Opportunity Culture Student Outcomes

Two Independent Studies Find Large Academic Gains in Opportunity Culture

Third-party studies have found that, on average, teachers who joined Opportunity Culture multi-classroom leaders’ teams moved from producing 50^th percentile student learning growth to 77^th percentile student learning growth.

• A 2018 study looked at implementation in three early Opportunity Culture districts
• A 2021 study looked at a Texas district’s outcomes during the 2020–21 pandemic year.

In the Texas study, the researchers highlighted how positive the results were for English language learners and students considered socioeconomically at risk—particularly notable during a pandemic.​

By taking the studies’ results and applying the method of Stanford researchers led by Eric Hanushek* to convert their data into years of learning, we see that they equated to: ​

• an extra 0.2 to 0.8 years of learning in reading
• ​and an extra 0.3 to 0.7 years of learning in math—just by having a multi-classroom leader (MCL) with prior high growth guide the team.
• And in the Texas study, the nearly 2,000 English learners taught by Opportunity Culture teams had even larger reading gains—again using the Stanford researchers’ method, that meant an extra 1.3 years of learning compared with other English learners.​

In the AIR-Brookings evaluation, students of teachers who served on teams led by MCLs showed sizable, statistically significant academic gains. The team teachers were, on average, at the 50th percentile in the student learning gains they produced before joining a team led by an MCL. After joining the teams, they produced learning gains equivalent to those of teachers in the 75th to 85th percentiles in math, and, in the six of seven models with statistically significant results, from the 66th to 72nd percentiles in reading.

The effects appeared to be both direct—with performance improving for individual students in MCL classrooms—and indirect, with whole schools’ growth rising when MCLs begin leading even part of a school. The study compared schools that had Opportunity Culture classrooms with schools that had none, as well as before-and-after results for schools that have implemented Opportunity Culture.

The study, by Ben Backes of the American Institutes for Research and Michael Hansen of the Brookings Institution, covered about 15,000 students and 300 teachers. Three-quarters of Opportunity Culture schools in these districts were eligible for Title I funds in 2015–16. Researchers controlled for factors including student background and prior performance.

In the Ector County study, the district asked Texas Tech researchers Alexander Wiseman, Jacob Kirksey, and Jessica Gottlieb to conduct an independent review of its first eight Opportunity Culture schools, which began using Opportunity Culture roles in 2020–21 with 27 multi-classroom leaders. In those first schools, 72% of students—7,121 out of 9,928 students at the schools—were reached by an Opportunity Culture team. The district has since signed a three-year contract to continue the researcher’s study as it expands Opportunity Culture implementation; in the 2021–22 year, the district had 17 Opportunity Culture schools and 59 multi-classroom leaders.

The researchers showed that Ector County ISD (ECISD) students with Opportunity Culture teachers achieved higher reading and math achievement at all grade levels, compared with ECISD students who did not yet have Opportunity Culture teachers. They reported effect sizes of .20 standard deviations in reading and about .07 standard deviations in math.

Averaging the two studies, the extra learning gains that students on multi-classroom leaders’ teams make each year would have more than made up for Covid-related learning loss or “unfinished learning,” (as estimated by McKinsey & Company for students nationally from March 2020–May 2021). And in non-Covid years, students would make far more learning growth than they otherwise do, on average.

The Texas Tech researchers also presented a positive qualitative analysis of the district’s implementation. They shared quotes they heard consistently from teachers who appreciated the extensive MCL support they received, and from multi-classroom leaders who highlighted the value of their role compared to typical specialist or facilitator roles, and to keeping them working directly with students while leading adults.

For more, see here and here.

*In this method, 0.25 standard deviations = 1 year of learning. See: Hanushek, E., Peterson, P., & Woessmann, L. (2012, Fall). Is the U.S. Catching Up? International and State Trends in Student Achievement. Education Next. Retrieved from http://hanushek.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Hanushek%2BPeterson%2BWoessmann%202012%20EdNext%2012%284%29.pdf