October 1, 2025, CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—In 2024–25, hundreds of North Carolina schools with Certified Opportunity Culture School® status were two to three times more likely to exceed learning growth expectations than schools not using these designs, data from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction shows.
Opportunity Culture staffing design affects both instruction and human resources by extending the reach of excellent teaching to more students, for more pay, within regular budgets. Schools create Multi-Classroom Leader® teaching teams, which are led by a teacher with a record of high-growth student learning. A team of teachers and administrators at each school determines the exact team design, and schools vary significantly in their design, curricula, and instruction. Schools can receive certification from Public Impact, which created the Opportunity Culture initiative, by following a set of design standards correlated with student learning growth.
Of all 258 certified schools, 48% exceeded growth targets, compared with 25% of all schools in the state without Multi-Classroom Leader (MCL™) teams.
Of the 222 Title I schools with certification, 43% exceeded growth targets, compared with 21% of Title I schools without the teams.
The certified schools were also significantly less likely to fall short of growth targets than comparable schools in the state. Although Title I schools using these teams without certification were also more likely to exceed growth targets and less likely to fall short, the magnitude of differences was far larger for certified schools.