A Complete Opportunity Culture Design

Pre-K–12 Multi-Classroom Leadership

Pre-K–12 Multi-Classroom Leadership is the cornerstone of Opportunity Culture design. Independent research showed that students in classrooms of team teachers led by multi-classroom leaders showed sizeable academic gains. Multi-Classroom Leaders, or MCLs:

• Are teacher-leaders with a track record of high-growth student learning and leadership qualities.
• Lead a small grade or subject team: co-planning, coaching, co-teaching, and modeling instruction and data analysis for and with the team. Continue to teach part of the time, often by leading small-group instruction.
• Work with other multi-classroom leaders as a team to help principals lead instruction, behavior policies, and other critical activities affecting learning in each school.
• Take accountability for student learning, teacher satisfaction, and other outcomes in all classrooms led.

MCLs earn substantial pay supplements funded by reallocations of the school’s budget.

Schools combine Multi-Classroom Leadership with Team Reach when they want to reach more students with available teachers and/or increase teacher planning time, pay, and career advancement opportunities. Team reach teachers directly teach more students than usual, but typically without raising instructional group sizes and with increased small-group instruction.

Remotely Located Multi-Classroom Leadership

Districts and schools that have limited teaching positions and struggle to offer advanced courses can use Remotely Located Multi-Classroom Leadership to give their teachers intensive subject- or grade-specific support and teacher leadership opportunities.

Multi-School Leadership

Multi-School Leadership combines with Multi-Classroom Leadership to create a leadership career path with multiple levels, all focused on instructional excellence, frequent guidance and support for teachers and principals, and keeping great educators working directly with students. Multi-school leaders are excellent principals with a record of high-growth student learning who lead a small group of two to eight related or closely located schools. They lead a collaborative team of their schools’ principals while typically continuing to lead one school in the group directly.

Paid Residencies for All

Paid, full-time, yearlong residencies for both aspiring teachers and principals become possible with Opportunity Culture implementation—entirely within schools’ regular budgets.

Early Childhood Education

Opportunity Culture models, including Multi-Classroom Leadership and educator residencies, can also be applied to early childhood settings.