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Opportunity Culture® News and Views

Arkansas, Texas, Virginia, and North Carolina School Systems Join National Opportunity Culture® Initiative

by | May 12, 2022

By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, May 12, 2022

Eleven school districts and a charter management organization in Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, and Arkansas are the latest to join the national Opportunity Culture initiative, led by Public Impact, which extends the reach of excellent teachers and their teams to more students, for more pay, within recurring budgets. Some sites also include yearlong, paid residencies for aspiring teachers, allowing them to learn on the job in a teaching team led by an excellent teacher. Fifty-five districts and charter school organizations in 10 states now use Opportunity Culture models in their schools, increasing student learning growth and access to small-group tutoring, and creating career paths for teachers and paraprofessionals that let them advance without having to leave the classroom.

Annual Opportunity Culture® Dashboard 2021-22 Update: Opportunity Culture® Growth—By the Numbers

by | May 12, 2022

By Public Impact, May 12, 2022

As districts seek innovations to bolster student academics and bring support and joy to students and teachers, the Opportunity Culture model continues to spread and produce results, even in another challenging pandemic year.

Each year, Public Impact analyzes Opportunity Culture data to improve its materials and its work with schools and districts. With the overarching goal of reaching all students with high-growth learning, Public Impact has expanded the Opportunity Culture initiative’s participating schools (including those committed to but not yet implementing Opportunity Culture designs) by 50 percent each year, on average—helping schools and districts make changes that educators love, with increased career opportunities and support.

Watch: Introduction to Opportunity Culture® Models + Residency: A Webinar

by | May 12, 2022

By Public Impact, May 12, 2022

How are Opportunity Culture models—which bring excellent teaching to many more students, with sustainably higher pay for educators—helping Texas schools and students even in a time of pandemic stress and teacher shortages? And how can they help schools around the country strengthen their teacher pipelines as well?

How Opportunity Culture® Redesigns Help Address Teacher Shortages

by | April 7, 2022

By Public Impact, April 7, 2022

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. This struggle has been worsening for years. According to one report, the share of schools that tried to fill a vacancy but couldn’t tripled from 2011 to 2016, from 3.1 percent to 9.4 percent, and the share of schools that reported that it was “very difficult” to fill a vacancy nearly doubled, from 19.7 percent to 36.2 percent. Those vacancies directly harm students’ learning.

What could take weary principals out of chronic emergency hiring mode? A chance to rethink staffing to give students excellent instruction using the number of adults a school has. Read More…

Teacher-Assistant Partnership Helps Students Grow

by | March 29, 2022

By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, March 28, 2022

In August 2021, Angela Caldwell, an Opportunity Culture expanded-impact kindergarten teacher at Montlieu Academy of Technology in Guilford County, North Carolina, found herself unexpectedly on her own with a classroom of 22 students, after her teaching assistant left just as the school year began.

So she felt relief that fall when interviewing Lora Terry, who had worked for many years in day care settings. The two clicked, Caldwell said, with Terry making it very clear what she would need to do the job of an assistant well—clear expectations, communication, and clarification. Read More…

Watch: Trends in the Teacher Workforce Webinar

by | March 18, 2022

By Public Impact, March 17, 2022

A recording of February’s “Trends in the Teacher Workforce” webinar, featuring a panel discussion moderated by Public Impact’s Alison Harris Welcher, is available now; click here to watch it and read EdNC’s report on the event, hosted by The Belk Foundation.

The panelists discussed strategies for recruiting and retaining teachers in North Carolina, including teacher residencies.

That’s a strategy that multiple Opportunity Culture school districts in Texas now use. Unlike traditional student-teacher roles, Opportunity Culture residencies are yearlong, paid positions on teaching teams led by multi-classroom leaders.

2 Opportunity Culture® Educators Among 9 Regional N.C. Principals of the Year

by | February 28, 2022

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 | February 25, 2022

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.