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For development resources by topic—see our Instructional Leadership and Excellence webpages
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For development resources by season—Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer—see the Tools & Professional Development page
In the most successful Opportunity Culture schools, principals lead a team of multi-classroom leaders—strong teachers who lead small teams and are accountable for outcomes in each grade and/or subject—to ensure instructional excellence schoolwide. Successful principals say this schoolwide “team of leaders” approach is crucial to their students’ and teachers’ success.
Leading a team of teacher-leaders who in turn support and guide all of a school’s teachers is a new experience for most principals. Thus, Public Impact created these free training and development sessions to help principals in Opportunity Culture schools.
New and experienced principals can experience these sessions in formal training, study them on their own, or study them with other principals. Contact Public Impact if you would like help organizing formal training or train-the-trainer sessions and establishing a clear process for educators to support one another’s growth throughout the school year.
Each principal training session includes:
- PowerPoint presentation with embedded facilitator’s notes
- Handouts that can be completed electronically or printed
- Information about additional materials for activities (where applicable)
School and district leaders: The School Excellence Portal helps districts and schools track training and monitor and improve Opportunity Culture to achieve strong student learning. Contact Public Impact for more information.
Public Impact leads principals through the sessions in three or four summer days of training followed by five monthly sessions throughout the school year. Public Impact can also train trainers in your district; contact us if you would like help organizing formal training or train-the-trainer sessions and establishing a clear process for educators to support one another’s growth throughout the school year. Public Impact also offers training in subject-specific instruction based on the best research about what methods achieve higher-growth student learning.
These are the training sessions, in the sequence we recommend:
Summer Day One:
1.1 Introduction to Opportunity Culture: Clarifying Roles and Responsibilities
Session Slide Deck:
Click image to open session slide deck
Session Objectives:
- Learn about Opportunity Culture and how design teams created Opportunity Culture school plans.
- Review MCL, TRT, and RA job descriptions and discuss expectations for new roles.
- Learn about Public Impact’s Instructional Leadership & Excellence framework and how professional learning this summer and throughout the school year align to the framework.
1.2 Creating the Foundation for Distributed Leadership
Session Slide Deck:
Click image to open session slide deck
Session Objectives:
- Understand the purpose and impact of distributed leadership.
- Revisit and refine your Theory of Action and Measures of Success.
1.3 Launching an Instructional Team of Leaders
Session Slide Deck:
Click image to open session slide deck
Session Objectives:
- Apply distributed leadership practices to your instructional team of leaders.
- Define each Opportunity Culture team member’s role and responsibilities and how they contribute to achieving school vision and goals.
- Examine structures for Opportunity Culture teacher collaboration.
Session Handouts:
1.4 Evaluating Opportunity Culture Teacher-Leaders
Session Slide Deck:
Click image to open session slide deck
Session Objectives:
- Learn about the importance of evaluation to guide and develop Opportunity Culture teachers.
- Review Opportunity Culture teacher evaluation rubrics.
- Begin discussing supports needed for MCLs and TRTs to be successful in their roles.
Session Handouts:
Summer Day Two:
2.1 Working Styles
Session Slide Deck:
Click image to open session slide deck
Session Objectives:
- Identify your working style.
- Brainstorm strengths and limitations of different working styles.
- Discuss the working styles of your school team and how they can lead to positive impact on your school.
Session Handouts:
2.2 Supporting and Developing Leaders
Session Slide Deck:
Click image to open session slide deck
Session Objectives:
- Explore key elements to supporting and developing leaders.
- Determine how they will support and develop leaders in their context.
- Explore ways to track teacher and leader progress.
2.3 What to Coach: Supporting Teachers to Achieve Instructional Excellence
Session Slide Deck:
Click image to open session slide deck
Session Objectives:
- Explore resources to help Opportunity Culture teachers achieve instructional excellence in their classrooms and with their team teachers.
- Observe a video of a teacher in action and discuss how to prioritize the components of excellent teaching.
- Begin planning to support your Opportunity Culture teachers, setting clear expectations for instructional excellence and how they will work with team teachers to make progress toward those expectations.
2.4 How to Coach: Supporting Multi-Classroom Leaders with Coaching and Support Skills
Session Slide Deck:
Click image to open session slide deck
Session Objectives:
- Discuss components of a coaching cycle and the Six Steps for Delivering Effective Feedback.
- Practice identifying coaching strengths and areas for improvement.
- Apply the Six Steps to practice planning a coaching conversation with teacher leaders.
Summer Day Three:
3.1 Scheduling for an Opportunity Culture
Session Slide Deck:
Click image to open session slide deck
Session Objectives:
- Revisit master schedule and reflect on the extent to which it incorporates the best practices and key principles of an Opportunity Culture.
- Finalize master schedule and draft weekly schedules for MCLs, TRTs, and RAs.
3.2 Effective Opportunity Culture Implementation
Session Slide Deck:
Click image to open session slide deck
Session Objectives:
- Review characteristics of strong Opportunity Culture design and implementation.
- Anticipate and plan for common implementation challenges.
- Learn how support visits, data collection, redesign session, and professional development support Opportunity Culture implementation.
3.3 Preparing to Put it All Together
Session Slide Deck:
Click image to open session slide deck
Session Objectives:
- Review all the key decisions that you have made this week.
- Develop an agenda to use during the final session to lead your leadership team.
Session Handouts:
School Year:
1 Personal Development: Beginning of Year
Session Slide Deck:
Click image to open session slide deck
Session Objectives:
- Self-assess the extent to which you use the critical competencies for your role.
- Create a personal development plan that leverages strengths and improves areas of growth.
2 Monitoring Opportunity Culture Implementation
Session Slide Deck:
Click image to open session slide deck
Session Objectives:
- Self-reflect on Opportunity Culture implementation and discuss best practices with peers.
- Make plans to improve Opportunity Culture implementation, as needed.
3 Supporting Multi-Classroom Leaders Effectively
Session Slide Deck:
Click image to open session slide deck
Session Objectives:
- Reflect on how each Multi-Classroom Leader is progressing in the elements of instructional leadership.
- Review the coaching cycle and discuss how it can be adapted to support Multi-Classroom Leaders.
- Begin planning the meeting and next coaching cycle for each Multi-Classroom Leader.
4 Selecting and Hiring for Opportunity Culture Roles
Session Slide Deck:
Click image to open session slide deck
Session Objectives:
- Learn about this year’s district selection process for Opportunity Culture teachers.
- Reflect on last year’s school selection process and begin planning for the upcoming hiring season.
5 Year in Review: End-of-Year Reflection and Planning for Next Year
Session Slide Deck:
Click image to open session slide deck
Session Objectives:
- Reflect on this year’s successes and challenges and begin planning for next year.
- Prepare for end-of-year meetings with your Opportunity Culture teachers.
Note: We encourage the free use, reproduction, and distribution of our materials, but we require attribution. If you adapt the materials, you must include on every page “Adapted from OpportunityCulture.org; © Public Impact.” Materials may not be sold, leased, licensed, or otherwise distributed for compensation. See our Terms of Use page for more information.
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