Opportunity Culture® Certification Definitions 

Note: While we strive to align materials, differences may arise as we make improvements based on data and work with schools. Where definitions differ, the Opportunity Culture^® Portal Terms of Use, documents linked there, and portal certification standards govern.

Authorized Representatives are the people in each state, system and/or school who are designated by each subscribing entity in the Opportunity Culture^® portal as the leader responsible for accurate input of state, district and/or school design data and decisions for purposes of certification and validation and who have legal authority to form contracts with Public Impact^® and the Opportunity Culture^® initiative for obtaining certification and validation using trademarks and service marks of Public Impact^® and the Opportunity Culture^® initiative.

Certified Opportunity Culture School^™; and Certified Opportunity Culture School System^™. This is the terminology to describe a school, system or other allowed entity that has received certification through the Opportunity Culture^® portal using standards defined there; communications must always include the proper level and year.  See Opportunity Culture^® Portal Terms of Use and Intellectual Property Policy linked there for detail. School system certification is scheduled to begin in fall 2025.

Certified Opportunity Culture School^™, Validated; and Certified Opportunity Culture School System^™, Validated: This terminology describes a school, system or other designated entity that has received certification and validation through the Opportunity Culture^® portal and Public Impact^® team or licensee review of data; communications must always include the proper level and year. See Opportunity Culture^® Portal Terms of Use and Intellectual Property Policy linked there for detail. School system certification and potential validation are scheduled to begin in fall 2025.

Extended-Reach Teacher^™ role (ERT^™ role) is a role to use when a person qualified for the MCL^™ role is not available for a team. It counts neither for nor against certification. An ERT^™ educator is not on an MCL^™ team and reaches additional students as the primary teacher of record by teaching one or more sections in addition to the number taught by other teachers (typically in middle or high school) such that the grade or subject reaches more students than it otherwise would with the current teacher staffing level; or by teaching in a grade or subject in which one or more allotted teacher positions are traded to add an additional paraprofessional role; and/or the teacher(s) with this title increase class size; and in all cases who is/are paid more than the standard teacher pay schedule, funded within regular budgets as prescribed in each level of certification requirements. Public Impact^® recommends using Extended-Reach Teacher^™ roles with additional small-group teaching and tutoring time by all teachers and paraprofessionals; however, teaching small groups without being the primary teacher of record for additional students does not alone qualify as “reaching additional students” for the purposes of using the term Extended-Reach Teacher^™ role. in many cases these positions will be temporary until a person qualified for the MCL^™ role is available. Extended-Reach Teacher^™ positions have the same selection criteria, career paths and pay as Team Reach Teacher^™ roles of equivalent job scope, so that positions are stable when MCL^™ roles are and are not available to lead teams.

Multi-Classroom Leader^™ (MCL^™) role is a teacher-leader role in which people are selected for prior high-growth student learning, and they reach additional students by leading a small team of other teachers, while continuing to teach part of the time, for more pay than the standard teacher pay schedule, funded within regular budgets, with time to plan and lead the team and its members, and with accountability for the learning outcomes of all students taught by the teachers whom each MCL^™ educator leads. We recommend team sizes of 6 or fewer teachers until an MCL^™ educator has led high-growth learning results across a team, and up to 8 for experienced and successful instructional leaders who have had the MCL^™ role or similar role previously. Somewhat larger teams may be desirable when a leader in this role is experienced and successful, is full-release, and the alternative is not reaching students and their teachers with a well-qualified MCL^™ educator. Very large teams, however, make fulfilling the leadership and teaching role elements difficult and may decrease student learning results and educator satisfaction.

Team Reach^™ model is a staffing model in which a Multi-Classroom Leader^™ (MCL^™) educator leads a team and one or more Team Reach Teacher^™ (TRT^™) roles and/or Master Team Reach Teacher^™ (MTRT^™) roles work on the MCL^™ team and are paid more. Team Reach^™ staffing models, with some variation within, include the models below, which may be combined in a school:

• The team may reach more students per certified teacher as the primary teacher of record compared to the budgeted staffing level for the school. In this model, teams may add a new paraprofessional position to assist and tutor small groups of students—in a lab, by pushing into team classrooms or by pulling out small groups—or teachers may increase class sizes somewhat. In either case, higher pay and any new paraprofessional roles are typically funded by trading a vacant position; schools with increasing enrollment may simply allocate new enrollment funds to higher pay, rather than creating “new positions” that are traded immediately.
• Or: Individual teachers may reach more students as the primary teacher of record in order to provide release time to MCL™ roles. Higher pay for these TRT^™ educators is typically funded with a portion of specialist vacancy trades or flexible funding, such as Title I or universally available flexible funds.

 Team Reach Teacher™ (TRT™) role is a teacher on a Multi-Classroom Leader^™ (MCL^™) team that uses a Team Reach^™ model who reaches more students in one of the ways listed in the Team Reach^™ model definition and who is paid more than the standard teacher pay schedule, funded within regular budgets as prescribed in each level of certification requirements.

Master Team Reach Teacher™ (MTRT™) role is a TRT™ educator selected for prior high-growth student learning (as defined in certification levels) who, in addition to playing the TRT^™ role, also helps an MCL^™ educator lead a team by taking on at least one major adult leadership responsibility, such as guiding and coaching a team teacher.

Public Impact^® recommends using Team Reach^™ roles with additional small-group teaching and tutoring time by all teachers and paraprofessionals. However, teaching small groups without being the primary teacher of record for additional students does not alone qualify as “reaching additional students” for the purposes of using the terms Team Reach^™ model, Team Reach Teacher™ (TRT™) educator, or Master Team Reach Teacher™ (MTRT™) educator, nor for Certified Opportunity Culture School^™ or Certified Opportunity Culture School System^™ status.

Opportunity Culture^® portal: The online system in which systems, schools and other entities may perform a variety of functions, including but not limited to obtaining professional learning certificates, designing schools, submitting for certification and validation, reviewing and comparing data and reports about design and certification status, and using other tools based on the latest data and research.Legal rights and responsibilities and terms of use are indicated in the portal and documents linked therein.

Opportunity Culture® portal subscribers: States, systems and schools can become Opportunity Culture^® portal subscribers by purchasing an annual subscription to the Opportunity Culture^® portal and providing all staff emails to allow registration. This allows employees to use professional learning modules, school design materials, monitoring reports, and other tools based on the latest data and research, without any additional cost; current pricing and specific contact terms govern in the event of a conflict with this language. Use of the on-demand professional learning can alone save systems enough to pay for a subscription. These entities may say they “have a subscription to the Opportunity Culture^® portal,” or “provide employees with subscriptions to the Opportunity Culture^® portal,” before having schools that are certified.

Opportunity Culture^® school leader is a general term that includes several positions, including the principal and other senior-most instructional leaders who report to the principal, typically with titles such as vice-principal or assistant principal. These positions are referenced in many design materials on the portal.

Principal is the senior-most leader of school, by any title, or, if no principal or equivalent is present, interim principal, assistant principal, or district staff person charged with leadership of the school in absence of the principal or school leader. The principal is ultimately responsible for all school-level certification and validation submissions, even if they have delegated the role of inputting data and submitting for certification and/or validation.

Reach Associate™ (RA™) role is a paraprofessional position, not requiring a teacher license or alternative licensure, that either provides release time for two or more Multi-Classroom Leader™ roles or that serves on one Multi-Classroom Leadership™ team. These roles spend the majority of their time providing instructional support, a large portion of which is typically small-group tutoring, and typically supervise students independently for a portion of the day in classrooms and/or during transitions between classrooms. They may perform their duties by pushing into teachers’ classrooms, pulling out small groups into a different room, or having students rotate through a separate classroom supervised by one or more RA™ positions.

Residents are roles that are for aspiring teachers who do not currently have a bachelor’s degree or who do not have certification, and who are not using alternative licensure to teach. Residents in schools with Opportunity Culture^® models typically serve in modified Reach Associate™ positions on a Multi-Classroom Leadership™ team while learning to teach.

Small-group tutoring includes adult-led, data-determined groups with 3-5 students on average, and up to 7 when needed; groups may be led by any adult the MCL™ team includes, such as the MCL™ educator, teachers, new or pre-existing paraprofessional roles, administrators and/or volunteers, among others. Increasing small-group tutoring time is the first priority for building a tutoring culture. In contrast, the term “smaller” groups includes any group less than a whole class at once, such as dividing the class in half or into mid-size groups of 8-10 for a lesson; this is the second priority, to further reduce whole-class teaching so that more students receive eye contact and discussion time during lessons.

Students further behind: For any given subject, the students in the bottom ¼ of the class for a given unit or topic.

Team teachers are professionals in classroom teaching positions requiring licensure (or alternative certification) who teach on Multi-Classroom Leadership™ teams but who are not extending their reach directly to more students than typically.