Most
Opportunity Culture school models allow all teachers to succeed in teams — increasing the odds of widespread improvement in teaching and learning.
Teachers
in Opportunity Culture schools in Syracuse, N.Y.; Nashville, Tenn.; Charlotte, and Cabarrus County, N.C. now have career path options never available before.
Bryan Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel have written about
opportunity culture for Education Next here, here, and here.
TROY SMITH is a consultant with Public Impact, focusing on assisting districts and schools in implementing
Opportunity Culture models that extend the reach of excellent teachers and their teams.
The study compared student growth in classrooms led by teachers in
Opportunity Culture roles to student growth in non-Opportunity Culture classrooms.
Bryan Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel of Public Impact have written
about opportunity culture for Education Next here, here, and here.
But districts and states must deliberately change evaluation to match the team, team leader, and extended - reach roles that are common in schools
using Opportunity Culture models.
Example projects: Ms. Losoponkul has worked extensively with the Syracuse City School District to
create Opportunity Culture schools and provide professional development for turnaround school leaders and their leadership teams.
It reflects lessons drawn from one - teacher - one - classroom style evaluation as well as early experiences of
Opportunity Culture teachers and principals — to guide states, districts, and schools toward ensuring that evaluation supports everyone's success.
When we
launched Opportunity Culture, our goal was to boost student learning by extending the reach of excellent teachers to more students, for more pay, within schools» regular budgets.
She also leads the development of and ongoing updates to the data dashboard illustrating Public Impact's
Opportunity Culture work in schools across the U.S..
With Opportunity Culture models, schools can extend the reach of excellent teachers and the teams they lead to more students, for more pay, within budget (not temporary grants)-- making significant pay increases possible for all teachers.
Teacher leadership roles come to Edgecombe County: At Edgecombe County Public Schools, the first three of the district's schools to embark
on Opportunity Culture roles form a feeder pattern from elementary through high school, where, says Public Impact's Shonaka Ellison,» we're losing some really excellent teaching in schools.»
Public Impact has released a new suite of tools that guide districts and schools to achieve excellence in teaching and learning
as Opportunity Culture schools.
The full guide walks a district through the organizing steps and details of
designing Opportunity Culture pay and career paths that fit its needs and values.
The Harlandale Independent School District, in south - central San Antonio, Texas, has joined the
national Opportunity Culture initiative to extend the reach of excellent teachers and their teams to more students, for more pay, within recurring budgets.
«Through our support of
Opportunity Culture at the state level, our goal is to quantify success in districts by working collaboratively with teachers and principals to support greater student achievement for all students.»
• More than 150 teachers held advanced roles, and more than 300 other teachers were developed on the job
by Opportunity Culture (OC) teacher - leaders in 2014 — 15.
Videographer Beverley Tyndall and I couldn't wait to share at least a few bits of these inspiring interviews, and we'll soon be posting more videos from
Opportunity Culture team teachers and principals — for whom we're also quite thankful!
What's most heartening: In Charlotte - Mecklenburg's Project L.I.F.T., the candidates were so eager to work in this new type of school that many who were not selected for
Opportunity Culture advanced roles were willing to take regular teaching jobs in those schools, just to get a foot in the door for future openings.
Read our case study about the work four Project L.I.F.T. high - needs schools did this spring to create their
own Opportunity Cultures in the 2013 - 14 school year, and a companion Q&A with one teacher about becoming a highly paid teacher - leader under the Multi-Classroom Leadership model.
See the summary box below, then read the brief for details about exactly how to achieve excellence under key sections of the law, and about
how Opportunity Culture schools make a culture of excellence possible.
Shortly into the first year of
Opportunity Culture implementation in four schools, the district's top leaders, including Clark, were so pleased that they decided to dramatically scale it up to reach nearly half the schools in the district by 2017 - 18.
At both schools, the principals and school teams that included teachers chose to use
new Opportunity Culture teaching roles — Multi-Classroom Leadership for teacher - leaders, and Time - Technology Swaps, which blend learning through in - person and online instruction.
Bryan Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel have written for Education Next about a new way to address this issue, something they
call Opportunity Culture, which allows teachers to take on leadership roles while remaining in the classroom.
In 2015 — 16, Benjamin E. Banneker High School and Woodland Middle School, on the south side of Atlanta, are the district's first to design
Opportunity Culture plans for 2016 — 17 implementation.
Charlotte was not the only district to see strong recruitment: Pilot schools in Nashville also received about 30 applications for every open
Opportunity Culture position in the first year of recruiting.
To hear
from Opportunity Culture educators about their experiences so far, see columns they've written for Real Clear Education, with accompanying videos, here.
In Public Impact's
latest Opportunity Culture case study, Touchstone Education: New Charter With Experienced Leader Learns From Extending Teachers» Reach, we look at how this teacher, Tiffany McAfee, led the school's teachers in their focus on literacy, and how the school combined her leadership with online instruction.
In other
Opportunity Culture sites created by Public Impact, pay supplements have been as high as 50 percent and an average of about 20 percent of base salaries, Public Impact reports.
Districts are responding: As of spring 2014, four districts nationally are
piloting Opportunity Culture models, and one, Charlotte - Mecklenburg, is taking its pilot efforts to scale based on recruiting results and demand from schools.
They were found when comparing schools that had
Opportunity Culture classrooms against schools that had none, as well as in before - and - after results for schools that have implemented the program.
We've created a Teacher and Staff Selection Toolkit and a Recruitment Toolkit to capture the lessons and tools of the most successful recruiters among these
early Opportunity Culture districts.
The Indianapolis school board and teachers union recently became the first in the country to
include Opportunity Culture roles in their new contract, offering pay supplements of up to $ 18,300 — 35 percent of the district's average salary.
Big Spring is leading the way for small cities and towns in Texas and across the country to
adopt Opportunity Culture models.
IPS is the second collective bargaining district in which the local teachers union has
supported Opportunity Culture roles, but the first to include the roles in its contract for all teachers.
We'll have more videos to come in 2015 from
other Opportunity Culture sites, such as Charlotte - Mecklenburg, Cabarrus County, N.C., and Syracuse, N.Y.
What students want: great teachers every year What teachers want: career advancement while teaching, collaboration, on - the - job development and leadership, sustainably funded pay increases, and the chance to help more students succeed What both need: Policies to make a
statewide Opportunity Culture possible Public Impact shows states the essential policies to reach far more students with gap - closing, Read more about Seizing Opportunity at the Top II -LSB-...]