RTV6, December 17, 2018, by Lauren Casey

Teacher retention is an issue plaguing many schools in our state, even right here in Marion County. So the biggest district in the state is taking a new approach to retaining their star teachers by offering them a new chance for professional development.

If you ask any teacher, they likely didn’t go into education for the paycheck. It’s about the kids. But often times the only way to advance in your career as a teacher, other than tenure, is to move to an administrative role. But that is no longer the case at IPS.

The district created what is called the Opportunity Culture. It’s a chance for teachers to to advance in their careers while also staying where they are so desperately needed — in the classroom.

Rebekah Bennett is a part of this program at James Whitcomb Riley School #43 in Indianapolis. After being a teacher for 12 years, she eventually moved to a new role as a literary coach and now as a “Multi-Classroom Leader” in the Opportunity Culture. It’s a role she has enjoyed for the past two school years.

Principal Bakari Posey says that many teachers want an opportunity for a bigger leadership role, but their passion is still with the kids in the classroom, not in the politics of the administration. He works one-on-one with his MCLs as they are called to check in on the teachers they serve and plan for better success in the classroom.

“The point of it is to get high quality teachers in front of more kids,” Posey said.

Part of the benefit to the opportunity culture is to retain the district’s star teachers. It also puts more teachers in front of kids because the MCLs will go into classroom and work with kids in smaller groups on various topics.

Whether the teacher wants to make more money for his or her family, to take on a new leadership role, or to impact more kids — the Opportunity Culture allows that wiggle room in education.

Bennett says it has been a great chance for her as an educator to have an even greater impact on the school and students.

“It’s been wonderful for me to be able to still have my hand on kids but yet still be able to effect more kids in other classrooms by working with their teachers,” Bennett said. “But I think the biggest part of that is being able to touch more kids.”

There’s an additional stipend that is directly tied to how the teachers and those students perform on tests. That stipend provides extra incentives to the MCLs as they work with their assigned teachers and classrooms.

Originally posted on RTV6.

Getting Smart, November 30, 2018

Leading a public school district is difficult and complicated work. But done well, there is no other job that can change how a community thinks about itself, its children and its future. The following are 15 districts that are changing the trajectory of both education and their communities by working on personalized and competency-based learning. They are making career preparation—including communications, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration–a priority. They are big and small, urban and rural, east and west, and as such are representative of the American education challenge. Read the full article…

The Hechinger Report, November 29, 2018, by Tara García-Mathewson

Edgecombe County Public Schools in rural North Carolina has long had trouble filling all of its open teaching positions. Historically, there just hasn’t been enough interest among qualified candidates. But that’s changing.

Edgecombe is still a rural district with a high-poverty student body, but a new staffing model has made its schools newly desirable for teachers who want to be school leaders without leaving the classroom. The model stems from an idea laid out in a paper almost a decade ago by Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan Hassel, co-presidents of Public Impact, an education advocacy organization. That idea is simple: Students chalk up three times the learning gains in classrooms with the most effective teachers (those in the top quintile), so if it’s not possible to hire only the most effective teachers, why not expand those teachers’ reach?

The first schools to implement what Public Impact calls an “Opportunity Culture,” did so during the 2013-14 school year, and Edgecombe County Public Schools is set to become the first district to bring the model systemwide. So far, eight of its 13 traditional schools have hired teacher-leaders who not only put their great teaching to use in front of students, but also coach their colleagues to spread their best practices. Next year, the remaining five schools will do the same. In each school, teacher-leaders get paid more to compensate them for taking on the extra work and responsibility of their expanded roles.

Erin Swanson, the district’s director of innovation, said administrators latched onto the model as both a recruitment tool and a way to retain good teachers who might otherwise be tempted to leave Edgecombe County Public Schools for more money elsewhere or school leadership positions outside of teaching. They’d also had a hard time supporting the many early-career teachers who dominate their staffing pool and saw Opportunity Culture as a way to do that better.

While the eight schools using this model have historically started the year with two to four empty teaching positions, Swanson said this year they had none, which she attributes to Opportunity Culture. And beyond the staffing solution, Swanson said the new model has led to profound collaboration among teachers and created a sense of momentum for other school improvement efforts.

“It really opens up a door for more innovation,” Swanson said.

Each school that embarks on creating an Opportunity Culture does so in a unique way, based on its needs. One of Edgecombe’s elementary schools created three teacher-leader positions to focus on improving literacy among students in third grade and younger. A middle school recognized its area of need was in high-quality math instruction, so it hired a teacher-leader to work in that subject. Another elementary school has a teacher-leader supporting English language arts teachers in grades three through five, as well as one focused on supporting both special and general education teachers to improve services for students with special needs.

Schools also pay for the teacher-leaders differently. Public Impact encourages sustainability, asking schools to fit the extra pay for teacher-leaders into their core budgets, rather than turning to grant money, for example. Some schools hire fewer teachers overall, increasing the number of students each teacher-leader works with by having paraprofessionals help out in their classrooms. Some pull money from other parts of their school budgets to cover the supplemental salary.

Making all these decisions takes time. That’s why Edgecombe County Public Schools rolled out the model districtwide over the course of three years. Already, though, the district is seeing results from its early adopters on standardized test scores. Based on state expectations for student growth, a middle and elementary school went from underperforming during the 2016-17 school year to meeting growth expectations last year, according to Swanson. North Edgecombe High School has exceeded growth expectations two years in a row and entered the top 20 percent of schools in the state on that measure. All three schools that started using the model last year met or exceeded growth expectations.

These are major accomplishments in Edgecombe County. Swanson said that Opportunity Culture could be transformational.

“We know that in order to really do things differently,” she said, “to reimagine what education looks like for our kids, we have got to have the most amazing people at every level.”

About 250 schools nationwide are either designing an Opportunity Culture or have already created one, according to Public Impact. That means approximately 1,600 teachers and 50,000 students are teaching and learning under this model, the group says.

Educators have been particularly enthusiastic about the extra coaching and support from the teacher-leaders, according to Sharon Barrett, vice president of communications for Public Impact. Teachers essentially get real-time professional development targeted to the exact areas in which they need to improve. And while they are opening themselves up to critiques, it’s not by the people who conduct their formal observations (which have consequences for their pay and job security).

“There’s a feeling of ‘we’re all on the same team,’ and people feel more open to having their challenges exposed because they know they’re going to get the support,” Barrett said.

Originally posted on The Hechinger Report.

Rocky Mount Telegram, November 19, 2018, by Amelia Harper

North Edgecombe High School Principal Donnell Cannon recently was selected as one of 15 Opportunity Culture Fellows nationwide.

The 15 fellows come from multi-classroom leaders and principals serving in school districts that have adopted the Opportunity Culture model. This year’s fellows were selected as leaders who have achieved strong results in districts in Texas, Indiana, Arkansas and North Carolina, a press release from Public Impact said.

“I am incredibly excited to join the Public Impact team as an Opportunity Culture Fellow. In this role, I will partner with amazing leaders from across the country to re-imagine education by questioning the many ways we use people, time, technology, resources and space in schools in service of remarkable outcomes for children,” Cannon said. “We will have the opportunity as a broader community to continue the learning from the insights we’ve gathered from the Opportunity Culture models in our schools to help refine and advance ideas to strengthen the initiative both locally and nationally.”

The Opportunity Culture model, which now operates in more than 20 districts in nine states, extends the reach of excellent teachers and their teams to more students for more pay within recurring budgets, the press release said. Research is demonstrating that using highly effective teachers to provide multi-classroom leadership helps improve student learning growth in schools that employ the model as Edgecombe County Public Schools does in three of its schools on the north side of the county.

Once one of the worst-performing schools in the district, North Edgecombe High School under Cannon’s leadership has earned a C on the most recent school performance scores, making it now the second-best performing high school in the county. The school also has exceeded growth for the past two years.

Edgecombe County Superintendent Valerie Bridges credits last year’s implementation of the Opportunity Culture model for the improvement that schools on the north side are seeing.

“In an Opportunity Culture, teachers with a proven track record of improving student academic outcomes support and lead other teachers in the classroom, sharing best practices. In addition, the schools in that feeder pattern narrowed their focus and have a renewed sense of community and engagement,” Bridges said in a previous interview.

Bridges said the school district plans to extend the Opportunity Culture model to schools on the south side of the district next year.

Public Impact said that Opportunity Culture Fellows provide support to their cohort, take one another’s ideas back to their schools, write columns about their experiences and speak locally and nationally about their Opportunity Culture roles. Observations by fellows also help craft policy changes at Public Impact to improve the experience in the classroom.

Cannon said he expects the opportunity to serve as a fellow will benefit both him and the school district.

“As an Opportunity Culture Fellow, I will engage in deep learning with a diverse network of experts and practitioners to imagine and design new learning experiences that all students deserve,” Cannon said. “The amazing leaders at each school in our district are building innovative learning environments for students and dreaming of bold, equitable school designs. My work as a fellow is my small contribution as a member of this family, to ensure we are advancing towards our collective commitment.”

Originally posted on Rocky Mount Telegram.

Getting Smart, November 18, 2018

Here at Getting Smart, we believe school visits are the best form of professional learning. Based on a couple thousand school visits, and with help from colleagues and readers, we’ve compiled a list of elementary and middle schools that can give educators a better sense of what’s possible. This list includes schools that achieve extraordinary results for underserved communities, create powerful learning experiences, and/or have innovative school models. Read the full article…

EdWeek, October 31, 2018, by Tom Vander Ark

There are five important attributes of Personalized Learning:

1. Whatever is best for that learner at that time. Personalized learning is what’s best for the learner rather than what is the most expedititoius for the institution.

Personalized learning weighs learner interest, learning progression (the best next unit not the easiest), opportunity (a unique local learning experience: a full moon, high tide, service need, civic event, or business trip). Personalized learning is a balance of what the learner wants to do, what the learner should do and what the learner could do.

2. Extended challenges.  If you value critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, character (including agency and persistence) you can’t get there with a series of worksheets. Learners need big integrated projects–some individual, some team, many community-connected and often with voice and choice in topic and product.

3. Individualized skill building. Identifying skill gaps and addressing them with targeted instruction, both by teachers and adaptive tools is a critical part of enabling all students to participate fully in high quality project-based learning. Skill building can occur before, during and after projects.

4. Anywhere, anytime learning. Personalized learning happens at school, after school, during the summer. As LRNG has been attempting to do, we have to unlock rich out of school learning experiences for all students; and we have to get better at capturing and signaling those new capabilities to other stakeholders so that learners can progress on demonstrated master (this is one of the reasons competency-based policies are so important, it can help unlock opportunity).

5. Social and emotional learning.  Self and social awareness and the ability to navigate complex relationships are developed in trust-based communities. At Thrive Public Schools in San Diego, they start and end the day in the community. Founder Nicole Assis wants to make sure every child is greeted every day, that they are “Known, seen and valued.” They make sure every kid has a voice.

When you do these things, learners build agency, a sense of identity as a learner, they begin to own their own learning. These are lifelong dividends.

How Teachers Support Personalized Learning

There are (at least) five ways teachers make learning personal.

1. Recognize and celebrate jagged profiles (Todd Rose).

2. Help every learner build a plan. Teachers in Cajon Valley help every student build a plan based on their unique strengths, interests and values. They explore these through 54 engagements with the world of work between K-8 (#CVWoW).

3. Plan extended challenges. To boost engagement, application, integration and critical success skills, learners need periodic community-connected challenge (we call this HQPBL). Do it with a partner, or a grade level team, or make it a school-wide endeavor for a week.

4. Leverage smart tools. Don’t try to grade every edit of every paper yourself, use automated writing feedback systems, use adaptive math systems, give learners the chance to manage their own progress (good competency systems do that)

5. Collaborate. Personalized learning is a team sport: it’s difficult, complicated, the tools aren’t good enough to fully support these ideas. It still takes hard work and teamwork

10 Ways Administrators Can Help

There are at least 10 ways school and system heads can support personalized learning:

1. Build a collaborative vision. Share your own personal story of personalized learning. Help others tell their story. Weave them together into a shared vision–a concise, compelling picture of powerful learning.

2. Define success. Hold a community conversation. Define what graduates should know and be able to do. Build a graphic graduate profile.

3. Help teams grow into the frame. Thoughtful district leaders build an academic framework and allow schools to grow into that framework in their own way. (Great examples: Mesa County, Colorado; Albemarle County, Virginia; Salisbury, Pennsylvania; Cajon Valley, California.)

4. Support teacher leadership. Thoughtful leaders Identify and embrace teachers leading the way. Find ways to support them. Create new roles for them. Opportunity Culture is a network of school using new staffing strategies that leverage the talent of teacher leaders.

5. Build a fast lane and slow lane for change management. Like students, teachers need personalized and competency-based learning too. Look for ways to support teacher teams ready to move (perhaps with microschools, #6) as well as those that need more time and support.

6. Use micropilots and microschools. In Kettle Moraine, superintendent Pat DeKlotz sponsored the development of four microschools for teachers that were ready to move. Singapore American School piloted new classroom configurations to investigate and illustrate facilities plans.

7. Use opportunities. Use whatever comes your way as an opportunity to launch or expand personalized learning: new schools opening; budget, staff or policy changes. Work from the edge in.

8. Develop personalized learning infrastructure. Adopt a learning platform and a competency-based grade book. Build project rubrics. Share a library of quality prompts and quality student work.

9. Work in phases. Break the work into three phases. Make it doable with clear targets and strong supports.

10. Put the vision on a timeline. Equity requires that all learners have access to personalized learning. Organic change is comfortable but it’s not equitable. Balance the desire to go slow with the need to accelerate student progress.

5 Tips on Learning Environments

1. Space: Larry Rosenstock developed all of the High Tech High spaces with as much “Height, light, and exposed structure” as possible to make it inspiring and inviting.

2. Exhibitions: Create permanent and pop up exhibitions of student work; welcome and celebrate contributions. (Below: High Tech Middle School, #shareyourlearning).

3. Flexible space: From east to west coast (e.g., Albemarle County and Lindsay USD) school districts are combining classrooms to facilitate easy movement between skill groups and project teams.

4. Seating options: Offer high and low, hard and soft flexible seating options (see featured image of Singapore American School).

5. Access: Make access to schools and programs equitable by paying attention to location, enrollment, and transportation.

There are many ways teachers and leaders can contribute to making learning personal. It starts with a shared commitment to know and care for each child.

Originally posted on EdWeek.

EdNC, October, 26, 2018

The following is a press release from Public Impact.

Public Impact is pleased to announce our fourth cohort of Opportunity Culture Fellows. This year’s 15 fellows are Opportunity Culture multi-classroom leaders and principals who have achieved strong results and been leaders in their schools and districts.

Fellows provide support to their cohort, take one another’s ideas back to their schools, write columns about their experiences, and speak locally and nationally about their Opportunity Culture roles. Their feedback and leadership are invaluable in helping to improve the Opportunity Culture initiative, and all materials related to it.

This year’s fellows come from Texas, Indiana, Arkansas, and three North Carolina school districts. We welcome and congratulate:

Lara B. Harris, K–2 Multi-Classroom Leader, Druid Hills Academy, Project L.I.F.T. zone, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, North Carolina.

Amber Hines, 3–5 English Language Arts and Science Multi-Classroom Leader, Zeb Vance Elementary, Vance County Schools, North Carolina.

Faith Jones, 6^th-grade English Language Arts Multi-Classroom Leader, North Little Rock Middle, North Little Rock School District, Arkansas.

Mollie Lyman, 6–8 English Language Arts Multi-Classroom Leader II, Whitewater Middle, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, North Carolina.

Okema Owens Simpson, 6^th-grade English Language Arts Multi-Classroom Leader, Ranson IB Middle, Project L.I.F.T. zone, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, North Carolina.

Jacqueline Smith, 3–5 Math and Science Multi-Classroom Leader II, Nations Ford Elementary, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, North Carolina.

Juan Pablo SuarezOrtiz, K–5 Multi-Classroom Leader, Spring Branch Elementary, Spring Branch Independent School District, Texas.

Brandon A. Warren, Grades 3, 7, 8 Multi-Classroom Leader III, William Penn Elementary, Indianapolis Public Schools, Indiana.

Jeremy Baugh, Principal, Lew Wallace Elementary (School 107), Indianapolis Public Schools, Indiana.

Donnell Cannon, Principal, North Edgecombe High, Edgecombe County Public Schools, North Carolina.

Kelly Gwaltney, Principal, Garinger High, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, North Carolina.

Janet Moss, Principal, Coulwood STEM Academy, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, North Carolina.

Sarah Reeves, Principal, Shamrock-Gardens Elementary, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, North Carolina.

Philip A. Steffes, Principal, Albemarle Road Elementary, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, North Carolina.

Chris Winstead, Principal, Pine Shadows Elementary, Spring Branch Independent School District, Texas.

An Opportunity Culture—now in more than 20 districts in nine states—extends the reach of excellent teachers and their teams to more students, for more pay, within recurring budgets. In an Opportunity Culture school, teachers gain time to plan and collaborate, everyone gets more support, and students get personalized, high-standards instruction. Research indicates that multi-classroom leadership, the foundation of an Opportunity Culture, helps teams of teachers produce substantially higher student learning growth than in typical schools.