In the Media

From K-12 Dive, by Anna Merod, November 27, 2024

Five years ago, Texas’ Ector County Independent School District was significantly underperforming, said Scott Muri, the district’s superintendent emeritus. Today, it’s a different story.

When Muri joined as the district’s superintendent in 2019, he said, students were “struggling academically in school,” and “all the metrics were heading in the wrong direction.” That same year, the Texas Education Agency gave Ector County ISD an F accountability rating. 

But now, Ector County ISD, with about 34,000 students, is on the upswing. Signs point to significantly improved student achievement, and the district earned its first-ever B rating from TEA in 2022, the most recent year rated. …

Tutoring is not the only effective strategy that Muri says has helped shape students’ rising success. Strategic staffing through the district’s Opportunity Culture program has significantly influenced student growth, too, he said. 

In this program, the district’s most effective teachers instruct half-time and then coach and mentor other educators the rest of the day. Ector County ISD’s program launched over four years ago in partnership with Public Impact, a staffing organization based in North Carolina, Muri said.

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From Odessa American, by Ruth Campbell, November 7, 2024

Now in its fifth year of implementing Opportunity Culture, Ector County ISD got some visitors from across the state and country Thursday to see how it’s done.

Educators from Florida and Fort Worth and officials from the Texas Education Agency and Public Impact, which deploys the Opportunity Culture initiative, were in town.

The Opportunity Culture model multiplies the impact of highly effective teachers, thereby improving student performance. It also enhances efforts to recruit and retain highly qualified instructors by offering career advancement opportunities, sustainable higher pay, and on-the-job professional development and support, a news release said.

Read the full article here…

Click here for information on attending upcoming site visits to districts using Opportunity Culture^®​ models.

From Odessa American, November 7, 2024

The visit included campus tours, observing classrooms at South Elementary and Alamo Junior High, and interacting with Multi-Classroom Leaders (MCLs). MCLs are high-performing teachers who are selected to lead and coach groups of teachers to train them on instructional strategies and ongoing mentorship. Aside from the leadership opportunities, MCLs also earn financial stipends of up to $17,000 per year.

Visitors also had the opportunity to learn how the Opportunity Culture model can be implemented in their own districts. Topics of discussion included training and selection of MCLs, instructional support, and strategic staffing all designed to improve student outcomes.

Read the full article…

Click here for information on attending upcoming site visits to districts using Opportunity Culture^®​ models.

From Fort Worth Star-Telegram, by Silas Allen, November 4, 2024

As officials in the Fort Worth Independent School District look for ways to improve academic progress, they’re pinning hopes on a new staffing model designed to ensure that more kids get a high-quality teacher.

The model, called Opportunity Culture, is based on the idea of having a few highly effective teachers spend part of the day acting as coaches and mentors for other educators in their building. The district is piloting the model at three campuses this year, with plans to expand if it’s successful.

Although Fort Worth ISD leaders say it’s too early to say how the program is going here, education researchers say it’s shown promise elsewhere.

Read the full article here…

From The 74 Million, By Chad Aldeman September 24, 2024

Schools have been dealing with a number of unique challenges over the last few years. Labor shortages. Low morale. Declining student enrollment. Meanwhile, they’re trying to re-engage students and get them back on track academically.

If I told you there was one education reform that had the potential to address all these problems at once, you might think I was crazy. But shifting away from the one-classroom, one-teacher model in favor of a team-based approach, with different roles and responsibilities for various team members, has all these benefits and more. 

How can schools realize this potential? To find out, I spoke with leaders of three team-based teaching models — Kristan Van Hook from the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP), Bryan Hassel from Opportunity Culture and Brent Maddin from Arizona State University’s Next Education Workforce. Collectively, they have helped hundreds of schools transition away from one-classroom, one-teacher staffing plans.

Read the full article here…

From The Charlotte Observer, by Rebecca Noel September 16, 2024

Note: this article includes an interview with Stevie Roper, a multi-classroom leader educator. To hear more from Ms. Roper, see here.

There are some descriptors you might expect when you ask teachers what it’s like to work at their school. “It’s like Disney World,” probably isn’t one of them. LaToya Wright, assistant principal at Paw Creek Elementary School in northwest Charlotte, says it really is the most magical place on earth.

“You can sit in a class and see a light bulb come on for a child you’ve been working with right in front of you,” she said. “Seeing them grow… we really are making dreams come true.” It also has its fair share of characters, Wright says. Though they’re typically not in costume.

The school is a feather in CMS’ cap when it comes to accountability grades from the state this year. Paw Creek Elementary climbed two letter grades over two years in the State Department of Public Instruction’s accountability ratings — from a D grade in 2022 following the pandemic to a B for 2024. It’s on target to achieve an A rating in student math proficiency by next year. The school also received a score of 100 for learning growth in 2024, the highest score possible. It ranked first in CMS for growth and in the top 1% of schools in the state for growth in 2023.

Read the full article here…

From The 74, by Chad Aldeman, September 10, 2024

In this interactive article, The 74 calculated school districts’ expected reading proficiency rates, based on their local poverty rates, and compared that to their actual third grade reading scores to identify districts that are beating the odds and successfully teaching kids to read.  One of those districts in North Carolina is Wilson County Schools, which began using Opportunity Culture^® roles in 2021–22. Learn more here and here.

Read the article from The 74 here…

From WRAL News, September 8, 2024

Nash County Public Schools has made major strides in student achievement, according to recent data released by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

The district’s performance has improved dramatically, climbing from 108th to 33rd out of 115 districts statewide.

Read the full article here…

From EdNC, by Matthew Springer, July 17, 2024

…Strategic staffing practices have served as a catalyst for targeted interventions within K-12 education, from addressing the inequitable distribution and access to high-performing teachers to reconsidering conventional teaching paradigms. Promising approaches, such as North Carolina’s Advanced Teaching Roles Program, Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture, and innovative models led by the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, integrate and take advantage of strategic staffing practices by expanding teacher leadership, refining resource allocation, and enriching student learning opportunities. …

Read the full article here…

From EdNC, by Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan C. Hassel, July 8, 2024

Every year, hundreds of billions of dollars will evaporate from the U.S. economy due to permanent learning shortfalls post-COVID, by McKinsey’s calculation.

Research has shown high-dosage tutoring is crucial to addressing these shortfalls. In effective high-dosage tutoring, tutors provide students with at least 90 minutes of tutoring per week, aligned with the school’s curricula, in small groups based on their learning data, to build relationships and meet students’ instructional needs. Tutors grow their knowledge and skills through professional development and coaching.

But far too few students in North Carolina get this sort of tutoring.

Is there a way to get tutoring to everyone without increasing costs? Yes, by engaging all available adults to create a “tutoring culture”– for all, by all.

Read the full post here….