The June newsletter includes updates from the Opportunity Culture Dashboard; a welcome to new Opportunity Culture Sites; tools and resources; Opportunity Culture news, and more.
What’s Happening
Opportunity Culture® News and Views
Building a Tutoring Culture; Strong District-Level Support for Student Success: April Opportunity Culture® Newsletter
The April newsletter includes a new module for scalable, sustainable tutoring; new publications and blogs; tools and resources; Opportunity Culture news, and more.
New Publications: How Strong District Opportunity Culture® Leadership Helped Pave the Way for Low-Performing Schools to Succeed
When Dr. Tina Lupton and Dr. Timisha Barnes-Jones joined the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, Opportunity Culture implementation was happening in the midst of Covid. Lupton, the executive director of professional learning, and Barnes-Jones, the area superintendent for a network of 15 transformation schools, used their experience in other Opportunity Culture districts to help the schools make some adjustments. By the following year, three of those Opportunity Culture schools came off North Carolina’s “low-performing” list; nine of the 11 schools implementing Opportunity Culture models either met or exceeded the bar set by the state for expected student learning growth—results they attribute in part to these models.
New Opportunity Culture® Audio: Public Impact® Module Helps Schools Create a Tutoring Culture
Former Multi-Classroom Leader® Okema Owens Simpson led the development of Public Impact’s on-demand module, Building a Scalable, Sustainable Tutoring Culture for All. In this podcast, Simpson provides an overview of the Multi-Classroom Leader® role and the power of small-group, in-school tutoring through MCL teams, as a preview for watching the module and understanding our SIMPLE framework for building a tutoring culture. Listen here.
Opportunity Culture® Audio: Now On Podcast Services
Opportunity Culture Audio is now on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and more podcast services! Hear from Opportunity Culture educators as they share what they do and what they have they learned about successfully redesigning school roles to reach all students with excellent teaching. Subscribe to Opportunity Culture Audio as we address some of the stickiest issues facing education!
How District Support Aids Opportunity Culture® Educators: March Opportunity Culture® Newsletter
The March newsletter includes information about an upcoming module, several new Opportunity Culture materials, spring resources, and media highlights. See an excerpt below.
Opportunity Culture® Models Bring a Team Approach to the Science of Reading
In North Carolina, a newfound focus on the science of reading led to the mandated use of the professional learning program LETRS, or Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling. Making the shift from “balanced literacy” to instruction based on the science of reading takes significant time and training—adding strain on Covid-weary teachers, as Education Week reported.
With their team-based approach, Opportunity Culture schools can ease some of that stress. Opportunity Culture schools place teachers with proven records of student growth in Multi-Classroom Leader® (MCL) roles, leading small teams of teachers and paraprofessionals. Read more…
Kids Need Tutoring. Few Kids Get Tutoring. Opportunity Culture® Models Can Help.
Despite a steady national drumbeat about the power of high-dosage tutoring to help students rebound from the dramatic post-Covid learning dip, the National Center for Education Statistics reported on Wednesday that such tutoring reaches only about one in 10 students. Although 37 percent of schools reported that they offer high-dosage tutoring—that is, at least a half-hour of one-on-one or small-group instruction three times a week with a trained educator—not even a third of students in those schools receive the tutoring. Read more…
The Science of Reading Comes Alive! Read the January OC Newsletter
The January newsletter includes a new Opportunity Culture video about the science of reading, a prompt for Opportunity Culture principals, winter resources, and media highlights.
New Video: Using Opportunity Culture® Roles to Support Science of Reading-Based Instruction
The science of reading has “come alive” at Lucama Elementary, in North Carolina’s Wilson County Schools, after the principal and her team of Multi-Classroom Leaders led the use of multiple curricula and data-driven small-group instruction and interventions—resulting in strong student learning growth. Watch our new video here to learn more!