What’s Happening

By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, February 10, 2023

Despite a steady national drumbeat about the power of high-dosage tutoring to help students rebound from the dramatic post-Covid learning dip, the National Center for Education Statistics reported on Wednesday that such tutoring reaches only about one in 10 students. Although 37 percent of schools reported that they offer high-dosage tutoring—that is, at least a half-hour of one-on-one or small-group instruction three times a week with a trained educator—not even a third of students in those schools receive the tutoring. Read more…

By Public Impact, January 30, 2023

The January newsletter includes a new Opportunity Culture video about the science of reading, a prompt for Opportunity Culture principals, winter resources, and media highlights.

By Public Impact, January 12, 2023

How can innovative staffing help reduce staffing shortages and boost learning? Public Impact’s latest brief explains how the Opportunity Culture initiative uses innovative staffing designs to create new career options for educators, increase collaboration and support, and incorporate high-impact tutoring for all students into the school day—within regular budgets.

By Public Impact, December 12, 2022

The December newsletter includes a new Opportunity Culture audio, video, and blog. It also includes a prompt for Opportunity Culture principals, winter resources, and media highlights.

By Public Impact, December 12, 2022

As a temporary solution to a shortage of paraprofessional reach associates who can provide release time, Multi-Classroom Leader Sunil Dutt combines one of his math blocks with that of a new teacher into one large group meeting in the library, so that Dutt can co-teach and model instruction.

By Public Impact, December 12, 2022

Lucama Elementary, a rural, Title I school in Wilson County, North Carolina, implemented several Opportunity Culture roles in 2021–22. Following a focus on data-driven, small-group tutoring, instruction based on the science of reading, and greater educator collaboration through Multi-Classroom Leader teams, the school dramatically increased student learning growth. Principal April Shackleford and Lucama educators explain their success, and why it led them in 2022 to expand to schoolwide Opportunity Culture roles in the latest Opportunity Culture audio piece.

By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, November 14, 2022

In Building Better PL: How to Strengthen Teacher Learning, researchers Heather Hill and John Papay highlight six key design features of effective professional learning, or PL. Those features fall under two general principles for effective PL—it supports teachers’ day-to-day practice, and it involves accountability for change and improvement. Opportunity Culture schools, which provide routine, job-embedded PL through multi-classroom leader teams, notably hit the mark for those two principles and each of the key features.

By Public Impact, October 31, 2022

The October newsletter includes how to use Opportunity Culture models to respond to NAEP results, a new video and blogs, Opportunity Culture news, and more.

By Public Impact, October 28, 2022

The NAEP results released this week may feel deeply discouraging—if not surprising—to weary educators. But Opportunity Culture research points to sustainable, scalable ways to improve student learning—and at Public Impact, we see ways to improve learning well beyond those initial research findings. This is the moment for Opportunity Culture schools and districts—and those considering using Opportunity Culture models—to rapidly reach as many students as possible and maximize the innovative staffing of Opportunity Culture teams to dramatically boost student results.