The science of reading has “come alive” at Lucama Elementary, in North Carolina’s Wilson County Schools, after the principal and her team of Multi-Classroom Leaders led the use of multiple curricula and data-driven small-group instruction and interventions—resulting in strong student learning growth. Watch our new video here to learn more!
What’s Happening
Opportunity Culture® News and Views
New from Public Impact®: How Innovative Staffing Can Address Teacher Shortages, Permanently—and Boost Learning
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.
School’s Success with Data, Tutoring Focus: December Opportunity Culture® Newsletter
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.
New Opportunity Culture® Video: Leading Through Co-Teaching a Combined Class
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.
New Opportunity Culture® Audio: Dramatic Student Growth Follows Focus on Data, Small-Group Tutoring, and Collaboration
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.
New from Public Impact®: How Opportunity Culture® Models Strengthen Educator Professional Learning
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.
Responding to NAEP Results: October Opportunity Culture® Newsletter
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.
Maximize Opportunity Culture® Models to Respond to NAEP Results
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.
Fidelity and Collaboration: Opportunity Culture® Directors Share Advice on Common Challenges
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, October 17, 2022
Whether in districts large or small, rural or urban, Opportunity Culture directors often travel similar arcs from initial design issues to implementation challenges and successes. At the September virtual gathering of Opportunity Culture directors, four panelists shared how Opportunity Culture implementation has improved their district recruitment, teacher support, and student success, and discussed the collaboration needed among district offices, accountability concerns, and how their roles have changed.
New Opportunity Culture® Videos: Teacher Residencies; Collaborative Spaces
By Public Impact, October 5, 2022
Check out our latest short videos, showing how Opportunity Culture residencies help schools create teacher pipelines and increase student support, and how one school’s building design enhances team collaboration.