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Opportunity Culture® Certification Standards 

Last modified: August 2024

Certification and Validation Standards

Certification Element

Description
OC™ pledge
 Principal signs the OC™ commitment pledge on behalf of the school community.
OC™ access
 Principal uploads staff emails to the portal. All staff will then have access to OC™ newsletters and the OC™ portal
All OC™ teams have MCL™ roles
 All OC™ teams have MCL™ positions.
Team Reach™ standards
 There are Team Reach™ roles within at least half of MCL™ teams. and at least one team has two TRT™ roles (or an MTRT™ and TRT™ role).
All TRT™/MTRT™ roles are on an MCL™ team.
Tutoring culture
 Principal has signed the OC™ tutoring pledge on behalf of the school community.
For at least 60% of the weeks across the school year, all students on MCL™ teams receive at least 90 minutes of small-group1 teaching and tutoring per week, on average, with adults across core subjects; students who are further behind2 receive at least 120 minutes, and small-group teaching and tutoring is based on data about each student’s current knowledge and skill.
MCL™ reach
 MCLᵀᴹ roles reach at least 75% of students in each of the four core subjects.
MCL™ selectivity
 The MTRT™ job description requires evidence of prior high-growth student learning.
School selects only teachers with prior high-growth student learning3 for 100% of MTRT™ roles.
Representation
 School and school system combined take 4 or more steps to recruit MCL™ educators representative of the race (as defined under federal law) of any student group that is 10% or more of the school’s student population.
Financial sustainability
 OC™ implementation and plan for all subsequent years is financially sustainable within the school budget.
MCL™ pay supplements
 School system career path includes pay supplements for MCL™ roles.
MCL™ pay supplements for non-Title I schools are 20% or more of average teacher pay for a team size of at least 4 and 30% or more for a team size of at least 6, and for Title I schools are 25% for a team size of at least 4 and 35% or more for a team size of at least 6.
MTRT™ pay supplements
 Pay supplements for MTRT™ roles are at least 6% of average teacher pay in non-Title I schools AND at least 13% in Title I schools.
TRT™ pay supplements
 Pay supplements for TRT™ roles are at least 5% of average teacher pay in non-Title I schools AND at least 8% in Title I schools.
RA™ pay supplements
 Pay supplements for RA™ roles are at least 6% of average paraprofessional pay in non-Title I schools AND at least 13% in Title I schools.
Planning/leadership time
 All MCL™ roles actually have at least an average of 7.5 hours weekly, plus 1.5 more hours per team teacher, to plan and lead their teams.
Principal communication
 Principal signed the OC™ communication pledge on behalf of the school community.
Principal has actually communicated at least 7 times by the time of certification assertion to the entire staff, in writing and orally, about: the purpose of OC™ roles; clarification of OC™ roles and responsibilities; OC ™ impact; and the school’s weekly small-group teaching and tutoring time and goals for students.
Accountability matching job
 MCL™ roles, MTRT™ roles, and TRT™ roles (if any), as well as team teachers, are matched with students for whom their roles are accountable, including joint accountability for the same students in a formal data system at the district/system level.
Principal actually communicates that MCL™ educators and teachers are jointly accountable for student learning growth in writing or staffing meetings at least 5 times by the time of certification assertion.
MCL™ job descriptions and job postings communicate that MCL™ roles are accountable for the student learning growth of all students served by the teachers they lead

 

Certification and Validation Standards Details

Certification allows schools to assert they are meeting the Opportunity Culture® design standards related to higher-growth student learning and stronger educator satisfaction. Validation is an added layer of assurance to the community, sharing Public Impact® consultants’ confirmation of school design and implementation factors and certification levels. Validation occurs through feedback rounds, which includes additional analysis of strengths, opportunities to improve, and recommended actions. Validation of schools currently planning their initial designs each year are the exception: These schools may achieve Certified Opportunity Culture School™ status, validated at provisional certification, when designing directly with Public Impact® consultants, using the intensive co-design or focused co-design methods. These schools must meet the provisional OC™ certification standards, with all relevant information submitted in the portal, to be validated at that level.

The rights to use the term “Certified Opportunity Culture School™”, with accompanying icons, and the word “validated” with “Opportunity Culture®” for schools meeting the criteria described below will begin September 20th, 2024 for use on school and system websites and other written material, and will be posted on the Opportunity Culture® website and e-blasted with accompanying social media on or between September 20, 2024 and October 1, 2024.

Information for Legacy Sites:

Current Clients in Implementation

Current Clients in District Design

Current New Clients
Started district design prior to July 1, 2023. Started district design after July 1, 2023, and before December 1, 2023. Started district design after December 1, 2023.
  • Can use Opportunity Culture® language, regardless of certification status
  • May use old terms for roles that already existed prior to 7/1/23 (not create new ones)
  • May use Opportunity Culture® language, but after 6/30/26 must meet at least provisional certification standards in order to use Opportunity Culture® language
  • All terms must be updated to match currently required certification terms and titles by 6/30/26
  • Must use certification wording/symbols required
  • May use Opportunity Culture® language, only when meeting at least provisional certification standards
  • Must use the currently required certification terms and titles
  • Must use certification wording/symbols required

All current clients are eligible for their schools to receive 2023-24 Certified Opportunity Culture School™ status and validation in summer of 2024 based on their 2023-2024 designs and/or implementation meeting the below standards. All the standards listed at a level must be met in order to achieve certification at that level. To achieve 2024-25 Certified Opportunity Culture School™ status, schools will need to submit information in the portal over the course of the 24-25 school year and attest that they meet standards.

 

Schools need portal access to achieve 2024-25 Certified Opportunity Culture School™ status (or validation). For 2023-24 clients, a portal subscription is included at no extra charge in 2024-25 contracts for one year for the district team and for schools engaged directly with our consultants in school design, scale & optimization sessions, feedback rounds, or professional learning in 2024-25. Individual school portal access or the OC™ educator survey expert report add-on service must be purchased to receive the 24-25 survey for each school not directly engaged with our consulting team in the aforementioned services. Districts may provide portal access to other schools at a cost of $300/school, including for schools that received 2023-24 status but are no longer engaged with our consultants directly in 2024-25.

 

In order to not confuse the public regarding Certified Opportunity Culture School System™ status, no system/district may call themselves “an Opportunity Culture® district” or similar in writing without district-level certification. Instead, systems/districts may temporarily say that they are a system/district with schools that “use Opportunity Culture® models.” District- and system-level certification will begin after September 15, 2025.

 

NOTE: Any element expressly prohibited by state law or an applicable collective bargaining agreement will be excluded. Please indicate any such exceptions in the portal.  Legacy systems and their schools—in systems designing before July 1, 2023—may use alternative titles that they adopted prior to July 1, 2023.

Certification Standards:

Design Elements

Certification at Provisional Level

Certification at Level 1

Certification at Level 2

Certification at Level 3
Opportunity Culture® Pledge
 OC™ pledge signed by principal on behalf of school community in certification submission Same as prior level Same as prior level Same as prior level
Educators have Opportunity Culture® Access
 All staff email addresses must be shared with the portal and updated annually All Opportunity Culture® teams have MCL™ positions Same as prior level Same as prior level
All Opportunity Culture® teams have Multi-Classroom Leader™(MCL™) roles
Note: Vacancies in an MCL™ position are permissible for up to 6 months while school seeks to fill the position with a qualified applicant
 School implementation plan includes MCL™ roles for all OC™ grades / subjects All Opportunity Culture® teams have MCL™ positions Same as prior level Same as prior level

Contact our team to learn more!

 

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