This page contains links to financial analyses of the most common Opportunity Culture models and a detailed guide to establishing Opportunity Culture pay and career paths structures. Savings and cost calculations of the common models—Elementary Subject Specialization, Multi-Classroom Leadership, and Time-Technology Swap Rotation—illustrate that schools could increase excellent teachers’ pay up to approximately 130 percent, without increasing class sizes and within available budgets.
Pilot sites are already paying excellent teachers sustainable supplements of 10 to 50 percent of average pay, and some schools are paying supplements to effective teachers for joining teams that extend reach collaboratively. In some variations, schools may pay all teachers more, sustainably.
Pay and career paths guide:
Career Paths and Pay in an Opportunity Culture: This practical guide presents examples of career paths for multi-school leaders, multi-classroom leaders, and other roles for teachers, who can collaborate, improve, and excel on teams led by multi-classroom leaders. Teachers and principals in all these paths reach more students with excellent teaching and earn substantially more for it, within schools’ budgets.
Financial analyses to show how higher pay is funded sustainably:
Financial Planning Summary: Describes the expected savings and costs of implementing reach models. This summary covers all model categories and includes a summary table.
School Models Financial Planning:
Financial Planning for Elementary Subject Specialization
Financial Planning for Multi-Classroom Leadership
Financial Planning for Time-Technology Swap—Rotation
Financial Planning for Secondary-Level Time-Technology Swap + Multi-Classroom Leadership
Multi-Classroom Leader Team Staffing and Pay Example
See a PDF of the following tables here.
Note 2. In some districts, non-classroom positions may be paid for out of the district budget rather than school-level budgets. The district should work with schools designing Opportunity Culture models to allow them to reallocate those positions.
Note 3. Some portion of savings may be reallocated to all teaching staff or other priorities, not just excellent teachers. We present two example figures in the Multi-Classroom Leadership column when paying team teachers 10% and 25% more than average, which are modeled in the companion brief.
Note 4. See the following briefs for detailed calculations and multiple scenarios of net savings and pay increase potential, including data sources: Financial Planning for Elementary Subject Specialization, Financial Planning for Multi-Classroom Leadership, and Financial Planning for Time-Technology Swap— Rotation Model.
Note 2. Some portion of savings may be reallocated to all teaching staff or other priorities, not just teachers who extend their reach.
Note 3. The number of class periods teachers teach affects both the pay increases and number of new free periods that reach models provide to teachers. See Financial Planning for Secondary-Level Time-Technology Swap + Multi-Classroom Leadership for detailed calculations and multiple scenarios of net savings and pay increase potential, including data sources.
More help:
Six Ways to Pay All Teachers More Within Budget
How Digital Instruction Enables Higher Pay
Teacher Pay & Career Advancement—A Leader’s Guide
Other Financial Planning Resources:
Additional resources for reallocating spending to support better student learning include the following:
Education Resource Strategies (ERS) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping urban school systems organize talent, time, and money to create great schools at scale. Learn more about how to reallocate resources to support strategic school designs that extend teacher reach on their website: http://www.erstrategies.org/strategies/school_design
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