It’s been a busy Opportunity Culture® week! From big research about student results in Texas to superintendents recognized for their impressive implementation to Title II options for funding redesign, the Opportunity Culture® initiative is making a splash.
New Research with “Exciting” Results on Student Outcomes
A Texas Tech research team from evaluated Opportunity Culture® implementation in Ector County ISD, with results that are “exciting and informative for districts across Texas considering similar approaches to strategic staffing,” the lead researcher wrote.
Key findings in Evaluating Opportunity Culture: Improving Student Achievement through Strategic Staffing in West Texas include:
1. Students taught by Multi-Classroom Leader® educators experienced large and persistent gains, equivalent to 6–13 months of additional learning in reading and 6–9 months in math compared to peers taught by non-OC® teachers.
2. Students taught by teachers on MCL™ teams showed consistent gains of three to four additional months in reading and about two months in math.
3. Over time, instructional effectiveness improved beyond teachers on Opportunity Culture® teaching teams, suggesting campus-wide benefits tied to collaboration, shared practice, and embedded instructional leadership.
Watch this space for more about this study.
And don’t miss our spotlight on Carlsbad Municipal Schools, with outstanding results in its first schools to use Opportunity Culture® teaching teams.
People to Watch: Superintendents with Strong Opportunity Culture Results
In How today’s superintendents are building engines of community, Matt Zalaznick writes in District Administration about Midland ISD Superintendent Stephanie Howard’s Opportunity Culture® use to “strengthen the internal community.” In this “People to Watch” piece on how superintendents are building engines of community, Zalaznick writes:
“The strategy strengthened teacher retention, which led to greater achievements for the district. Midland reduced the number of teachers with five years or less experience from 37% to 35%, which Howard said reflected the value of coaching and new compensation structures—a modest but meaningful reduction.
“More than 64 teachers now earn over $100,000, thanks to stackable pay tied to leadership roles and performance, she said. Sustainability, she stressed, was also non-negotiable. Howard sees retention not as a program but as a staffing mindset. ‘Strategic staffing is a way of doing business,’ she said, noting that districts must be creative to meet today’s workforce and funding challenges.”
And in our latest Opportunity Culture® Audio “Superintendents Speak” podcast, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Crystal Hill, leading a district of 185 schools and 141,000 students, discusses how success means providing deep support for a staff that now sees 60 percent of its teachers coming from a non-traditional background. The district, a pioneer in piloting Opportunity Culture® teaching team models and in quickly scaling up to many more schools, posted dramatic learning growth results in 2024–24. “Teachers are screaming for this level of support,” Hill says.
Using Title II Funds for Strategic Staffing
Finally, in Education Department embraces team-based staffing in new guidance, K-12 Dive highlights Opportunity Culture® models and results in this report on how states and school districts can use Title II, Part A funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to strategic staffing design, according to a Dear Colleague letter from the U.S. Department of Education.