Scalable Secondary-Level School Models Increase Teacher Pay, Planning Time
Recently, I was chatting with a secondary school-level teacher who co-leads her teacher-run charter school. In her school, scheduling and staffing deliberately provide abundant teacher collaboration time and teacher-leadership, crucial for teachers to innovate and improve as they serve the school’s high-need population. She asked, “Emily, how can we make models like this scalable and appealing to more schools, so that districts use them, too?”
We have just released our latest calculations…
Report: Trends, Possible Improvements in School Quality Rating Systems
A new review of 25 school quality rating systems by Public Impact’s Lyria Boast and Tim Field for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools revealed clear trends that may help rating system designers and users think about optimal system designs.
The rating systems inventoried included some from state departments of education, large public school districts, charter associations and authorizers, and… In the News: Opportunity Culture Appearances
Recent Opportunity Culture appearances:
- The Education Commission of the States recommends our new “Opportunity Culture for All” brief in its October 9 newsletter, saying: “The bad news: Between 1970 and 2010, per pupil spending went up almost 150%, but only 11% went to teachers. Teacher salaries and student outcomes stagnated. There’s a better way, the authors argue. Junk the one-teacher-one-classroom model. Create teaching teams…
Could You Give All Students Excellent Teachers—and Pay More?
What if every U.S. student had a new civil right to an excellent teacher, every year, in all core subjects? What if schools also had to pay teachers at least 20 percent more, within budget? Could you design a school that met those demands?
Try it: Use Public Impact’s free Opportunity Culture scenarios to see if you could design a rural or urban, high-poverty school that
- closes…
In the News: Paid Student Teachers in Nashville
NewsChannel5 profiles the paid student teachers program at Robert Churchwell Museum Magnet Elementary, one of the Opportunity Culture pilot schools in the Metro Nashville Public Schools’ iZone. Hailey Hunt, one of 12 “aspiring teachers,” discusses why this model for student teaching pleases her.
Why ALL Teachers Need an Opportunity Culture–A Refreshed Vision
After decades of reform efforts, have any of the players in education really gotten what they want? Teachers still don’t get the respect and substantial rewards they deserve, and students haven’t seen big leaps in achievement. Public Impact Co-Directors Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan C. Hassel see a new way forward–one that focuses on excellent teachers, but takes us to a brighter future for everyone. In An Opportunity Culture for All:…
In the News: Opportunity Culture in Nashville
Multi-classroom leaders in Nashville’s iZone: Listen to Aundrea Cline-Thomas report on NewsChannel5 about Opportunity Culture teacher-leaders at Buena Vista Elementary, Robert Churchwell Elementary, and Bailey Middle School in Metro Nashville Public Schools. Cline-Thomas discusses how these excellent teachers are extending their reach to more students by leading a team of teachers–while being accountable for the results of all students in the team–and focusing their own teaching on small groups of struggling students, all for more…
In the News: Column Highlights Public Impact, Project L.I.F.T.
Christopher Gergen and Stephen Martin focused their “Doing Better at Doing Good” column in The (Raleigh, N.C.) News and Observer on Public Impact and our Opportunity Culture models, noting our work with Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Project L.I.F.T.
“The reach extension strategy has far-reaching implications for the way our classrooms are designed, our teachers are trained, and our budgets are constructed. It’s transformative work that is hard to do. But the allure of providing excellent teaching for all of…
Fixing Failing Charters: “Restarts” Offer Student-Focused Option
When a charter school doesn’t uphold its end of the charter bargain—autonomy for accountability—and fails to produce strong student learning, must closing the school be the only option? Scattering its students—especially when they have no other high-quality schools available nearby—may disrupt an already-fragile community unnecessarily, if a better option exists. One promising alternative: Introduce new adults who have the will and skill to help struggling students achieve, and let the students stay.
A new report by…
In the News: Opportunity Culture Appearances
Recent Opportunity Culture appearances:
- Getting Smart listed Public Impact and our Opportunity Culture initiative in its first annual “smart list” of great policy and advocacy organizations making a difference. The 40 groups on the list “put students first, set the path, and lead the conversation.”
- EdSurge ran a featured article on our latest case study, on Rocketship Education, discussing how Rocketship’s modifications to its blended-learning model “put teachers in…
Rocketship Education: Bringing Tech Closer to Teachers
When Rocketship Education, a pioneering, rapidly expanding charter school network, looked at its results, it could have rested on its laurels. After all, with seven schools in California together ranking as the top public school system for low-income elementary students, Rocketship had proof that its blended-learning model— combining online learning with face-to-face instruction—works.
But next year, Rocketship leaders will fix a disconnect they see between what happens in the…
In the News: Opportunity Culture Appearances
Recent Opportunity Culture appearances:
- Opportunity Culture makes the news in Provence: Test your French reading skills with this article on an excellent teacher in Charlotte’s Project L.I.F.T., Romain Bertrand, the focus of an Opportunity Culture Q&A.
- Touchstone Education gets notice from the Center for Education Reform: The center directs readers to see how the Merit Prep charter school boosted its students’ success.
- Edudemic.com shares…
Strong Results at New Higher-Paying, Reach-Extending Charter
What do you get when you combine an experienced charter school leader with a new model that mixes multi-classroom leaders and blended learning in a high-need school? At charter management organization Touchstone Education, you get nimble teachers, quick to adjust their models as needed, and some great student results.
“We have learned that the one most important thing we can do to positively impact the learning of a child is…
Case Study: How Charlotte Zone Planned Opportunity Culture Schools
In late 2011, Denise Watts, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg zone superintendent, approached Public Impact for help meeting the goals she had as executive director for the new Project L.I.F.T., a $55 million public-private partnership to improve academics at historically low-performing, high-need schools in western Charlotte, N.C.
“If we didn’t try something truly different to change education, many of my students were not going to graduate,” Watts says.
Public Impact’s second Opportunity Culture case study, Charlotte, N.C.’s Project L.I.F.T.:…
Indiana Charter Board to Applicants with Innovative Models: Apply Today
How can a charter authorizer encourage innovation while also holding applicants and schools to high standards of quality? The Indiana Charter School Board first tried to do this in spring, and it’s giving applicants another chance today, as it releases its guidelines for the fall cycle of proposals. The board wants applicants to consider proposing dramatically different school models.
Letters of intent are due July 12, with full applications due August 9.
As…