Opportunity Culture Audio
What do great Opportunity Culture educators do, and what have they learned about successfully redesigning school roles to reach all students with excellent teaching? Opportunity Culture Audio pieces bring their voices and advice to you, to help confront some of the stickiest issues facing education.
Subscribe to our Podcast!
Opportunity Culture Audio is now available as a podcast! To subscribe, search for “Opportunity Culture Audio” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
-
#11. Public Impact Module Helps Schools Create a Tutoring Culture
In this podcast, former Multi-Classroom Leader Okema Owens Simpson provides an overview of the Multi-Classroom Leader role and the power of small-group, in-school tutoring through MCL teams, as a preview for watching the module and understanding our SIMPLE framework for building a tutoring culture.
-
#10. How Collaborative District Leadership Supports Opportunity Culture Success
Successful Opportunity Culture implementation in a school district isn’t all up to the schools: Getting broad participation and communication from multiple district offices provides the support schools need. In North Carolina’s Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, Area Superintendent Timisha Barnes-Jones and Tina Lupton, executive director of professional learning, have collaborated closely to ensure that Opportunity Culture support exists at all levels.
-
#9. Kids Need Tutoring. Few Kids Get Tutoring. Opportunity Culture Models Can Help.
A recent report from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that high-dosage tutoring reaches only about one in 10 students—despite the national push for it. But if schools build innovative staffing models such as Opportunity Culture models, small-group tutoring can happen routinely, during the school day.
-
#8. Dramatic Student Growth Follows Focus on Data, Small-Group Tutoring, and Collaboration
Lucama Elementary, a rural, Title I school in Wilson County, North Carolina, implemented several Opportunity Culture roles in 2021–22. Through a focus on data-driven small-group tutoring, instruction based on the science of reading, and greater educator collaboration through Multi-Classroom Leader teams, the school dramatically increased student learning growth.
-
#7. Making the Most of Opportunity Culture Innovations
Superintendent Scott Muri, a finalist for state superintendent of the year in Texas, has Opportunity Culture experience in multiple districts; hear Muri’s thoughts on the impact of Opportunity Culture innovations in areas including teacher residencies, teacher leadership, and other district offices, and the importance of staying faithful to the model.
-
#6. Becoming a Committed Opportunity Culture School
Susan Hendricks was the principal of Ross Elementary in Ector County, Texas, before becoming the district’s director of leadership in August. Under her leadership, Ross Elementary received high ratings on the annual, anonymous survey given to Opportunity Culture educators. Henricks credits that success to having structures in place that the whole school understands and committing to the belief that the Opportunity Culture initiative is "who you are.”
-
#5. Comprehensive Communications Strengthen Opportunity Culture School
Principal Julie Shields leads a school that ranks very high on Opportunity Culture surveys for communicating its Opportunity Culture plans and impact. She spoke with Public Impact about how she thinks through a communications strategy to keep Opportunity Culture implementation strong over many years.
-
#4. Advice from an Opportunity Culture Director
As Anne Claire Tejtel Nornhold, who leads the Opportunity Culture work in Baltimore City Public Schools, prepared to move out of that role in spring 2022, she spoke with Public Impact about what worked well and her advice for other district Opportunity Culture directors. Listen to her reflections in our latest Opportunity Culture Audio piece, with her advice on focusing on a strong selection and accountability process, support for multi-classroom leaders, and having high-quality district-level Opportunity Culture support.
-
#3. How Opportunity Culture Redesigns Help Address Teacher Shortages
What if you could improve student outcomes even in a time of rising teacher shortages? Many schools and districts report feeling stuck on the hamster wheel of trying to fill all their open positions—a struggle that has been worsening for years. Listen to this recording of our post about the solution that could take principals out of chronic emergency hiring mode, and how two principals have used that solution.
-
#2. Teacher-Assistant Partnership Helps Students Grow
Angela Caldwell, an Opportunity Culture expanded-impact kindergarten teacher in Guilford County, North Carolina, and her teaching assistant, Lora Terry, speak with Public Impact about their teaching partnership and the impact they see small-group tutoring making on student learning growth.
-
#1. An Opportunity Culture Principal Reflects
In this first Opportunity Culture Audio piece, we hear from Jenny O’Meara, who until 2021 served as a principal for a middle school using Opportunity Culture roles. O’Meara worked in Edgecombe County Public Schools in a rural part of North Carolina, which has taken its Opportunity Culture implementation district-wide.