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Public Impact News & Views

Who We Are
Public Impact News & Views

Welcome to our blog, offering news and views from the Public Impact team. Questions or concerns? Contact editor Sharon Kebschull Barrett.

Our most recent blog posts are below. For more, searchable by topic, visit our resource database. To read more posts about our Opportunity Culture initiative, go here.

In the News: Paid Student Teachers in Nashville

September 27, 2013
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.
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Why ALL Teachers Need an Opportunity Culture–A Refreshed Vision

September 25, 2013
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: Making Teaching a Highly …
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In the News: Opportunity Culture in Nashville

September 20, 2013
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 …
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In the News: Column Highlights Public Impact, Project L.I.F.T.

August 20, 2013
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 …
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Fixing Failing Charters: “Restarts” Offer Student-Focused Option

August 14, 2013
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 …
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In the News: Opportunity Culture Appearances

August 2, 2013
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 the driver’s seat.” This is the fourth …
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Rocketship Education: Bringing Tech Closer to Teachers

July 24, 2013
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 online learning lab and the classroom, to …
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In the News: Opportunity Culture Appearances

July 19, 2013
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 the Opportunity Culture infographic: As Edudemic notes, “Excellent teachers are needed in more than …
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Strong Results at New Higher-Paying, Reach-Extending Charter

July 9, 2013
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 to consistently provide them with a …
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Case Study: How Charlotte Zone Planned Opportunity Culture Schools

June 27, 2013
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.: New …
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Indiana Charter Board to Applicants with Innovative Models: Apply Today

June 20, 2013
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 in the spring cycle, …
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500 Charlotte School Leaders Hear the Promise of an Opportunity Culture

June 18, 2013
How could an Opportunity Culture help an entire district, not just a few schools? As the keynote speakers at Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Leadership Conference on Monday, Public Impact’s Bryan C. Hassel and Jiye Grace Han gave 500 leaders—including principals, assistant principals, and district administrators—a chance to envision a district that reaches every student with excellent teachers and teaching teams, for higher pay, within budget. Four of Charlotte’s Project L.I.F.T. schools will implement their own carefully designed Opportunity Cultures …
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1st Opportunity Culture Case Study: Extending One Teacher’s Reach

June 17, 2013
In Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture school models, schools use job redesign and technology to reach more students with excellent teachers, for more pay, within budget. As districts and schools around the country consider implementing their own Opportunity Cultures, they want real-life examples of just how others have already done so. Today, we begin a series of case studies that provide in-depth looks at how districts, charter schools, and other programs have begun using Opportunity Culture models …
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Q&A: Meet an Opportunity Culture Excellent Teacher

June 5, 2013
Meet Romain Bertrand: middle school math teacher and Opportunity Culture enthusiast. As this school year winds down, he’s already thoroughly looking forward to the next—when he will become a Multi-Classroom Leader at Ranson IB Middle School, taking accountability for the learning results of 700 students. At Ranson, a Project L.I.F.T. school in Charlotte, N.C., Bertrand sees the opportunities of its new Opportunity Culture—to extend the reach of excellent teachers to more students, for more …
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In the News: Opportunity Culture Appearances

May 31, 2013
Recent Opportunity Culture appearances: Schools Test New Ways to Deploy Teachers: How Project L.I.F.T. schools in Charlotte are creating an Opportunity Culture to attract and retain top teachers, at Heartland.org. This includes a bit about L.I.F.T. teacher Romain Bertrand–watch this space next week for an Q&A with this excellent teacher who can’t wait to see an Opportunity Culture in place that allows him to stay in the classroom and extend his reach to many more students. Opportunity …
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