Unlock the 5 Opportunity Culture® Design Principles to create the strongest staffing design that gets results for students and educators. Learn how by registering here for the Introduction to School Design with Results™.
Beverley Tyndall
Opportunity Culture® SIMPLE-TC™ Tutoring Design
The Opportunity Culture SIMPLE™ Tutoring Design series explains how to create small-group instruction that reaches all students, provided by all available adults within the school.
Top 2 Ways RAs Support MCL Teams
See how paraprofessionals in the advanced Reach Associate role help support a tutoring culture on MCL-led teaching teams.
September 2023 Newsletter: It’s Party Time—Celebrating You!
In our September 2023 newsletter, we celebrate 10 years of Opportunity Culture impact; unveil our revamped website; congratulate several Opportunity Culture districts on recent recognition; share tools, videos, and social media highlights; and introduce the newest Public Impact team members. Read the September 2023 newsletter here.
Celebrating 10 Years of Impact
We’re celebrating Opportunity Culture’s 10th Anniversary with a few words from Public Impact’s co-presidents about the first decade’s impact on students and teachers. Become an Opportunity Culture district to be part of the next decade’s impact!
A Generation at Risk: A Call to Action
From A Generation at Risk: A Call to Action by Building Bridges Initiative, September 2023
In their recent report, A Generation at Risk: A Call to Action, the Building Bridges Initiative proposed five commitments they believe can serve as a foundation for a more responsive and engaging educational system for students. One of these actions is to “rethink how time and staff are used to improve impact with students and to improve quality of life for educators.”
The report states, “Fundamentally reimagining school-based professional roles is critical to better meeting student and family needs and to building more rewarding and sustainable careers for educators. Many have been experimenting with redesigning the one-teacher/one-classroom model. Some districts are reorganizing teachers so that they specialize and work in teams to reduce burnout. Others are experimenting with paying teachers differentially based on different levels and types of jobs, such as master teachers, associate teachers, community mental health providers, parent tutors, and so on. Dozens of school districts across the U.S. are already piloting this approach through participation in the Opportunity Culture and Next Education Workforce Initiatives, as well as in states (see North Carolina’s Advanced Teaching Roles initiative).”
Using Innovative Staffing to Boost Student Success, Educator Satisfaction
From The Compass, by Sharon Kebschull Barrett, August 2023
Amid bleak news about student learning and teacher shortages, innovative staffing concepts offer hope. But school systems have limited time and funding—how can they ensure a big impact for their efforts?
Several staffing model design elements can boost both student success and teacher satisfaction. While some staffing design efforts accomplish one or two important goals, the best staffing models get results on several fronts and within regular budgets.
August 2023 Newsletter: Bring a Tutoring Culture to MCL Teams
The August newsletter includes information about the Opportunity Culture SIMPLE™ Tutoring Design professional learning series; data from the Opportunity Culture Dashboard; highlights from summer professional learning sessions; tools, resources, and more. Read the August 2023 newsletter here.
Cost-Effective Ways to Rethink School Staffing
By Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan Hassel; first published in Education Week, October 1, 2020
Even before COVID-19 sent students and educators home, teachers’ jobs had grown increasingly complex. Rightful demands for standards matching those of other nations—and for equitable opportunities allowing students to meet or exceed those standards—swelled over recent decades.
With research clearly indicating how important teacher and principal quality are to student learning growth, a thoughtful school staffing and compensation strategy would have been a natural response. Instead, decades of benevolently intended policy shifts snatched dollars from teachers’ pockets as their jobs got harder, while failing to innovate like other professions.
Putting Data In Its Place: How Strong Teaching Teams Use Data To Achieve Student Growth
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett; first published in EdNC, March 18, 2020
Can deep dives into large flows of student learning data actually lower teacher stress? Successful multi-classroom leaders, who lead small teaching teams in data analysis, say yes. When schools focus on small teams led by highly successful teachers, they help address the concerns North Carolina teachers expressed in a recent EdNC.org survey about professional development on using data and about having time to analyze and use data.