The March newsletter includes a spotlight focused on the partnership of a Guilford expanded-impact teacher & her teaching assistant, emphasizing the power of the TA doing small-group tutoring; resources; videos; and more. Read the March 2022 newsletter here.
Paola Gilliam
January 2022 Newsletter: Connect with Your OC Community & Share Strategies!
The January newsletter includes opportunities for community, a reflection from educators on continued pandemic challenges, tools and videos for educators, Opportunity Culture news, and more. Read the January 2022 newsletter here.
Trends Shaping Education in 2022
From Getting Smart, January 11, 2022, by Tom Vander Ark
It’s hard to see trends in a crisis. And now layered crises–pandemic, climate, racial reckoning, economic inequity, geopolitical tension–is the new normal. We’re living through a jumble of unexpected events that thwart pattern recognition. Most schools are starting 2022 in person but with a disappointing COVID surge and renewed questions about how to best safeguard students, teachers, and communities. After two years of pandemic education, fatigue is the overwhelming experience of many educators. Read more…
Education after the Pandemic
From National Affairs, Winter 2022, by Frederick M. Hess
Until March 2020, American schooling looked much like it had in 1920. Despite new technologies, ever-increasing outlays, and wave after wave of reform, the rhythms and routines of America’s schools were little changed. Students set out from their homes to school in the early morning, sat in front of a teacher in primary school or a series of teachers in secondary school, sporadically used the latest technologies, and then headed home. Dress codes, popular pedagogies, the number of adults in the building, and the technology may have changed, but what students and teachers actually do had not. Read more…
Three more schools to implement Opportunity Culture® for teachers
From OA Online, December 16, 2021
Ector County ISD has announced three new schools that will be joining Opportunity Culture for the 2022-2023 school year. These three schools will collaborate with Public Impact and ECISD Talent Development this spring to undergo the school design process. The 2022-2023 Opportunity Culture Cohort C campuses are Cavazos Elementary, San Jacinto Elementary, and Buddy West Elementary. Read more…
December 2021 Newsletter: Tools for Teaching and Leading; Language Barriers in Remote Learning
The December newsletter includes tools and videos for educators, a vignette of families during the pandemic, Opportunity Culture news, and more. Read the December 2021 newsletter here.
For Families with Language Barriers, What Worked in Remote Learning?
By Paola Gilliam, December 8, 2021
Many Opportunity Culture districts serve significant numbers of students whose families speak primarily Spanish. How did the spring 2020 shift to remote learning affect them, and did they have any new educational experiences that they wish would continue post-pandemic? We interviewed a parent and child from seven families in five Opportunity Culture districts—from small rural to large city districts—to find out.
TEA Commissioner of Education visits Central Texas school with the goal of combatting ‘COVID slide’
From KWTX, December 7, 2021, by Katie Aupperle
Texas Education Agency Commissioner of Education Mike Morath visited Kendrick Elementary in the Waco Independent School District on Tuesday during his tour of schools across the state in an effort to observe teachers and students, review their progress and witness, firsthand, the impacts of the pandemic. Read more…
Opportunity Culture® offers teachers flexibility and support through team-based model
From Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, December 3, 2021, by Meghan Ensell
The country experienced a “hangover” from the last workforce-oriented push in education, which focused on teacher evaluation and within that, far too much on ridding schools of the least effective teachers, says Bryan Hassel, co-president of Public Impact, an education policy and management consulting firm in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Read more…
Opportunity Culture® Schools Create Growth for Students – and Teachers!
From Baltimore City Public Schools, December 2, 2021
Collaboration, encouragement, guidance, and support are pivotal for growth. When educators collaborate, students benefit. Two years ago, City Schools launched Opportunity Culture to help educators do just that. Since then, this unique program has expanded exponentially — from three Opportunity Culture Schools in 2019 to 20 this school year, now impacting 7,000 City Schools students supported by the collaboration of more than 150 educators. And several more City Schools principals are currently exploring bringing this program to their schools. Read more…