Opportunity Culture® Certification Definitions 

Note: While we strive to align materials, differences may arise as we make improvements based on data and work with schools. Where definitions differ, the Opportunity Culture^® Portal Terms of Use, and documents linked there, govern.

Authorized Representatives are the people in each state, system and/or school who are designated by each subscribing entity in the Opportunity Culture^® portal as the leader responsible for accurate input of state, district and/or school design data and decisions for purposes of certification and validation and who have legal authority to form contracts with Public Impact^® and the Opportunity Culture^® initiative for obtaining certification and validation using trademarks and service marks of Public Impact^® and the Opportunity Culture^® initiative.

Certified Opportunity Culture School^®; and Certified Opportunity Culture School System^™; and Certified Opportunity Culture™ XXXXX entity or program practice. This is the terminology to describe a school, system or other allowed entity or program practice that has received certification through the Opportunity Culture^® portal using standards defined there; communications must always include the proper level and year.  See Opportunity Culture^® Portal Terms of Use and Intellectual Property Policy linked there for detail. School system certification is scheduled to begin in fall 2026.

Certified Opportunity Culture School^®, Validated; and Certified Opportunity Culture School System^™, Validated:This terminology describes a school, system or other designated entity that has received certification and validation through the Opportunity Culture^® portal and Public Impact^® team or licensee review of data; communications must always include the proper level and year. See Opportunity Culture^® Portal Terms of Use and Intellectual Property Policy linked there for detail. School system certification and potential validation are scheduled to begin in fall 2026.

Opportunity Culture^® portal: The online system in which systems, schools and other entities may perform a variety of functions, including but not limited to obtaining professional learning certificates, designing schools, submitting for certification and validation, reviewing and comparing data and reports about design and certification status, and using other tools based on the latest data and research. Legal rights and responsibilities and terms of use are indicated in the portal and documents linked therein.

Opportunity Culture^® portal subscribers: States, systems and schools can become Opportunity Culture^® portal subscribers by purchasing an annual subscription to the Opportunity Culture^® portal and providing all staff emails to allow registration. This allows employees to use professional learning modules, school design materials, monitoring reports, and other tools based on the latest data and research, without any additional cost; current pricing and specific contact terms govern in the event of a conflict with this language. Use of the on-demand professional learning can alone save systems enough to pay for a subscription. These entities may say they “have a subscription to the Opportunity Culture^® portal,” or “provide employees with subscriptions to the Opportunity Culture^® portal,” before having schools that are certified.

Roles

To qualify as one of the following roles, a position must fit the definition here and meet the requirements laid out in the Opportunity Culture^® certification standards.  

Multi-Classroom Leader^® (MCL^™) role is a teacher-leader role in which educators:

• are selected for having produced multiple years of high-growth student learning as a teacher, based on state or national comparisons—and continue to do so in the MCL™ role;
• reach additional students by leading a small team of 2–12 teachers (with a recommended team size of 3 to 8 teachers; a resident or apprentice may count as one “teacher”);
• continue to teach part of the time, either as the sole teacher of record, in their team teachers’ classrooms (through co-teaching, modeling, and small-group instruction), or a combination;
• receive more pay than the standard teacher pay schedule, funded sustainably within regular, recurring school-level budgets (system-level funds may be pushed to school level);
• have protected time to:
  • Plan, individually and with the team, to: prepare high-standards lessons and assessments aligned with the curriculum;* differentiate prerequisite and advanced lessons to ensure high growth by all students; and analyze student learning data and adjust instruction accordingly for whole-class instruction, small-group tutoring, and individual work; and
  • Lead the team: prepare the team to implement strong teaching materials and methods; observe, coach, and provide feedback for individual team teachers; provide professional learning that addresses team’s common development needs; and engage team in planning activities described above;
• and have autonomy and authority to fully lead and guide their team’s instructional practice in all areas that affect instructional quality and outcomes, and take accountability for the learning outcomes of all students the team teaches.
• *Public Impact^® strongly recommends that districts and schools provide educators with high-quality instructional materials based on research about student learning growth or highly rated on EdReports.org.

 
Team Reach Teacher™ (TRT™) role is a teacher who:

• takes on at least one of the following responsibilities and related accountability, with protected time for additional planning and/or leadership responsibility:
  • teaches significantly more students than standard (such as taking on students from an unfilled classroom vacancy or shifting class size across a team); and/or
  • provides release time for one or more MCL™ educators to observe and coach team teachers; and/or
  • guides and directs a Reach Associate™ paraprofessional, teacher assistant, or regular student teacher—must have been rated at least effective in most recent year for this responsibility; and/or
  • provides other adult leadership (such as running PLC logistics or committees), within the confines of required planning and instructional time—must have been rated at least effective in most recent year for this responsibility;
• and is paid more than the standard teacher pay schedule, funded sustainably within regular, recurring budgets.

 
Model Team Reach Teacher™ (MTRT™) role is a teacher who:

• is selected for having produced at least one year of prior high-growth student learning, based on state or national comparisons;
• takes on both of the following responsibilities and related accountability, with protected time for additional planning and leadership responsibility:
  • teaches significantly more students than standard (such as taking on students from an unfilled classroom vacancy, providing release time for one or more MCL™ educators to observe and coach team teachers, or shifting class size across a team), and
  • coaches teacher, resident, or apprentice
    • typically coaches just one person—two at most (more is an MCL™ role)
    • may also provide other adult leadership such as running PLC logistics or committees, within the confines of required planning and instructional time;
• and is paid more than the standard teacher pay schedule, funded sustainably within regular, recurring budgets.

This was previously known as the Master Team Reach Teacher™ role.
 
Reach Associate™ (RA™) role is a position that does not require a teacher license or alternative licensure, for a paraprofessional who:

• provides release time or supports reach extension for Opportunity Culture^® educators and/or teaching teams;
• spends the majority of the workday providing instructional support, a large portion of which is typically small-group tutoring, and may supervise students independently for a portion of the day in classrooms and/or during transitions between classrooms;
• may perform their duties by pushing into teachers’ classrooms, pulling out small groups into a different room, or having students rotate through a separate classroom supervised by one or more RA™ paraprofessionals;
• is guided and directed by MCL™, MTRT™, and/or TRT™ educators on high-standards materials and methods to align with other instruction by the team;
• and is compensated more than the standard paraprofessional pay schedule, funded sustainably within regular, recurring budgets.

 
Opportunity Culture^® school leader is a general term that includes several positions, including the principal and other senior-most instructional leaders who report to the principal, typically with titles such as vice-principal or assistant principal. These positions are referenced in many design materials on the portal.

Principal is the senior-most leader of school, by any title, or, if no principal or equivalent is present, interim principal, assistant principal, or district staff person charged with leadership of the school in absence of the principal or school leader. The principal is ultimately responsible for all school-level certification and validation submissions, even if they have delegated the role of inputting data and submitting for certification and/or validation.

Residents are roles that are for aspiring teachers who do not currently have a bachelor’s degree or who do not have certification, and who are not using alternative licensure to teach. Residents in schools with Opportunity Culture^® models typically serve in modified Reach Associate™ positions with Multi-Classroom Leader^® or Model Team Reach Teacher™ coaching while learning to teach.

Small-group tutoring includes adult-led, data-determined groups with 3–5 students on average, and up to 7 when needed; groups may be led by any adult the MCL™ team includes, such as the MCL™ educator, teachers, new or pre-existing paraprofessional roles, administrators and/or volunteers, among others. Increasing small-group tutoring time is the first priority for building a tutoring culture. In contrast, the term “smaller” groups includes any group less than a whole class at once, such as dividing the class in half or into midsize groups of 8–10 for a lesson; this is the second priority, to further reduce whole-class teaching so that more students receive eye contact and discussion time during lessons.

Students furthest behind: For any given subject, the students in the bottom ¼ of the class for a given unit or topic.

Team Reach^™ model:  A staffing option in which one or more teachers in the school earn more by teaching more students directly and/or taking on additional adult leadership responsibilities. Schools using this model may include Team Reach Teacher^™ (TRT^™) and/or Model Team Reach Teacher^™ (MTRT^™) roles as defined below, and/or pay all or some core teachers across the school more using funds from one or more unfilled classroom vacancies. This model is usually embedded in an MCL™ team but may stand alone.

Team teachers are professionals in classroom teaching positions requiring licensure (or alternative certification) who teach on Multi-Classroom Leadership™ teams but who are not extending their reach directly to more students than typically.