Many districts and CMOs name an Opportunity Culture director to lead their effort to extend the reach of excellent teachers, principals, and their teams to all students, to support schools in implementing well. The Opportunity Culture director:
- serves as the Opportunity Culture content expert for the district and manages the Opportunity Culture design process for the district design team and school design teams, ensuring alignment
- collaborates closely with district leadership and all Opportunity Culture teams to organize and disseminate information about Opportunity Culture implementation
- develops the leadership of Opportunity Culture principals, multi-classroom leaders, teaching teams, and multi-school leaders
- contributes and monitors data about the quality and outcomes of Opportunity Culture implementation toward the district’s goals, using the School Excellence Portal
Tools & Resources for Opportunity Culture Directors
Introduction to an Opportunity Culture: For educators, policymakers, and anyone else interested in dramatic improvements in education, this short slide deck with brief speaker notes provides a useful overview of why students and educators need Opportunity Culture models, how they work, the research supporting them, what states and districts can do to support them, and a list of more resources.
Opportunity Culture Director Job Description: The Opportunity Culture Director for a district or charter management organization leads the efforts of the district or charter management organization and its schools to extend to many more students the reach of excellent teachers, excellent principals, their teams, and related critical supports for instructional excellence by implementing Opportunity Culture models.
School Excellence Portal: Our online portal allows us to provide your site with a virtual planning and communications platform to support essential activities, give rapid, personalized feedback on implementation, ease the collection of data for analysis of outcomes, and provide educators with curated information and resources.
Covid Response Resources: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed materials to support teachers and students in the transition to at-home teaching and learning, including a slide deck, recommended district policies for remote learning, at-home schedule examples, and stories of educators teaching from home.
District Action Steps: This one-page tool provides an overview of responsibilities.
District Implementation Review: This rubric assesses the fidelity and strength of an Opportunity Culture site’s policies and actions important to teacher effectiveness and student learning in schools with advanced teaching roles.
School Implementation Review: This checklist, a companion to the School Plan Review, provides a check-up on plan implementation, including more factors important to student learning and teacher satisfaction.
School Plan Review: This checklist reviews each school’s plan for fidelity to the five Opportunity Culture Principles and other factors important to student learning and teacher satisfaction.
Communication Planner: The planner and related tools help districts/CMOs and schools communicate consistently and effectively about the development and implementation of their Opportunity Culture plans.
Talking Points for Superintendents and Implementation Leaders (also available in Spanish)
Teacher and Staff Selection Toolkit: The four-step action planner and accompanying tools guide district, school, and charter management organization leaders in selecting teachers and staff members for Opportunity Culture roles, which require new behaviors and skills. The planner walks users through each step of selecting candidates, explaining the considerations for each and providing links to relevant tools and resources.
Recruitment Toolkit: The four-step action planner and related tools take sites and their schools through the major steps of a successful recruiting effort for Opportunity Culture schools. Opportunity Culture sites should begin recruiting each year ideally in November/December and no later than March, to attract a large pool of excellent candidates and capture their interest before they commit to other jobs.
Multi-School Leadership: Opportunity Culture multi-school leaders (MSLs) are excellent principals with a record of high-growth student learning who lead a small group of two to eight related or closely located schools for more pay, funded within the budgets of their schools. Our tools explain the model and aid districts’ design and implementation.
Professional Learning Sessions for Opportunity Culture Roles: We provide summer and school-year professional learning sessions to help Opportunity Culture educators prepare for success in their new roles and school models, and address in a timely fashion topics and needs likely to arise throughout the year.
Visiting or Hosting Visitors to an Opportunity Culture School: School leaders who agree to let visitors see their Opportunity Culture designs in action should use the to-do list in Hosting Visitors in an Opportunity Culture School to prepare for the visit. Visiting an Opportunity Culture School provides questions visitors should consider asking to learn as much as possible about Opportunity Culture planning and implementation.
For more detail about the district design process, please see How We Help Districts and Schools.
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