What’s Happening

Opportunity Culture® News and Views

Making 6-Figure Pay a Reality for Teachers

What are some Texas districts doing to make six-figure pay a reality for their teachers, well before the end of long careers? Read about the example from one district, Midland, in our senior VP Sharon Kebschull Barrett's op-ed in The 74. "Ask teachers how much their...

Are You Right-Sizing Your Tutoring Groups?

By Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan C. Hassel Adult-led, small-group tutoring adds huge learning growth for students, even in small doses weekly. But finding the right group size is tricky. Too large, and learning impact per student declines. Too small, and the number of...

Can You Add Tutoring Time for Free?

Master Team Reach Teacher™ Macey Williams tutors a small group of students at Lucama Elementary in Wilson County, North Carolina, while Reach Associate™ Joy Mosely works with other students in the back of the classroom. Nearly any school can dramatically increase...

Stop Wasting Student Teachers’ Time and Money

The experiences K-12 offers student teachers are a quality hodgepodge, too few people can afford to enter teaching, and students need results right now. States and school systems should add residencies or apprenticeships that prepare aspiring teachers to teach with...

How to Avoid K–12 Scale Fail

In K–12, decades of reforms have produced vanishing outcomes. Instructional methods and materials with eye-popping results in small studies fizzle out when scaled. Then, true believers double down on intensive teacher training and coaching to get their reform “done...

3 Moves to Reverse Student Learning Slides

Our nation could reverse and completely recover from student learning slides with three moves: 1. Embed small-group tutoring in regular classrooms by boosting the time all adults spend on it for all students. 2. Spread accountable teacher-leader roles reserved for...

Reset for Success: Hear From Midland Superintendent in New Audio

When Superintendent Stephanie Howard came to Midland ISD in the Permian Basin of Texas, she knew what success with Opportunity Culture® teaching team models should look like, after working with them in neighboring Ector County ISD as a deputy superintendent. Although Midland ISD was using these teams as well, several Opportunity Culture® fundamentals weren’t being followed.

I talked with Howard and Jessie Garcia, who also worked with the models in Ector County, about how they led Midland through a complete implementation reset—an effort now paying off in learning growth for students, sustainable higher pay for teacher-leaders that can reach six figures, and stronger teacher support and retention. Hear how they did it in our latest audio piece—and don’t miss the bonus “go big or go home” clip from Superintendent Howard!