In this idea paper, Public Impact’s co-presidents, Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan C. Hassel, lay out a vision for how districts can reach dramatically more students with great principals, for much higher pay, within budget—giving principals a career path that keeps them connected to students and schools through Multi-School Leadership. The “leadership machine” is powered by teacher leadership: Accountable multi-classroom leaders co-lead instruction schoolwide with principals, and also earn more, and make it possible for great principals to extend their reach, too.
Technology in Schools
Public Impact helps district and charter schools plan and incorporate digital instruction, remote teaching and tutoring, and data dashboards to achieve better outcomes. Our work helps schools ensure that innovation and personalization are combined with high standards for teaching and student learning, so that different is also better. We have unique experience forging school designs that free teachers’ time for on-the-job planning, learning, and leadership while making personalized, differentiated learning for students easier to implement.
We continually generate new ideas based on data and field observation to further close achievement gaps and elevate prospects for all children, and elevate the education profession so everyone can experience excellent instruction, support, and career opportunities.
A Better Blend: A Vision for Boosting Student Outcomes with Digital Learning
Blended learning that combines digital instruction with live, accountable teachers holds unique promise to improve student outcomes dramatically. This brief explains how schools can use blended learning to encourage improvements in digital instruction, transform teaching into a highly paid, opportunity-rich career that extends the reach of excellent teachers to all students and teaching peers, and improve student learning at large scale. We call this a “better blend”: combining high-quality digital learning and excellent teaching.
Teachers in the Age of Digital Instruction
In Fordham’s new book Education Reform for the Digital Era, Bryan C. Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel’s opening chapter proposes that “digital education needs excellent teachers and that a first-rate teaching profession needs digital education.” In the digital future, teacher effectiveness will matter even more than it does today. While the roles of teachers and other adults will change dramatically, what will increasingly differentiate outcomes for schools, states, and nations is how well responsible adults carry out the more complex instructional tasks. At the same time, technology has enormous transformative potential to extend the reach of excellent teachers to vastly more students, to help teaching attract and retain the best, and to boost the effectiveness of average teachers. To realize that promise, though, the nation needs new staffing models, significant policy changes, and a stronger dose of political will to change. Read the chapter here, and watch Bryan Hassel on a webcast of the release event here. The authors also penned a related commentary that appears here.
Opportunity Culture
What if all teachers could achieve excellent student learning results—with the right leadership and support? Opportunity Culture makes this possible. Multi-classroom leaders who produced high-growth student learning as teachers help whole teams of teachers achieve student learning growth matching or approaching that of excellent teachers. In schools that have limited teaching positions and struggle to offer advanced courses, Remotely Located Multi-Classroom Leadership can provides teachers with the support and career opportunities that in-person Multi-Classroom Leadership provides. Find out more about this national initiative of Public Impact on our sister website, OpportunityCulture.org.
3X for All: Extending the Reach of Education’s Best
Instead of just trying to recruit more great teachers, what if we could reach dramatically more children with the great teachers we already have? This report explores ways we could redesign teachers’ roles and use technology to give millions more students access to the best teachers. Read more…
Scaling a Successful Pilot to Expand Blended Learning Options Citywide
City-based organizations are playing pioneering roles in the development and implementation of blended learning initiatives. As more of these initiatives demonstrate early successes, their leaders and backers are turning their thoughts to replicating and scaling their efforts to improve student outcomes across their cities. This white paper—published by the organization now known as Education Cities—examines four approaches to scaling a successful blended learning initiative: expanding blended learning to additional schools and classrooms; developing systems and talent for scale; advocating for policies that support expansion of high-quality blended learning initiatives; and amplifying the voices of educators in efforts to influence policy and practice.
Interventions and Catalysts in Markets for Education Technology: Roles of City-Based Funders
City-based funders focused on education are eager to invest in technology-based initiatives to address education’s most complex problems. However, many funders are struggling to figure out how to most effectively and expeditiously realize technology’s potential in schools. This white paper—published by the organization now known as Education Cities— identifies and catalogs the core components of education technology markets that city-based funders might support, and how they might support them. Interviews with funders and education technology experts yielded thoughtful observations about options for city-based funders in two categories: intervening directly in education technology markets to fund creators or users of cutting-edge technologies, and catalyzing activity or funding, to educate the field or create conditions favorable to the creators and users of education technology.
