From The Hill, March 13, 2021, by Thomas Toch and Lynn Olson
The nonprofit Public Impact has helped introduce the concept in 45 school districts and charter management organizations in 10 states, where lead instructors manage as many as eight teachers, paraprofessionals and teacher residents in the same grade or subject. These team leaders coach teachers and track students’ progress while earning larger pay checks. Before the pandemic, a national study found that the teaching teams boosted students’ math and reading results significantly. Read more…
How Schools Should Use Funds from the American Rescue Plan to Support Students
From Chiefs for Change, March 11, 2021
Chiefs for Change is grateful to President Biden for his leadership and to Congress for approving emergency relief aid that is commensurate with the tremendous challenges America’s schools are facing amid Covid-19.
As K-12 leaders prepare to receive their share of the $123 billion included in the American Rescue Plan, we developed this memo for states and districts. It is based on relevant research as well as insights and practices from our members’ systems. The memo outlines the areas systems should prioritize in order to best support students during the pandemic and prepare them to thrive in the years to come.
Analysis: Mentors, Team Teaching, 7-Week Class Cycles 12 Months a Year — Some School Innovations in Staffing and Scheduling During COVID-19
From The 74, March 10, 2021, by Lynn Olson
The coronavirus crisis is prompting schools and districts to embrace innovative staffing and scheduling strategies that are extending the reach of great teachers, leveraging co-teaching models in new ways and providing more support for students and educators. Read more…
Teacher Recruitment and Retention: Opportunity Culture®
From Issues Now! Podcast, February 24, 2021, hosted by Hannah Gray
On today’s episode we will be learning about a new initiative that is starting in Cumberland County Schools to address the issue of access to highly effective teachers for historically underrepresented students. Opportunity Culture is a program that addresses this issue while keeping equity at the center of its core beliefs. I am so excited about this initiative and look forward to how it will help students at my school and across Cumberland County. Listen to the podcast…
Teaching Innovation: New School Staffing Strategies Inspired by the Pandemic
From Future Ed, February 3, 2021, by Lynn Olson
Amid the profound disruption of the coronavirus pandemic, some schools and districts have responded with highly innovative staffing and scheduling strategies. They are extending the reach of great teachers, leveraging co-teaching models and teacher teams in new ways, and creating more flexible student groupings and more student-centric classrooms—all with the goal of playing to teachers’ strengths, better serving students, and providing more support for educators.
A new report from FutureEd and EducationCounsel, Teaching Innovation: New School Staffing Strategies Inspired by the Pandemic, explores these new staffing strategies, the conditions that enabled them, how educators have overcome barriers to the innovations, and what it would take to sustain and scale them post-pandemic.
Earle Area Schools Among Districts Joining Opportunity Culture® Initiative
From The Evening Times, February 1, 2021
As part of its commitment to implement Opportunity Culture in schools across the state, the Arkansas Department of Education is supporting its third cohort of school districts this year joining the national initiative to extend the reach of excellent teachers and their teams, for more pay, within regular school budgets. The school districts of Brinkley, Crossett, Earle and Osceola will begin implementing Opportunity Culture roles in the 2021–22 school year. The Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) committed to spreading Opportunity Culture in its Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan; Arkansas districts already using Opportunity Culture roles are North Little Rock, Forrest City, Gentry and Lincoln Consolidated. Read more (article behind paywall)…
The Pandemic Closed Our Doors But Opened Our Minds: Why My School District Will Not Return to ‘Normal’
From Ed Surge, December 30, 2020, by Scott Muri
Previously the superintendent of Spring Branch ISD, Scott Muri became the superintendent of Ector County ISD in spring 2019. He implemented Opportunity Culture in both districts.
Educators around the globe knew this school year would be like nothing we had ever experienced. In the face of a worldwide pandemic, how do school districts properly balance the well-founded fears of staff and families with the equally well-founded evidence that children need schools to learn and to grow academically, socially and emotionally? A health crisis running headlong into an education crisis: Welcome to the 2020-2021 school year. Read the full article…
Greater Waco-area draws $2.2 million grant from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
From KXXV, December 3, 2020, by Garrett Hottle
Greater Waco will be utilizing a $2.2 million grant over three years from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to improve the teacher workforce and the pipeline of qualified teachers in McLennan County.
An Opportunity Culture grant will fund a creative staffing model with a focus on supporting sustainable and affordable residencies for candidates at both the La Vega and Waco ISD school districts. Read the full article…
Cumberland County Schools Joins Forces with Opportunity Culture® to Increase Student Success
From Cumberland County Schools, December 1, 2020
To provide all students with excellent teaching and to help students close achievement gaps and leap ahead, our schools are creating an Opportunity Culture for their teachers and students. Opportunity Culture models enable schools to reach every student with excellent teachers and their teams—consistently—while paying teachers more for their extra responsibilities, and helping all educators improve on the job and work collaboratively. All pay supplements are funded through reallocations of existing budgets–no temporary grants. Read the full press release…
MISD Adds 8 Campuses to Opportunity Culture®
From Midland Independent School District, November 30, 2020