Teacher Pay Supplements in
Opportunity Culture Sites 2021–22

Highest Opportunity Culture (OC) Supplement	$20,000
Average Multi-Classroom Leader (MCL) Supplement	$12,040
Average MCL Supplement as Percentage of Average Teacher Salary*	20%
Average OC Supplement Paid to Teachers**	$9,671
Range of OC Supplements for All Teachers	$1,400 – $20,000
Range of OC Supplements for Reach Associates***	$1,000 – $5,000
Range of Salaries Paid to OC Teacher Residents****	$18,000 – $24,000
Approximate $ Reallocated to Higher Pay in 2021–22***	$11.9 million
Approximate $ Reallocated to Higher Pay Since OC Launch***	$41.6 million

* Average is calculated using state average teacher salary in states implementing Opportunity Culture, weighted by the number of MCLs per state. Source: NEA Research. (2021, April). Rankings of the States 2020 and Estimates of School Statistics 2021. Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/
** Teachers in advanced roles include MCLs, Master Team Reach Teachers, and Team Reach Teachers. See Teachers page for descriptions of these roles.
*** Reach Associate (RA) range and totals include only extra RA pay received in the form of fixed dollar supplements. Some RAs also earn extra pay by being placed in a higher step on the assistant pay scale.
****Teacher Resident salaries are not included in the reallocated totals.

Figure 1. Cumulative Reallocated to Higher Pay Since Opportunity Culture Launch, in Millions

Each Opportunity Culture school forms a design team, which includes teachers, to plan its Opportunity Culture implementation to fit the needs of the school. The team determines what roles to include on multi-classroom leader teams, and it reallocates the school’s budget to fund supplements to teachers’ pay that are sustainable within the regular budget. Pay levels for roles are set by each district.

These sustainable pay supplements encourage teachers to stay in teaching roles so they can extend their reach to more students, and, in the case of multi-classroom leaders, provide support and on-the-job development to small teaching teams. Research shows that these teams achieve significantly higher student learning growth.