A scalable, sustainable tutoring culture, for all.
Research shows that when teachers increase small-group teaching, and when more adults tutor—including teachers, paraprofessionals, volunteers, and others—student learning surges. How can Multi-Classroom Leader teams make it happen?
Educators in Multi-Classroom Leader roles across the country are achieving higher-growth learning in part by increasing the time students spend connecting and learning with adults in small groups. How to best do it?
Coming Spring 2023! SIMPLE Guide to Building a Tutoring Culture: Summary. This brief guide (now in editing) explains the basics of how to plan and implement “small for all”—what we call a tutoring culture—in both elementary and secondary schools, and in a variety of staffing models. Opportunity Culture educators can gain access to more detailed guidance through professional learning and the School Excellence Portal.
“In our state, in order to exceed growth, you have to be 2.0—our growth was 9.57 in one year.”
—Principal April Shackleford, Wilson, NC, describing results after engaging all adults in small-group tutoring on Multi-Classroom Leader teams in 2021–22.
Learn more from these posts and examples in Opportunity Culture schools:
Harness the Power of Small-Group Tutoring with Opportunity Culture Staffing: How can Opportunity Culture models maximize the research-proven power of tutoring? With teaching teams guided by teachers in the Multi-Classroom Leader role, Opportunity Culture schools can scale up effective small-group tutoring by paraprofessionals and team teachers, helping reach all students with personalized attention. This blog post offers schools some starting guidelines.
Dramatic Student Growth Follows Focus on Data, Small-Group Tutoring, and Collaboration: Lucama Elementary, a rural, Title I school in Wilson County, North Carolina, implemented several Opportunity Culture roles in 2021–22. Following a focus on data-driven, small-group tutoring, instruction based on the science of reading, and greater educator collaboration through Multi-Classroom Leader teams, the school dramatically increased student learning growth. In this audio piece, Principal April Shackleford and Lucama educators explain their success, and why it led them in 2022 to expand to schoolwide Opportunity Culture roles.
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. Schools should think now about using their Covid funding for planning and implementation, to create a sustainable, long-lasting tutoring culture. Read (or listen to) this blog post to learn more.
How Innovative Staffing Can Address Teacher Shortages, Permanently—and Boost Learning: Innovative staffing means thinking differently about instructional roles and available funding to improve academics, creating new career options for teachers and addressing persistent teaching vacancies. While not solely focused on small-group tutoring and teaching, this brief shows how schools that reallocate funding from these vacancies for new staffing models can incorporate high-impact tutoring and more small-group teaching for all students into the school day, delivered by all educators, including paraprofessionals and teacher residents.
Getting the Most Bang for Our Buck: RAs Lead Small-Group Tutoring: With recent studies showing the positive learning impact of tutoring, Multi-Classroom Leader Willonda Cates-Gillespie describes the benefits of having a reach associate to help her reach more students with small-group tutoring. Learn more in this short 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. Watch this video to see how the principal and her team of Multi-Classroom Leaders led the use of multiple curricula and data-driven small-group instruction and interventions—resulting in strong student learning growth.
A “Crucial” Opportunity Culture Role: Reach Associates Provide Small-Group Tutoring: At Bearfield Primary School in Hertford County, North Carolina, paraprofessional reach associates help improve student outcomes by providing instructional support on a Multi-Classroom Leader team. Watch this video to learn more.
Educators in paraprofessional tutoring roles can advance to a teacher role in locations with Opportunity Culture’s paid residencies. Learn more here.
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