Videos: Opportunity Culture Roles

In Opportunity Culture schools, teacher-leaders in the Multi-Classroom Leader, or MCL, role, may be “partial release” or “full release.” Partial-release MCLs have their own classroom of record and teach for part of the day but have release time to leave their classroom to work with their team teachers.

Janie Martin, a reach associate (RA) at Petree Elementary School in Winston-Salem, N.C. describes why she likes her Opportunity Culture role.

Laketha Ebrahim-Blackwell, a Multi-Classroom Leader at Petree Elementary in Winston-Salem, N.C. describes what she likes about her MCL role.

The science of reading has “come alive” at Lucama Elementary, in North Carolina’s Wilson County Schools, after 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.

Ector County and Midland school districts are two of the 11 Texas sites using Opportunity Culture paid, yearlong teacher residencies as of 2022-23. Teacher residents are an integral part of small teaching teams led by multi-classroom leaders. Educators from these Texas districts describe how their residencies benefit students, schools, and aspiring teachers.

Sydney Garcia, a multi-classroom leader at Pease Elementary in Ector County ISD, says the MCL role is “the best of both worlds” allowing her to take on a leadership role while still being in the classroom.

Audriana Munoz, a teacher resident at Pease Elementary in Ector County ISD, describes how her yearlong paid residency, working under the guidance of a multi-classroom leader, prepared her to enter the teaching profession already feeling like “a second-year teacher.”

Team reach teachers work on a multi-classroom leader’s team, directly teaching more students than usual but typically without raising instructional group sizes.