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Opportunity Culture® News and Views

Spotlight: Spring Branch Independent School District

by | November 27, 2019

By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, November 27, 2019

A quality teacher in every classroom, and powerful support for alternatively certified teachers: For Jennifer Blaine, those were two key elements that made Opportunity Culture well worth continuing to expand when she took over this spring as superintendent of Spring Branch ISD, located west of downtown Houston, Texas.

With about 35,000 students, the district includes 25 elementary schools, seven traditional middle school campuses, and four traditional high schools; more than half of those now use Opportunity Culture roles since beginning three years ago under Scott Muri, Blaine’s predecessor as superintendent. (Muri is now superintendent of Ector County ISD.)

Vance County Schools’ Jackson Named N.C. Superintendent of the Year

by | November 22, 2019

By Margaret High, November 22, 2019

Congratulations to Vance County Schools Superintendent Anthony Jackson, named the 2020 A. Craig Phillips North Carolina Superintendent of the Year! Jackson, who has led Vance County Schools since 2015, brought Opportunity Culture to the district in 2016–17.

“Dr. Tony Jackson has developed a culture of innovation and excellence at Vance County Schools,” Jack Hoke, executive director of the North Carolina School Superintendent’s Association, said at the awards ceremony Tuesday night.

Understand and Act on the Science of Reading: New Resources

by | November 21, 2019

By Public Impact, November 21, 2019

The debate over how to teach reading has heated up in the face of discouraging NAEP results, and more education groups are calling for educators to use the science of reading in classrooms. As always, dedicated teachers feel urgency to get reading instruction right, but educators are busy and need simple, research-based guidance. Concise resources that Public Impact has published today help teachers learn the basics of reading research and turn it into simple, actionable steps to boost standard curricula.

Advocating Effectively for Opportunity Culture®: The Key Elements

by | November 7, 2019

By Margaret High, November 7, 2019

Imagine opening the first all-staff email from a new principal or superintendent that clearly shows a lack of understanding or support for the Opportunity Culture your district has in place. What do you do?

Opportunity Culture Fellows closed the 2019 convening by brainstorming solutions to this scenario in a session on the keys to effective advocacy—one of their most-requested topics.

How Opportunity Culture® Principals Lead Change and Develop Leaders

by | November 4, 2019

By Margaret High, November 4, 2019 

Leading change and developing leaders: Opportunity Culture principals must know how to do this for student and teacher success, and Opportunity Culture Fellows are hungry for tips from their colleagues who do it well. At the Opportunity Culture Fellows Convening, a panel of principals highlighted strong hiring and communications as two keys among many to success.

Building Team Cohesion: Opportunity Culture® Fellows Share Strategies

by | October 30, 2019

By Margaret High, October 30, 2019 

How can multi-classroom leaders (MCLs) build the cohesion of their teaching teams? A panel of five Opportunity Culture Fellows tackled this question—a hot topic among MCLs­—with suggestions that focused on the joy of team leadership as well as how to address challenges with team members.

“My two things are genuinely caring about the people as individuals and as teachers. …And then really not being a know-it-all,” one panelist said. “I’m not coming into the classroom to make you into me. I’m coming in here to make you a better version of you.”

To Teach Reading Right, Understand the Science of Reading

by | October 15, 2019

By Margaret High, October 17, 2019 

As CEO of the Mississippi-based Barksdale Reading Institute, Kelly Butler doesn’t mind saying schools teach literacy all wrong. Condensing the science of reading into a one-hour overview presentation for the Opportunity Culture Fellows Convening, Butler issued a clarion call for educators to to follow the science of reading, focusing on phonics, brain development, the five components of reading, and the simple view of reading. Butler’s efforts to spread the word have helped move Mississippi’s reading growth to the top of state rankings.

Strategies for Personalization: Learner Variability Tool Can Help

by | October 9, 2019

By Margaret High, October 9, 2019

Educators know they can’t design their instructional approach for one “average” student—but finding the right resources to make true personalization possible can be a time-consuming struggle. At their 2019 convening, Opportunity Culture Fellows tested one free tool that can help. Digital Promise, an independent, nonpartisan nonprofit, created its Learner Variability Project to translate the growing body of research on learning for educators and parents. Digital Promise created a whole-child framework that feeds into its free tool, the Learner Variability Navigator, which guides users through the factors they need to address for each student and strategies to match.

In Memoriam: Opportunity Culture® Fellow Casandra Cherry

by | September 23, 2019

By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, September 23, 2019

Each year, Public Impact announces a new cohort of Opportunity Culture Fellows–multi-classroom leaders, principals, and others in Opportunity Culture roles who have achieved strong results and been leaders in their schools and districts. This spring, Casandra Cherry, the multi-classroom leader for math and science in grades 6–8 at Phillips Middle School in the Edgecombe County, North Carolina, school district, was one of the 15 Fellows named for 2019-20. We’re saddened to share that Ms. Cherry passed away suddenly on August 21. The impact she made on students over her 20 years as an educator is incalculable, her principal at Phillips, Jenny O’Meara, said.