roles right, plus a strong district team and principals, Washburn saw schools begin to soar and lead the state: “I’ve been stunned at the acceleration that we’re seeing.”
Redesigning school staffing for student success
From The Education Gadfly Show, October 22, 2025
In Episode #991 of The Education Gadfly Show, Bryan Hassel, co-president of Public Impact, joins the hosts Michael J. Petrilli, David Griffith, and Adam Tyner to discuss how redesigning school staffing—through models like Opportunity Culture®—can boost both teacher retention and student success. Listen to the episode here.
October 2025 Newsletter: With MCL™ Teams, Up to 3X Rate of High-Growth Learning
North Carolina schools with Certified Opportunity Culture School® status were two to three times more likely to exceed learning growth expectations than schools not using Opportunity Culture® staffing design—learn more in our latest newsletter. Plus, read our blog about Opportunity Culture® staffing models being discussed in the U.S. Senate; listen to a conversation with the Greene County, N.C., superintendent on our podcast; and check out an op-ed from the superintendent of Midland ISD in Texas. All this and more in the October 2025 newsletter!