By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, August 10, 2018
Here are some recent reports that include Opportunity Culture, an initiative of Public Impact. Read More…
technology in education
The Risks and Rewards of Using Blended Learning to Reach More Students
By Elizabeth Annette Bartlett; first published by EducationNC, August 8, 2018
“In the end, it wasn’t quite that simple—but the lessons we learned will continue to benefit students.” Middle school Blended-Learning Teacher Elizabeth Annette Bartlett saw blended learning in an Opportunity Culture as a means to reach more students and give them more time for hands-on labs—but, she discovered, age mattered for student success. Read More…
Opportunity Culture® + Summit Learning: North Little Rock Pilots Statewide Plan
To kick off a statewide Arkansas initiative to reach all students with excellent teaching, North Little Rock Middle School will begin creating an Opportunity Culture® for teachers and students this fall, using teams led by multi-classroom leaders—experienced,...
How 2 Pioneering Blended-Learning Teachers Extended Their Reach
What makes blended learning different in an Opportunity Culture®? As two pioneering high school teachers in North Carolina show in new vignettes, blended learning gives them a tool to reach 40 to 100 percent more students per class period with great teaching. Students...
Speaking Up: A Year’s Worth of Opportunity Culture® Voices
“How many teachers are out there struggling daily because of lack of support? How many burn out because they’ve tried all they know? How many leave our profession early because they can’t do it on their own any longer? How many kids suffer because they have access...
Where Is Teaching Really Different? New Opportunity Culture® Video
What could you do in an Opportunity Culture®? In a new video, teachers in Opportunity Culture® schools tell how their roles let them: --Reach more students with great teaching --Lead other teachers without leaving teaching—“the best of both worlds” --Give and get...
Opportunity Culture® Voices: Blending Better Learning for More Kids
“Technology in education is one of the most exciting, terrifying and threatening developments for teachers today. Now into my second year as a blended-learning history teacher—meaning I have a group of students in my classroom every other day, assigning them to work online, at home, on the ‘off’ days—I’ve found the scary parts less frightening than most fear, with far greater benefits than I expected.
“My blended classroom opens the door to 21st-century learning, student-centered instruction, project-based learning, and an emphasis on learning as a lifelong experience, not just what you do for six hours at school. Rather than being another challenge for teachers or a new education fad, my class helped tie this all together.
“It’s been intense but gratifying: Because I teach one class while another works from home, I reach twice as many students in that period than in a traditional setting. The challenge is to reach more students while keeping results as strong as before I extended my reach—and preferably stronger. In the first blended year, my students’ growth scores in American History I were well above the district average, with students exceeding “expected” growth; this year, my blended class averaged higher growth than my traditional class.
“And this isn’t restricted to already-great or highly motivated students—I’ve seen high growth from honors, ESL, special education and average students alike.”
–Cabarrus County, N.C., American History Blended-Learning Teacher Scott Nolt, in Blending the Best: Better Learning for More Kids
What does Scott Nolt pinpoint as keys to getting that high growth in his students? In the latest Opportunity Culture column in Real Clear Education, Nolt notes three big priorities educators should focus on in designing a blended class–including a total commitment to a whole new way of teaching, and an ability to adjust quickly to the different needs of a blended environment. “My class is evolving faster than ever,” Nolt says.
Read more in his full column, and hear his thoughts on students in a blended classroom.
New Models Combine Teacher Leadership, Digital Learning
Teachers using blended learning need guidance to help students achieve high-growth learning consistently. Teacher-leaders and their teams need time to collaborate and learn together on the job. Students need access to personalized instruction that catalyzes consistently high growth and expands their thinking.
How can schools achieve all of these goals? Combine blended learning with teacher leadership. Two new models from Public Impact explain how elementary and secondary schools can combine Time-Technology Swaps and Multi-Classroom Leadership— while paying teachers far more, sustainably.
In middle and high schools, students in these models rotate on a fixed schedule between a learning lab and regular classrooms—a “Time-Technology Swap.” In the lab, students learn online, using digital instruction, and offline, pursuing skills practice and project work. This lab time, supervised by paraprofessionals, frees teachers’ time. That time allows teachers, working on teams led by multi-classroom leaders, to teach additional classes, and to plan and collaborate with their teammates on the job. Class time with the teacher is focused primarily on engaging portions of instruction that are best taught in person and in small-group follow-up. Lab work is chosen and directed by the multi-classroom leaders and their team teachers, and is personalized to each student. In some high schools, students do assigned digital learning and project work at home during part of the school day, rather than in a learning lab.
In elementary schools, students similarly engage in personalized digital learning and/or offline skills practice and project work for a limited, age-appropriate portion of the day at school. This frees multi-classroom leaders and team teachers to reach more students without increasing instructional group sizes, and to plan and improve together based on data about student progress each week.
Why should schools combine blended learning and teacher-led teams?
- All students reached with excellence: 100 percent of students can have one or more excellent teachers responsible for their learning in each affected subject, without larger classes.
- On-the-job learning and support for teachers: Teachers can gain and consolidate planning and collaboration time, and teachers can get more support and on-the-job development from multi-classroom leaders.
- Teachers earn more—often much more: Pay increases of up to 67 percent are possible for multi-classroom leaders, while pay for blended-learning teachers on the team can increase up to about 25 percent, within regular budgets, not temporary grants.
Many Opportunity Culture schools are already combining Time Swaps and Multi-Classroom Leadership. These new models offer a glimpse at what they are doing, and provide a starting point for additional schools that want to reach all students with excellent teaching and provide all teachers with career advancement opportunities and on-the-job development and support—creating an Opportunity Culture for all.
Get Inspired: Listen to Some Opportunity Culture® Teachers
Interviewing Opportunity Culture teachers and multi-classroom leaders recently in Charlotte and Cabarrus County, N.C., I got a little embarrassed. I never was much of a hard-bitten reporter, but still, I really shouldn’t start to cry at the teachers’ answers to my questions, should I?
But I teared up several times anyway, listening to them tell me how much their new Opportunity Culture roles meant to them, their students, and their school. Videographer Beverley Tyndall and I began taping these interviews eight months ago, asking all about the good, the bad, and the ugly of being Opportunity Culture pioneers. While teachers haven’t shied away from telling us what’s been tough as they work out initial implementation kinks, overwhelmingly, they tell us the good–or, more accurately, the really great.
You can see some of what they’ve told me in our Opportunity Culture Voices on Video collection. But since it will be a little while before we post more videos from these Charlotte and Cabarrus visits, I wanted to go ahead and share some of the thoughts of these multi-classroom leaders (MCLs) who lead a team of teachers; teachers using subject specialization for the first time in elementary school, teaching just one or two subjects to multiple groups of students; and teachers extending their reach to more students by using blended learning for the first time–plus a few of their students:
- Mary Price, Rocky River Elementary, which is in its first year using Subject Specialization and Multi-Classroom Leadership. Price is the kindergarten reading teacher, on an MCL’s kindergarten team: “I’ve been teaching 22 years. This is the year that I can really focus on that one subject and all the children I’m teaching. I know what they need, and that’s what I’m focusing on. … I’ve never had so much support (as from the MCLs). … I’m not leaving this school, and I’ve told other people, you need to come here or go somewhere that has this program. It’s great for the children.”
- Cyndal Brenneman, kindergarten and 1st grade MCL at Rocky River Elementary: “You make your teachers happy when you do (MCL) with specialization and when you give them more support. I have found that to be huge this year.”
Opportunity Culture® in the News: Real Clear Education, NPR
Looking for an overview of an Opportunity Culture®, and an example of multi-classroom leadership in action? These could get you started: Today, Public Impact® co-directors Bryan and Emily Hassel kick off a monthly series of posts on Real Clear Education by Opportunity...