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Beverley Tyndall

Launching Paid Teacher Leadership with Union-District Partnership

November 12, 2015

How could a large number of well-paid teacher-leader roles emerge in a unionized district? This question is at the top of the list for many superintendents.

Syracuse, N.Y., educators have some advice, captured in a new three-page vignette, How One Union-District Partnership Launched an Opportunity Culture. Syracuse union and district leaders discuss their experiences and lessons they learned about working together for a successful launch.

In late 2013, the Syracuse City School District became the nation’s first unionized district to use Opportunity Culture, with four of its highest-need schools choosing and tailoring models to fit. They began to implement their new teacher-leader roles using the Multi-Classroom Leadership model in 2014–15, and are now expanding the roles to many more schools. Multi-classroom leaders—several per school—earn a $12,000 supplement in Syracuse for leading teams and helping their colleagues succeed, while continuing to teach.

Opportunity Culture models extend the reach of teachers who excel with students to more students, directly and by leading other teachers, for much higher pay funded by reallocating existing budgets. Teachers gain planning and collaboration time, and teachers in advanced roles are responsible for the outcomes of all the students they serve—as well as for the support, development, and success of their colleagues when they work in teams. In nearly all cases, instructional group sizes remain the same or even smaller.

The strongest advice from Syracuse on launching an Opportunity Culture? Both union leaders and a former administrator say: Get the union involved from the very beginning, and keep it involved at every step of the way.

Bobby Miles on Being a Multi-Classroom Leader

November 9, 2015

Bobby Miles explains why his role as a multi-classroom leader is "the best of both worlds"—allowing him to lead a team of teachers while impacting more students in the classroom. Read Bobby's related blog post, 1 Teacher, 400 Scholars—and Loving It. Can't access...

The Whole Package: 12 Factors of High-Impact Teacher-Leader Roles

November 9, 2015

District leaders love the thought of “teacher leadership” that might attract and retain teachers—especially great ones—and close student learning gaps at a time of rising teacher vacancies.

But too often, teacher-leader roles fail to produce the full impact district leaders intend. They rarely dramatically improve student learning or teacher effectiveness.

What are the usual pitfalls? How can districts avoid them?

The Whole Package: 12 Factors of High-Impact Teacher-Leader Roles, a two-page brief from Public Impact, offers a quick list of the pitfalls, and a chart of the 12 essential factors for creating outstanding teacher-leader roles.

Low-impact teacher-leader roles are a distraction from what great teachers really crave: helping their peers and more students succeed. Defining and organizing high-impact teacher-leader roles can allow great teachers to have a far greater effect on vastly more students and teaching peers.

DO design teacher-leader roles with these 12 factors in mind, involving teachers in the design decisions:

• Selectivity: make advanced roles selective

• Preparation: train teacher-leaders for their roles

• Greater Reach: use roles to give more students access to great teachers, not fewer

• Continued Teaching: let teacher-leaders keep teaching students part time

• Time to Lead—and Learn: give teacher-leaders time to plan and collaborate

• Development Opportunities: let teachers in the same role help one another improve

• Accountability: make teacher-leaders formally responsible for their students and teams

• Formal Authority: give teacher-leaders formal authority to spread their practices

• Higher Pay: pay supplements of at least 10%– 50% of average pay

• Funding Stability: fund higher pay with recurring budgets, not grants or tenuous line items

• Funding Scalability: for big scale, fund extra pay with stable, state-level funds

• Prevalence: ensure that each school has many advanced roles, not just a few

DON’T stumble over pitfalls with plans that have these unfortunate qualities:

Opportunity Culture® Fellow Bobby Miles on Teach Strong Panel

November 6, 2015

Opportunity Culture® Fellow Bobby Miles, a multi-classroom leader for an eighth-grade science team in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, will share his views on Tuesday, November 10, as a panelist at the launch event for the Teach Strong Campaign, a national partnership...

The Whole Package: 12 Factors of High-Impact Teacher-Leader Roles

November 3, 2015

Too often, “teacher leadership” roles intended to attract and retain teachers—especially great ones—and close student learning gaps fail to produce the intended impact. This two-page brief offers a quick list of the common pitfalls of designing such roles, and a chart of the 12 essential factors for creating high-quality, lasting teacher-leader roles.

Opportunity Culture®: Introduction for Educators

October 30, 2015

Slide deck without speaker notes | Slide deck with speaker notes This engaging slide deck speaks directly to teachers, providing an overview, with speaker notes, of why students, educators, schools and districts need an Opportunity Culture®, how it works, and where...

How One Union-District Partnership Launched an Opportunity Culture®

October 30, 2015

For superintendents in collective bargaining districts who wonder how an Opportunity Culture could work, Syracuse, N.Y., educators have advice on working with unions. This vignette details the collaboration between the Syracuse district administration and union in launching an Opportunity Culture, highlighting actions to consider and critical moments in the process.

Opportunity Culture® Voices: Keep on Keeping On

October 16, 2015

“I’m practically a Syracuse City Schools lifetime member—from student, to teacher, to coach, then nearly into administration—but with a happy detour. I got to return to the classroom in a new position of multi-classroom leader. As the MCL, I lead a team of teachers while continuing to teach—the sweet spot for this point in my career.

But at a school new to me, in a new leadership role, with teachers who didn’t necessarily sign up for the total collaboration and openness of this team-teaching model, I faced challenges. I knew we needed to focus on data—we did need data to “drive our instruction”—and that meant sharing our students’ results with the whole team.”

–Syracuse City Schools Multi-Classroom Leader Maggie Vadala, in Keep on Keeping On: Using Data to Move Students Forward

Data-driven instruction + a new model of teacher-led team teaching + being at a new, high-need school + data systems that must continue to improve: That’s what Syracuse’s Maggie Vadala took on last year–and very happily. In Thursday’s RealClearEducation.com, Vadala describes the challenges.

“As I dug into the data, I realized I left one important item out: relationships! I was working with five third-grade teachers and 75 students. Altogether, the five teachers had just 11 years of teaching experience.

So while we were sharing our students’ sometimes dismal data, a far-from-comfortable experience for teachers used to working alone, I had to simultaneously build trust. They were welcoming but suspicious about my role—was I just there to run to the principal whenever they made a mistake? Where was I going with all that data? I had a group of committed people; now, they had to trust that I could guide us to accomplish more together than independently.”

Read how she did it, in her warm but no-nonsense, straightfoward approach to leading her team, and their ups and downs along the way. And hear more of Vadala’s thoughts on the accompanying video drawn from our September interview with her. She’s just one of the many inspiring Opportunity Culture teachers and teacher-leaders who sees the difference Opportunity Culture is making in schools. Read past columns from her Opportunity Culture colleagues in the Opportunity Culture series–and thanks to Real Clear Education as always for hosting it.

Big Changes in Big Spring

October 15, 2015

What can a rural, 4,000-student district do to attract and retain teachers, and support many brand-new teachers? In “Reconsidering the Traditional Model: Big Spring ISD Works to Build Teacher Career Pathways,” Cindy Clegg writes in the Texas Lone Star about how and why the Big Spring school district is creating an Opportunity Culture.

A publication of the Texas Association of School Boards, the Texas Lone Star takes an in-depth look at the multi-classroom model being used in combination with paraprofessional support to extend the reach of great teachers to many more students and teachers, within regular budgets–from choosing the model to carefully selecting the multi-classroom leaders–who lead a team, coaching, co-planning, and supporting the team, while continuing to teach themselves.

Texas has created a statewide initiative to introduce Opportunity Culture to interested districts. “We are trying to build statewide capacity for school improvement,” says Mark Baxter, director of school improvement and support for the Texas Education Agency.

Big Spring is starting with six multi-classroom leaders (MCLs) at three campuses, who each earn a $10,000 supplement, funded through teacher vacancies and larger classes, which have increased paraprofessional support. Although Opportunity Culture school redesign models do not require larger classes, Big Spring chose to go from 22 to 30 students because, says School Improvement Director Heidi Wagner, “Would you rather have 30 kids in front of one excellent teacher or 22 in front of a mediocre teacher?”

Read the full article here.

Maggie Vadala on Being a Multi-Classroom Leader

October 15, 2015

Syracuse City Schools Multi-Classroom Leader Maggie Vadala discusses support she gets and gives in her Opportunity Culture® school. Funding for this video was provided by Carnegie Corporation of New York. Read Maggie's related blog post, Keep on Keeping on: Using Data...