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Uplift Education Joins National Initiative, Opportunity Culture®, to Reach Students with Excellent Teaching

April 14, 2022

From Accesswire, April 14, 2022

DALLAS, Texas—Uplift Education is thrilled to announce that they have joined the growing, national Opportunity Culture movement to reach all students with excellent teaching, to help students meet their academic goals and leap ahead. Uplift has partnered with Tarleton State University, Public Impact, and US PREP to design and implement innovative roles that provide powerful support for all educators in a select group of Tarrant County schools. Funding for the initial design planning and implementation is provided in part by grants from the Fort Worth Education Partnership and Sid W. Richardson Foundation. Read More…

Muri: ECISD making progress

March 20, 2022

From Odessa American Online, March 20, 2022, by Ruth Campbell

While Ector County ISD may not be at the level it would like, Superintendent Scott Muri says good things are happening in the district.

In his State of the District address earlier in March, Muri said kindergarten readiness has increased by 13 percentage points, SAT scores were above the state level and there was a 7 percent increase this year over last in college, career and military readiness. This is a factor in state accountability standards.

He noted that the 84.7 percent graduation rate is the highest in 20 years. Read More…

ECISD Superintendent discusses teacher shortages

March 11, 2022

From News West 9, March 11, 2022, by Francisco Soto

ODESSA, Texas — Shortages is something we are hearing about too often these days, and it’s not just food.

On Thursday, the Texas Education Agency announced the creation of the Teacher Vacancy Task Force. The goal is to help address staffing challenges facing Texas public schools.

NewsWest 9 spoke to Scott Muri, Superintendent for Ector County Independent School District. He said the area has been struggling with teacher shortages for several years even before the state started experiencing the same thing. Read more…

ECISD, MISD starting their second year of Opportunity Culture®

September 22, 2020

From News West9, September 22, 2020, by Rachel Ripp

Teachers have a lot on their plates this year, more than ever. But some of them here in the Basin have signed up for a brand new teaching landscape plus more students to teach or co-workers to coach. These teachers are involved in what’s called “Opportunity Culture” at ECISD and MISD.

“We also saw this as a way to keep good teachers in the classroom. I think a lot of teachers get tempted at a point to say I want to go into administration or I want to try and be a principal or I want to do something else other than teach and they’re great teachers. We don’t want to lose that. We want to keep them here, and by paying them what they’re worth I think that that helps keep them in the classroom,” Chris Hightower, MISD Opportunity Culture director said. Read more…

Spotlight: Spring Branch Independent School District

November 27, 2019

By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, November 27, 2019

A quality teacher in every classroom, and powerful support for alternatively certified teachers: For Jennifer Blaine, those were two key elements that made Opportunity Culture well worth continuing to expand when she took over this spring as superintendent of Spring Branch ISD, located west of downtown Houston, Texas.

With about 35,000 students, the district includes 25 elementary schools, seven traditional middle school campuses, and four traditional high schools; more than half of those now use Opportunity Culture roles since beginning three years ago under Scott Muri, Blaine’s predecessor as superintendent. (Muri is now superintendent of Ector County ISD.)

This Would Improve Arizona Schools More Than Anything Else

March 17, 2019

From Arizona Republic, March 17, 2019, by Joanna Allhands

Classrooms filled with highly effective teachers. I know. Duh. But the research is clear: Students who have effective teachers perform light-years ahead of their peers. And that accelerated performance sticks with students for years (though the converse is true for students who have ineffective teachers).