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How to keep teachers: Provide a complete package

From District Administration, by Dr. Stephanie Howard, September 12, 2025

District leaders say they want to keep great teachers. But how often do actions match the promise?

Too often, districts spend far more time doing what it takes to recruit teachers than to retain, equip and empower them. To retain teachers, they need a complete package of preparation, support, career growth and compensation—and now we know how to do just this.

Our profession has operated on a revolving-door mentality—a person leaves and we hire a person to replace them—instead of thinking about how we can build on the expertise we already have and using our best talent to impact more people.

With these teams, leaders and teachers can earn more by extending their reach to more students, and we make sure the extra pay is sustainable by reallocating regular budgets.

Advanced paraprofessionals and paid, yearlong teacher residents focus on leading small-group tutoring, providing meaningful support to their teams and creating a clear path into teaching—where they feel set up for success from day one.

The good news is that this complete package of educator support leads to powerful results for students. In Midland ISD, we have seen this firsthand since resetting our Opportunity Culture staffing model; 18 of 22 schools saw learning gains. One school went from a state-assigned “D” letter grade to a B, increasing by 25 points; many others went up by at least 12 points.

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ECISD seeing results from Opportunity Culture

From Odessa American, by Ruth Campbell, September 12, 2025

In the six years since it introduced Opportunity Culture, Ector County ISD now has 25 campuses in the initiative. Opportunity Culture, according to the ECISD website, is an innovative approach to staffing that multiplies the impact of highly effective teachers, improving student performance.

“Opportunity Culture 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,” the site says.

The district refers to groups of schools using Opportunity Culture as cohorts. Talent Development Director Mayra Leyva said the district added two new campuses this year. Adding campuses depends on the school and whether there is a need. That excludes specialized high schools like Odessa Collegiate Academy, OCTECHS and New Tech Odessa. Through the work that Leyva and her predecessor Susan Hendricks have done, they have tightened up their accountability and expectations, Executive Director of Talent Development Scott Rudes said.

“That has led to a renewed focus on not just student outcomes but teacher effectiveness. The purpose of having a multi-classroom leader on the team is to increase teacher effectiveness. We now have systems that have been put in place over the last year that have really renewed our focus on those outcomes,” Rudes said.

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A classroom staffing model is improving outcomes for teachers and students

From EdNC, by Sergio Osnaya-Prieto, July 31, 2025

What would happen if schools changed the way they staffed a classroom? What if instead of the traditional method — one teacher leading a classroom — a whole team of teachers were available to support students?

Teacher-led teams are yielding “top-tier results nationally,” according to a press release from Public Impact, the Chapel Hill-based research firm that designed this Opportunity Culture model. More than a decade’s worth of data reveal the model produces additional student learning growth, better educator satisfaction rates, lower turnover and vacancy rates, and growing pay supplements.

“Teacher-led teams are essential to scaling excellent teaching to all students,” said Bryan Hassel, co-president of Public Impact and founder of the Opportunity Culture initiative. “Over 12 years, 10,000 educators in urban, rural, and suburban schools have used their voices to help us get this right for their students.”

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Multi-Classroom Leaders help to improve MISD student success

From First Alert 7, by Rachel Fortunato, February 12, 2025

MIDLAND, Texas (KOSA) – Over the past few years, MISD has been teaching its teachers how to be Multi-Classroom Leaders otherwise known as MCLs. The district says teachers that have become Multi-Classroom Leaders have led to student success overall. The program allows teachers to serve as coaches and mentors for other teachers and train them in proven instructional techniques.

“What a great way to help other teachers,” said Emily Terry, an MCL and 6th Grade Math Teacher for Midland ISD.

Read the full story here…

District of the Year: Ector County ISD

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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Educators get first-hand look at ECISD Opportunity Culture

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.

MISD welcomes visitors to highlight strategic staffing initiative

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.

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

Fort Worth ISD needs to improve. Could this plan help teachers step up their game?

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.

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How Team-Based Teaching Can Support Student Learning and Reduce Teacher Burnout

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.

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Meet the CMS school ‘making dreams come true’ — and surging up NC’s rating system

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…