By Public Impact, May 25, 2021

Opportunity Culture Grows, Seeds Hope in Pandemic Year

In 2020–21, Opportunity Culture roles continued to provide a model of support that kept spreading, even in an exceptionally challenging year for educators, students, and families.

Each year, Public Impact analyzes the Opportunity Culture dashboard data to improve its materials and its work with schools and districts. With the overarching goal of reaching all students with high-growth learning, Public Impact has expanded the initiative’s participating schools by 50 percent each year, on average—helping schools and districts make changes that educators love, with increased career opportunities and support.

As the Opportunity Culture Dashboard shows in its 2020–21 update, 13 more districts joined the Opportunity Culture initiative. Nationally, Opportunity Culture sites now reach over 83,000 students with excellent teaching and over 3,400 teachers with advanced roles or on-the-job support and development on teaching teams.

For extending their reach through Opportunity Culture roles, over 900 teachers earned more: a total of $9.2 million in extra pay in 2020–21 alone.

Despite Covid’s challenges, Opportunity Culture educators continue to express strong confidence in Opportunity Culture. In anonymous surveys conducted this spring, 98 percent of multi-classroom leaders and 90 percent of all staff on multi-classroom leader teams said they want Opportunity Culture to continue in their schools. See the dashboard for more survey results.

“It’s been inspiring for our team to work with districts that were so engaged and enthusiastic about planning their Opportunity Culture implementation even in the midst of a pandemic,” said Lucy Steiner, Public Impact’s senior vice president for educator excellence and implementation services.

“As we look ahead to next year, the ongoing growth of Opportunity Culture means many more educators will join in professional learning sessions this summer to prepare for their new roles, with the chance to learn from great educators already in those roles,” said Vice President Alison Harris Welcher, who leads professional learning for Opportunity Culture educators at Public Impact.

Read the full May 2021 newsletter here.