It’s been a month of learning from several superintendents, who’ve come on the Opportunity Culture® Audio podcast to share their thoughts about staffing design in their districts.
“Teachers Are Screaming for This Level of Support”: Charlotte Superintendent Crystal Hill
For Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Crystal Hill, leading 185 schools and 141,000 students, 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. What has it taken to get there, and how will the district try to sustain those results? Dr. Hill shares her thoughts with host Sharon Kebschull Barrett and Public Impact® Co-President Bryan Hassel.
A Rural “Force Multiplier”—Opportunity Culture® Design: Superintendent Anthony Jackson
Chatham County Superintendent Anthony Jackson, named as the 2020 North Carolina Superintendent of the Year while serving as superintendent of Vance County Schools, says districts—especially rural systems—can do far more if they focus investments on the capacity of their staff. A self-proclaimed “disciple” of the Opportunity Culture® initiative, he has led both districts to take calculated risks leading to strong learning outcomes for students.
In this podcast, Jackson discusses how Opportunity Culture® models’ flexibility combined with guardrails helped address the different problems each district faced. He notes some early success at the high school level, and he stresses the importance of scaling up implementation district-wide—-with urgency while at a predictable pace—to ensure that all students have access to excellent teaching, consistently.
“A Lever to Ignite Reading Achievement”: Deputy Superintendent Michael Cormack
At Jackson Public Schools in Mississippi, Deputy Superintendent Michael Cormack brought big changes to student outcomes—no surprise after his leadership of the Barksdale Reading Institute, which sparked the state’s stunning literacy turnaround. Under Cormack, Jackson’s state accountability rating went from an F to a C, and in 2025, to strengthen the district’s literacy efforts, he introduced the combination of Opportunity Culture® teaching teams and a focus on high-quality instructional materials. Starting in five elementary schools—to be expanded to all 22 elementary schools in 2026–27—in pre-K through second grade, with a focus on literacy, the district worked with Public Impact, which founded the Opportunity Culture® initiative, and Leading Educators, which provided literacy curriculum, coaching, and development for teachers.
We caught up with him just before he started his new job as CEO of KIPP Atlanta Schools, to get his reflections on the early difference this work is making in Jackson and thoughts for the future.