The Remotely Located Multi-Classroom Leadership model can help schools achieve higher-growth student learning, regardless of their current staffing. This strategy is especially valuable for schools that:
- Struggle to offer advanced-level secondary school courses; or
- Currently lack teachers who have produced prior high-growth learning; and
- Remain committed, despite these challenges, to giving all students access to high-growth learning and all teachers access to on-the-job development, consistently.
A remotely located multi-classroom leader, or MCL, leads a team of educators who are located in multiple schools and/or districts; the MCL also provides some direct instruction to the team’s students. Remotely Located Multi-Classroom Leadership roles can be organized by a state, a partnership among districts, or a large district to supply its own schools that have shortages of qualified MCLs and specialized teachers. Public Impact strongly recommends implementing on-site Multi-Classroom Leadership roles schoolwide concurrently or prior to introducing remotely located roles.
The technical design—roles, budgets, pay, collaboration time, technology, accountability, and more—of remotely led teams is more complex than the design of an on-site Multi-Classroom Leadership model. District and school design teams must take extra care to ensure higher-growth student learning, teacher learning and advancement, equitable representation in MCL roles, and higher pay within budgets. The Opportunity Culture Principles still apply, as well as other design elements honed from years of data collection and analysis in Opportunity Culture schools nationwide.
Public Impact’s experienced team and its honed processes help systems achieve the learning results, pay, and sustainability that students and educators deserve. Contact us here.
In spring 2019, the first pilot of a part of this concept took place in North Carolina. Funded by the College Board, the pilot was designed by Public Impact and carried out by the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, a residential public high school in Durham, N.C. Watch a short video below about the pilot project. Read about this effort here.
 An on-site teacher works with students in the classroom. |  The Remotely Located MCL leads online planning meetings. |  Teaching teams collaborate virtually during regular online meetings. |
Contributors to the spring 2019 pilot of Remotely Located Multi-Classroom Leadership include:
- Remotely located multi-classroom leader: Maria Hernandez of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics
- Planning support, thought partnership, and documentation: Tamar Avineri of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics
- Team teachers: Sarah Donaldson of North Pitt High School, Ashley Knox of New Bern High School, Corrette Miller of Lexington Senior High School, Jocelyn Thammavong of New Bern High School, and Stanford Wickham of Vance County High School
- Teacher Advisory Committee members: Andrew Carucci, Michael Hamburger, Michelle Honeycutt, Angela Lamb, Tammy Manning, Jonathan Martinez-Ruiz, Paula McDougald, Jenna Regan, and Julie Riggins
- Educators from other Opportunity Culture sites serving as project advisors: Erin Burns, Scott Nolt, Russ Stanton, and Jimmel Williams
- Multi-classroom leader coach: Erica Jordan-Thomas, a former Opportunity Culture principal
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