Despite a steady national drumbeat about the power of high-dosage tutoring to help students rebound from the dramatic post-Covid learning dip, the National Center for Education Statistics reported on Wednesday that such tutoring reaches only about one in 10 students. Although 37 percent of schools reported that they offer high-dosage tutoring—that is, at least a half-hour of one-on-one or small-group instruction three times a week with a trained educator—not even a third of students in those schools receive the tutoring. Read more…
Results for "How to Create a Tutoring Culture"
#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.
Creating a Positive Classroom Culture: Tips from Opportunity Culture® Educators
By Paola Gilliam, October 5, 2022
With many students struggling with unresolved social-emotional issues brought on or intensified by Covid shutdowns, what are some simple strategies Opportunity Culture educators use to help create calm, safe spaces that support their students’ academic growth?
Sneak Peek: Opportunity Culture® Educators Speak
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, May 26, 2022
The communications team at Public Impact had the pleasure of visiting several districts this spring, for the first time since Covid hit, to interview Opportunity Culture educators and document their great work! We heard about their challenges and successes—what we learn in these interviews informs the guidance and support Public Impact provides to districts—and their opinions of Opportunity Culture roles and implementation.
Watch for stories and video clips highlighting specifics of their implementation and leadership and instructional practices in future months, but for now, here are a few of their thoughts to send us into summer:
How Opportunity Culture® Redesigns Help Address Teacher Shortages
By Public Impact, April 7, 2022
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. This struggle has been worsening for years. According to one report, the share of schools that tried to fill a vacancy but couldn’t tripled from 2011 to 2016, from 3.1 percent to 9.4 percent, and the share of schools that reported that it was “very difficult” to fill a vacancy nearly doubled, from 19.7 percent to 36.2 percent. Those vacancies directly harm students’ learning.
What could take weary principals out of chronic emergency hiring mode? A chance to rethink staffing to give students excellent instruction using the number of adults a school has. Read More…
Harness the Power of Small-Group Tutoring with Opportunity Culture® Staffing
By Public Impact, January 27, 2022
We, like Opportunity Culture educators, believe that students can make dramatically more learning growth than they typically do—with the right instructional approaches and adult support. So we continuously look for new, research-based ways to achieve this vision.
“Everybody is Traumatized”: Opportunity Culture® Fellows on Keeping On
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, January 25, 2022
With ongoing Covid-related stresses this year, many Opportunity Culture educators have wondered how much their challenges match those of other Opportunity Culture schools. Before the winter break, educators from multiple cohorts of Opportunity Culture Fellows gathered online to share their experiences and support one another—and found their stresses mirrored much of what has been in the news for months.
In Memoriam: Dr. Eric Ward, Principal and Opportunity Culture® Fellow
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, September 29, 2021
Dr. Eric Ward, principal of Harding University High School, an Opportunity Culture school in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, died on September 22 at the age of 46. Ward, a 2019–20 Opportunity Culture Fellow, had been an educator in Charlotte for nearly 25 years, including as principal of four schools.
Quick Take: Why One Texas Teacher Loved Her Opportunity Culture® Residency
By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, March 29, 2021
Coming into her final semester of college as a student at the University of Texas Permian Basin in fall 2020, Chelsea McMahan decided to forgo a traditional student teaching post, applying instead for a full-time, paid, Opportunity Culture teacher residency in a fourth-grade class in the Midland, Texas, independent school district (ISD).
Six months later, McMahan found herself—as a newly minted, full-time sixth-grade teacher at another Midland school—standing before the district’s school board extolling the benefits of her residency. Read more…
Opportunity Culture® Voices on Video
New Video: Using Opportunity Culture® Roles to Support Science of Reading-Based Instruction The science of reading has “come alive” at Lucama Elementary, in North Carolina’s Wilson County Schools, after the principal and her team of Multi-Classroom Leaders led the use...