Multi-Classroom Leadership

Multi-Classroom Leadership is the cornerstone of Opportunity Culture designs. Teachers with a record of high-growth student learning and leadership competencies, known as multi-classroom leaders or MCLs, both teach part of the time and lead small, collaborative teams of two to eight teachers, paraprofessionals, and teacher residents in the same grade or subject to meet each MCL’s standards of excellence. MCLs establish each team member’s roles and goals at least annually, determine how students spend time, and organize teaching roles to fit each teacher’s strengths, content knowledge, and professional development goals.

Independent researchers 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.

Schools combine Multi-Classroom Leadership with Team Reach when they want to reach more students with available teachers and/or increase teacher planning time, pay, and career advancement opportunities. Team reach teachers directly teach more students than usual, but typically without raising instructional group sizes and with increased small-group instruction. They may be supported by advanced paraprofessionals, known as reach associates. Research has shown that paraprofessionals are just as effective as teachers in teaching small groups. In some cases, team reach teachers may use blended-learning rotations or specialize by subject.

Multi-Classroom Leadership, alone or in combination with Team Reach, can be used by special education teachers; in our model linked below, we provide four examples of how to reach all students who have disabilities with excellent teaching—three in inclusive models and one in self-contained SPED classrooms.

Multi-classroom leaders and team reach teachers earn substantial pay supplements within regular school budgets—typically funded by reducing the number of non-classroom specialists (some of whom may become MCLs), and/or by adding a paraprofessional for instructional and administrative support in exchange for a teaching position on the team, and/or by reallocating other costs within the school.

For more details, see the full descriptions of these models below, and examples of educator and student schedules using the models.