New Jersey’s youth face enormous, long-standing challenges, many stemming from historic discrimination and endemic poverty. Nearly 4,000 youth between the ages of 16 and 20 are not in school, and about 3,000 more between 15 and 21 are at risk of leaving school without a high school diploma. Half of the city’s 16- to 19-year-olds, […]
Charter-Like Freedoms for District Schools: A New Path
Across the United States, school districts have a new option for their schools—“autonomous district schools”—that gives schools the freedoms of charter schools and districts a way to grow high-quality, innovative schools and diversify public school options at scale. Like charter schools, autonomous district schools are freed from innovation-inhibiting state and district policies, allowing talented educators […]
Big Ambitions: IDEA Public Schools Aims High for Growth + Quality
In 2000, IDEA Public Schools opened its first campus on the U.S.-Mexico border. Today, IDEA operates 79 schools serving 45,000 students in six regions, proving that it’s possible to grow rapidly while maintaining quality. And IDEA plans to keep its foot on the gas. It’s on track to enroll 100,000 students by 2022, and one […]
Three More N.C. Districts to Launch Opportunity Culture with New State Funding
In the latest round of funding for the state’s Advanced Teaching Roles pilot, the North Carolina State Board of Education awarded grants to three districts that will implement Opportunity Culture roles—Halifax County and Hertford County in eastern North Carolina and Lexington City Schools in Davidson County. These rural and small-town, high-poverty districts struggle with academic […]
College Board, NC School of Science & Math, Public Impact Join Forces for Rural Schools
Public Impact is excited to announce that our Opportunity Culture initiative is partnering with the College Board and the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) to reach rural school districts with excellent NCSSM teachers. In the first phase of this pilot, an excellent NCSSM teacher will become an Opportunity Culture multi-classroom leader for a […]
Opportunity Culture Schools in N.C. Outpace State on Student Growth
We’re excited to share the latest results from Opportunity Culture schools in North Carolina, according to the data released by the state. The following is a column by Public Impact’s co-presidents, Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan C. Hassel, first published by EducationNC on January 2, 2019. As the founders of the Opportunity Culture initiative to […]
Opportunity Culture in the News: Edgecombe County Schools
Today’s Hechinger Report highlights Opportunity Culture in Edgecombe County Public Schools, a rural North Carolina district, noting its effects on: teacher recruitment (schools using this model have historically started the year with two to four empty teaching positions, but this year had none), “profound collaboration among teachers,” and strong student growth (North Edgecombe High School […]
Improving Reading Outcomes—New Column from NC Early Childhood Foundation
In Friday’s EdNC.org., Mandy Ableidinger asks, “The most recent NC end of third grade reading assessment results show scores hardly shifting from last year and continued racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic gaps. What can we do differently?” Referring to our recent report, Closing Achievement Gaps in Diverse Schools: An Action Guide for District Leaders, Ableidinger, the […]
The Risks and Rewards of Using Blended Learning to Reach More Students
By Elizabeth Annette Bartlett. This column first appeared on EducationNC. If, as a teacher who sees success with one class of students, I could reach twice as many students per class, why shouldn’t I try? That’s the question I asked myself in trying to solve a dilemma my middle school science students faced. In the […]
Multi-School Leadership: Tools to Extend Excellent Principals’ Reach
An Opportunity Culture extends the reach of excellent teaching—what about doing the same for excellent schoolwide leadership? Public Impact, which founded the national Opportunity Culture initiative, today releases a set of practical materials on Multi-School Leadership: How to extend the reach of excellent principals by having them lead a small group of schools, for more […]
Meeting the Personalization Challenge with New Roles + Blended Learning
Amid all the buzz about personalizing learning, what can we learn from schools getting great results? In Public Impact’s new report with the Clayton Christensen Institute, Innovative Staffing to Personalize Learning, we analyzed eight schools and school networks that are not only personalizing learning, but also getting strong learning results with disadvantaged students. What’s different […]
Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture in the News
What’s new with Opportunity Culture? Recent news coverage highlights the growth and successes of Opportunity Culture, an initiative of Public Impact: Guilford school board wants flexibility to help 9 low-performing schools: Jessie Pounds of the News & Record reported on the expansion of Opportunity Culture into nine schools in Greensboro, N.C., with the district planning […]