Susan Hendricks was the principal of Ross Elementary in Ector County, Texas, before becoming the district’s director of leadership in August. Under her leadership, Ross Elementary received high ratings on the annual, anonymous survey given to Opportunity Culture educators. Henricks credits that success to having structures in place that the whole school understands and committing to the belief that the Opportunity Culture initiative is “who you are.”
Opportunity Culture Audio
#5. Comprehensive Communications Strengthen Opportunity Culture® School
Principal Julie Shields leads a school that ranks very high on Opportunity Culture surveys for communicating its Opportunity Culture plans and impact. She spoke with Public Impact about how she thinks through a communications strategy to keep Opportunity Culture implementation strong over many years.
#4. Advice from an Opportunity Culture® Director
As Anne Claire Tejtel Nornhold, who leads the Opportunity Culture work in Baltimore City Public Schools, prepared to move out of that role in spring 2022, she spoke with Public Impact about what worked well and her advice for other district Opportunity Culture directors. Listen to her reflections in our latest Opportunity Culture Audio piece, with her advice on focusing on a strong selection and accountability process, support for multi-classroom leaders, and having high-quality district-level Opportunity Culture support.
#3. How Opportunity Culture® Redesigns Help Address Teacher Shortages
What if you could improve student outcomes even in a time of rising teacher shortages? Many schools and districts report feeling stuck on the hamster wheel of trying to fill all their open positions—a struggle that has been worsening for years. Listen to this recording of our post about the solution that could take principals out of chronic emergency hiring mode, and how two principals have used that solution.
#2. Teacher-Assistant Partnership Helps Students Grow
Angela Caldwell, an Opportunity Culture expanded-impact kindergarten teacher in Guilford County, North Carolina, and her teaching assistant, Lora Terry, speak with Public Impact about their teaching partnership and the impact they see small-group tutoring making on student learning growth.
#1. An Opportunity Culture® Principal Reflects
In this first Opportunity Culture Audio piece, we hear from Jenny O’Meara, who until 2021 served as a principal for a middle school using Opportunity Culture roles. O’Meara worked in Edgecombe County Public Schools in a rural part of North Carolina, which has taken its Opportunity Culture implementation district-wide.