In Building Better PL: How to Strengthen Teacher Learning, researchers Heather Hill and John Papay highlight six key design features of effective professional learning, or PL. Those features fall under two general principles for effective PL—it supports teachers’ day-to-day practice, and it involves accountability for change and improvement. Opportunity Culture schools, which provide routine, job-embedded PL through multi-classroom leader teams, notably hit the mark for those two principles and each of the key features.
Sharon Kebschull Barrett
Fidelity and Collaboration: Opportunity Culture® Directors Share Advice on Common Challenges
by Sharon Kebschull Barrett, October 17, 2022
Whether in districts large or small, rural or urban, Opportunity Culture directors often travel similar arcs from initial design issues to implementation challenges and successes. At the September virtual gathering of Opportunity Culture directors, four panelists shared how Opportunity Culture implementation has improved their district recruitment, teacher support, and student success, and discussed the collaboration needed among district offices, accountability concerns, and how their roles have changed.
Texas Opportunity Culture® District Trumpets Recruitment Success
By Paola Gilliam and Sharon Kebschull Barrett, September 14, 2022
After struggling with teacher shortages for years, Ector County Independent School District (ISD) in Odessa, Texas, announced its best recruiting year in over a decade. In an Odessa American article, Superintendent Scott Muri attributed the recruiting success of about 450 teachers to several strategies, including Opportunity Culture implementation and pay raises.
2 Opportunity Culture® Educators Among 9 Regional N.C. Principals of the Year
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, February 28, 2022
Congratulations to KaTrinka Brown, Piedmont-Triad Region Principal of the Year, and Larenda Denien, Southwest Region Principal of the Year! The awards place Brown and Denien in the running for North Carolina Principal of the Year, announced in May.
I spoke to both principals recently, and as you’ll read in spotlights of each, a common theme in their leadership success quickly emerged: the power of relationships.
An Opportunity Culture® Principal Reflects
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, February 25, 2022
Kicking off the new “Opportunity Culture Audio” pieces that we’ll begin sharing from time to time this year, our first piece highlights Jenny O’Meara, who until 2021 served as a principal for a middle school using Opportunity Culture roles.
O’Meara, who was an Opportunity Culture Fellow in 2019–20, worked in Edgecombe County Public Schools in a rural part of North Carolina, which has taken its Opportunity Culture implementation district-wide. After stepping away from her principalship, she sat for an interview about her Opportunity Culture experience, including reflections on working with her school’s first multi-classroom leader, or MCL, and valuable lessons to share with current principals.
Resetting Teaching: Mitigating the Great Resignation
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, February 14, 2022
Making sense of the conflicting reports about teacher shortages and resignations may take many more months, but CNET took a solid look in The Great Resignation Hasn’t Hit School Teachers Yet. Here’s Why It Still Might. It highlights Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture initiative as one approach to “bringing a reset to the role of teachers,” and quotes Anne Claire Tejtel Nornhold, who leads Opportunity Culture work in Baltimore City Public Schools.
“Everybody is Traumatized”: Opportunity Culture® Fellows on Keeping On
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, January 25, 2022
With ongoing Covid-related stresses this year, many Opportunity Culture educators have wondered how much their challenges match those of other Opportunity Culture schools. Before the winter break, educators from multiple cohorts of Opportunity Culture Fellows gathered online to share their experiences and support one another—and found their stresses mirrored much of what has been in the news for months.
Short Video: N.C. Superintendents of the Year on Using Opportunity Culture® Models
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, December 9, 2021
When Dr. Tony Jackson, then superintendent of Vance County Schools, was named the 2020 A. Craig Phillips North Carolina Superintendent of the Year, we at Public Impact were delighted—but hardly surprised. Having worked with Jackson since 2016 to help the district implement Opportunity Culture models, we knew the powerful effect his leadership had on this northeastern North Carolina district, on the Virginia border.
A great teacher reflects on remote instruction shortfalls
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, first published by EducationNC, September 22, 2021
Jimmel Williams knows great teachers. After all, he is one, with the student results to show for it. But last fall, he says now, his teaching fell short.
With his Charlotte students all learning remotely, his efforts felt off, though he couldn’t fully put his finger on what wasn’t working. He kept making changes each week to get students more engaged in their learning, but the tweaks weren’t enough. Finally, he realized what he needed — to both take tighter control and give some up. Read More…
Quick Take: Why One Texas Teacher Loved Her Opportunity Culture® Residency
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, March 29, 2021
Coming into her final semester of college as a student at the University of Texas Permian Basin in fall 2020, Chelsea McMahan decided to forgo a traditional student teaching post, applying instead for a full-time, paid, Opportunity Culture teacher residency in a fourth-grade class in the Midland, Texas, independent school district (ISD).
Six months later, McMahan found herself—as a newly minted, full-time sixth-grade teacher at another Midland school—standing before the district’s school board extolling the benefits of her residency. Read more…