By Paola Gilliam and Sharon Kebschull Barrett, September 14, 2022
After struggling with teacher shortages for years, Ector County Independent School District (ISD) in Odessa, Texas, announced its best recruiting year in over a decade. In an Odessa American article, Superintendent Scott Muri attributed the recruiting success of about 450 teachers to several strategies, including Opportunity Culture implementation and pay raises.
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, May 18, 2022
When we heard that Anne Claire Tejtel Nornhold, who leads the Opportunity Culture work in Baltimore City Public Schools, would move out of that role this spring, we knew we wanted to capture her reflections on what worked well and advice for other district Opportunity Culture directors.
As Baltimore City’s Opportunity Culture lead, Nornhold focuses on identifying schools that want to use Opportunity Culture staffing models and helping each school design the Opportunity Culture implementation that best fits the school. She oversees the candidate pool that schools draw from to fill their new roles, and the development of the accountability framework for those roles.
By Public Impact, April 7, 2022
What if you could improve student outcomes even in a time of rising teacher shortages?
Many schools and districts report feeling stuck on the hamster wheel of trying to fill all their open positions. This struggle has been worsening for years. According to one report, the share of schools that tried to fill a vacancy but couldn’t tripled from 2011 to 2016, from 3.1 percent to 9.4 percent, and the share of schools that reported that it was “very difficult” to fill a vacancy nearly doubled, from 19.7 percent to 36.2 percent. Those vacancies directly harm students’ learning.
What could take weary principals out of chronic emergency hiring mode? A chance to rethink staffing to give students excellent instruction using the number of adults a school has. Read More…
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, February 28, 2022
Congratulations to KaTrinka Brown, Piedmont-Triad Region Principal of the Year, and Larenda Denien, Southwest Region Principal of the Year! The awards place Brown and Denien in the running for North Carolina Principal of the Year, announced in May.
I spoke to both principals recently, and as you’ll read in spotlights of each, a common theme in their leadership success quickly emerged: the power of relationships.
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, February 25, 2022
Kicking off the new “Opportunity Culture Audio” pieces that we’ll begin sharing from time to time this year, our first piece highlights Jenny O’Meara, who until 2021 served as a principal for a middle school using Opportunity Culture roles.
O’Meara, who was an Opportunity Culture Fellow in 2019–20, worked in Edgecombe County Public Schools in a rural part of North Carolina, which has taken its Opportunity Culture implementation district-wide. After stepping away from her principalship, she sat for an interview about her Opportunity Culture experience, including reflections on working with her school’s first multi-classroom leader, or MCL, and valuable lessons to share with current principals.
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, February 14, 2022
Making sense of the conflicting reports about teacher shortages and resignations may take many more months, but CNET took a solid look in The Great Resignation Hasn’t Hit School Teachers Yet. Here’s Why It Still Might. It highlights Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture initiative as one approach to “bringing a reset to the role of teachers,” and quotes Anne Claire Tejtel Nornhold, who leads Opportunity Culture work in Baltimore City Public Schools.
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, January 25, 2022
With ongoing Covid-related stresses this year, many Opportunity Culture educators have wondered how much their challenges match those of other Opportunity Culture schools. Before the winter break, educators from multiple cohorts of Opportunity Culture Fellows gathered online to share their experiences and support one another—and found their stresses mirrored much of what has been in the news for months.
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, December 9, 2021
When Dr. Tony Jackson, then superintendent of Vance County Schools, was named the 2020 A. Craig Phillips North Carolina Superintendent of the Year, we at Public Impact were delighted—but hardly surprised. Having worked with Jackson since 2016 to help the district implement Opportunity Culture models, we knew the powerful effect his leadership had on this northeastern North Carolina district, on the Virginia border.
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, October 7, 2021
Many Opportunity Culture directors/district leads from around the country attended an online gathering in September—a great way to share insights and begin to build this community. Special thanks to those who participated in the panel discussion: Superintendent Scott Muri of Ector County (Texas) Independent School District, and Opportunity Culture directors Jessie Garcia of Ector County; Chris Hightower of Midland (Texas) Independent School District; Anne Claire Tejtel Nornhold of Baltimore City Schools; and Erin Swanson of Edgecombe County (North Carolina) Public Schools.
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, first published by EducationNC, September 22, 2021
Jimmel Williams knows great teachers. After all, he is one, with the student results to show for it. But last fall, he says now, his teaching fell short.
With his Charlotte students all learning remotely, his efforts felt off, though he couldn’t fully put his finger on what wasn’t working. He kept making changes each week to get students more engaged in their learning, but the tweaks weren’t enough. Finally, he realized what he needed — to both take tighter control and give some up. Read More…