What makes great professional learning? Research indicates that the best professional learning occurs on the job, when teachers learn from experience and frequent feedback about their strengths and how to improve. A major benefit of Opportunity Culture models is how they provide teachers with ample time during the school day to co-plan, co-teach, and co-learn. Schools can schedule subject or grade-level teaching teams to be available at the same times. Both multi-classroom leaders and great teachers using elementary specialization and Time Swaps can mentor and lead peers during school-hour planning time. Team-teaching roles explicitly include learning on the job in a team committed to excellence for all students. In these materials, we provide a simple framework of the elements of effective on-the-job professional learning from teacher-leaders in an Opportunity Culture, for which we also drew on materials and research from non-Opportunity Culture schools. [Read more…]
Expanding District Capacity to Turn Around Failing Schools: An Evaluation of the Cameron Middle School Charter Conversion
After several unsuccessful turnaround efforts and years of chronic low performance at Cameron Middle School, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) decided to try something different to dramatically improve student outcomes: gradually convert operation of the school from the district to a charter management organization. This 2014 report for MNPS tells the story behind the conversion, evaluates its successes and challenges, and extracts lessons learned for MNPS and other districts working to build their capacity to better support their lowest performing schools.
Turnaround Leader Actions and Competencies
Turnaround principal actions and competencies are the leading indicators for turnaround principal success. The competencies—the habits of behavior and underlying motivations that help predict how principals will do their jobs—can be used for turnaround principal selection, evaluation, and development. The actions—the specific maneuvers a turnaround principal must execute for leading a successful school turnaround effort—serve as guidelines to focus turnaround principals on how their difficult work will be accomplished. Self-assessments of competency and actions allow the turnaround principal to reflect on current strengths and areas for leadership development.
Technology and Rural Education
Technology holds great potential for rural schools, such as extending the reach of excellent teachers and expanding course offerings. But digital devices in a pre-digital school structure will not transform K-12. This paper, written for the Rural Opportunities Consortium of Idaho, offers policymakers and philanthropic leaders a set of recommendations to capitalize on the potential of technology to serve students: expand broadband access to schools lacking it, create an elite corps of proven teachers who would be made available to students across the state, and provide districts and schools with the flexibility to develop new models of staffing and technology and to achieve the most strategic combination of personnel, facilities, and technology.
Ashley Park PreK-8 Launches Multi-Classroom Leadership and Blended Learning
Read the Case Study | Watch the Video
As a turnaround effort began to show results at Charlotte’s Ashley Part PreK-8, improvements in language arts achievement lagged. This Public Impact case study looks at why Ashley Park chose to implement an Opportunity Culture to address this, by using Multi-Classroom Leadership and blended learning through a Time-Technology Swap, and how the early days of implementation helped the school retain its best teachers. Watch the accompanying video, Ranson and Ashley Park Choose an Opportunity Culture.
Ranson IB Middle School Launches an Opportunity Culture
Read the Case Study | Watch the Video
Ranson IB Middle School in Charlotte, a high-poverty school struggling to improve academic achievement and teacher retention, turned to an Opportunity Culture to address its need for excellent teachers. This case study from Public Impact looks at the early days of Ranson’s implementation of two Opportunity Culture job models—Multi-Classroom Leadership and Time-Technology Swaps—and how an Opportunity Culture improved its recruitment and retention of great teachers. Watch the accompanying video, Ranson and Ashley Park Choose an Opportunity Culture.
An Opportunity Culture for Teaching and Learning: Introduction
To understand an Opportunity Culture, start here: For excellent teachers and those aspiring to excellence, and for administrative or education policy leaders, this brief provides an overview of how an Opportunity Culture can help teachers have the well-paid, empowered profession they deserve—while helping many more students succeed.
