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Resources, Videos, News: March Opportunity Culture Newsletter

By Public Impact, March 30, 2021

The March newsletter includes resources for recruiting and hiring for Opportunity Culture roles, a blog about one Texas teacher’s experience as an Opportunity Culture resident, Public Impact’s brief about federal policy recommendations, video playlists, and more. Read the full March 2021 newsletter here.

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Quick Take: Why One Texas Teacher Loved Her Opportunity Culture Residency

By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, March 29, 2021

Coming into her final semester of college as a student at the University of Texas Permian Basin in fall 2020, Chelsea McMahan decided to forgo a traditional student teaching post, applying instead for a full-time, paid, Opportunity Culture teacher residency in a fourth-grade class in the Midland, Texas, independent school district (ISD).

Six months later, McMahan found herself—as a newly minted, full-time sixth-grade teacher at another Midland school—standing before the district’s school board extolling the benefits of her residency. Read more…

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Federal Policy for Opportunity Anew

By Public Impact, March 11, 2021

In the wake of Covid-19, the U.S. pre-K–12 education system needs more than a refresh. We need to think anew. In a new Public Impact brief, we recommend the means through federal policy to bring critical, effective instructional and emotional supports to millions of teachers and their students—for a price tag the country can not only afford, but sustain long-term.

We base our recommendations on lessons learned through our national Opportunity Culture initiative, in dozens of districts, with thousands of educators, for nearly 85,000 students this year alone. Read more…

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Quick Take: Two MCLs’ Pandemic Tools to Monitor Student Understanding

By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, February 23, 2021

Although Nikki Glenn, a first-year MCL, and her team of four fifth-grade teachers at Falkener Elementary got to rejoin their students in the classroom for in-person learning in January (with one teaching children who chose to remain virtual), the tools they relied on last semester continue to prove their value.

Glenn’s team worked hard throughout the fall to determine how to effectively monitor students’ understanding and progress from a distance—useful still in socially distanced classrooms. Read more…

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Quick Take: Leading Opportunity Culture at the State Level

By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, February 17, 2021

How does it work to lead Opportunity Culture from the state level? I spoke recently with Kelly McLaughlin, who leads the Opportunity Culture state initiative in the Division of Elementary & Secondary Education within the Arkansas Department of Education, to get the scoop on the benefits to districts when the state takes the lead to spread Opportunity Culture (OC) implementation. McLaughlin took this role in August 2020, after more than 20 years as an English teacher and literacy facilitator and five years in other areas of the state department.

“It is our hope, at least from my perspective, to increase teacher retention and recruitment in the state by meeting equitable goals, and we believe we can reach these goals by increasing and growing OC throughout the state so that all students will have equitable access to effective teachers,” McLaughlin said. Read more…

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No More “Zoo Wallace”: Becoming a Welcoming, Successful School

By Jeremy Baugh, February 15, 2021

In 2015, when I came to Lew Wallace Elementary in Indianapolis Public Schools as its fourth principal in four years, the community referred to the school as “Zoo Wallace,” and families openly expressed disappointment in being placed there.

Still, after sending out flyers and emails and making calls home about our meet-the-teacher night, I was shocked to have only one parent show up. In my 10 years as a principal, I had never seen anything like it.

Like the parents, teachers were demoralized and disengaged. One day, the school’s only other leader, an instructional coach, and I wanted to ask a quick question of some teachers. But at 3:30, just five minutes after the kids left for the day, the teachers had all disappeared, too. Read more…

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Opportunity Culture Spreads in Arkansas, North Carolina with State Support

By Public Impact, January 28, 2021

After the continued promising results in Opportunity Culture schools in their states and around the country, Arkansas and North Carolina have awarded grants to seven districts to design their Opportunity Culture plans for implementation in 2021–22.

Opportunity Culture schools use new roles—based on the cornerstone role of Multi-Classroom Leadership—to reach many more students with excellent, personalized instruction. These roles, which have produced outstanding student growth, provide intensive support to all teachers, paid career advancement, and a stronger teacher pipeline.

The national Opportunity Culture initiative, founded by Public Impact, is now in over 45 districts and charter school organizations across 10 states. Read more…

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Midland, Texas, Educators Highlight Early Opportunity Culture Impact

By Paola Gilliam, January 21, 2021

Midway through its first year of Opportunity Culture implementation, the Midland, Texas, school district shared Opportunity Culture impacts so far with its school board on Tuesday.

“Opportunity Culture brings our teachers together, and it provides them the courage that is contagious in the classrooms we have,” Chris Hightower, the district’s Opportunity Culture lead, told the board. He introduced an Opportunity Culture principal, multi-classroom leader (MCL), and former teacher resident turned first-year teacher to share brief thoughts. Read more…

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Despite Challenges, Educators Gave Us Plenty To Be Thankful For

By Paola Gilliam, November 25, 2020

This year has been unrelentingly difficult in many ways, yet educators have repeatedly risen to the occasion. Faced with events—a pandemic, political uncertainty, protests against racial injustice, and more—that have left many of us feeling overwhelmed, educators have been a beacon of hope in their communities through their continued support for their fellow educators, students, and families. We are thankful for educators who have shown compassion, innovation, and determination throughout an incredibly challenging year. Read more…

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Free Webinar: Shaping Your School’s Culture for Learning

By Public Impact, November 23, 2020

Join Opportunity Culture Fellow Matthew How, principal of Ridge Road Elementary in North Little Rock School District, for a webinar on Tuesday, December 1, at 4 p.m. ET, exploring how school leaders can right the ship when teachers are unhappy, and use Opportunity Culture to create opportunities for distributed leadership and collaboration—and ultimately, happy and successful staff and students. Principal How will share how he turned his school’s climate around and his tools for gathering data and acting on it, and answer your questions.

A recording of this free webinar is available here.

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