Public Impact News & Views

By Public Impact 510+ schools committed to Opportunity Culture3,400+ teachers with advanced roles or on-the-job development83,000+ students reached by excellent teachers extending their reach$9.2 million in extra pay for teachers in 2020–21; $29.9 million since Opportunity Culture began49 Opportunity Culture sites in 10 states—and growingStrong educator support: 98% of surveyed multi-classroom leaders & 90% of all staff on multi-classroom leader teams want Opportunity Culture to continue in their schools In 2020–21, Opportunity Culture roles continued…

By Public Impact In the wake of Covid-19, the U.S. pre-K–12 education system needs more than a refresh. We need to think anew. In a new Public Impact brief, we recommend the means through federal policy to bring critical, effective instructional and emotional supports to millions of teachers and their students—for a price tag the country can not only afford, but sustain long-term. Read Opportunity Anew: How Excellent Educators Can Lift Up Their Colleagues, Students, and the Nation…

By Public Impact After the continued promising results in Opportunity Culture schools in their states and around the country, Arkansas and North Carolina have awarded grants to seven districts to design their Opportunity Culture plans for implementation in 2021–22. Opportunity Culture schools use new roles—based on the cornerstone role of Multi-Classroom Leadership—to reach many more students with excellent, personalized instruction. These roles, which have produced outstanding student growth, provide intensive support to all teachers, paid…

By Public Impact Why and how should you use Opportunity Culture? Watch our two-part video to get the scoop! What barriers keep teachers and students from experiencing great support and strong learning outcomes? Part 1 highlights barriers that an Opportunity Culture can remove. Part 2 details how an Opportunity Culture provides on-the-job, consistent support for all teachers to reach many more students with excellence, learn more, and earn more https://vimeo.com/479896629 Watch Part 1 https://vimeo.com/479899151 Watch…

By Paola Gilliam and Sharon Kebschull Barrett When a school struggles to support student learning year after year, schools need dramatic changes, but for too long the choice seemed to be to close the school or attempt an internal turnaround. How has the third option—restarting a school with the same students but with a new operator and flexibilities—made a difference to student success? Read our new study analyzing the progress of restarts that began between…

By Paola Gilliam A sudden shift in the spring to effective online learning challenged all schools—but we quickly began to see anecdotal evidence of some charter schools reacting quickly and serving students well. In a new report we wrote with the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, we offer evidence that some charter schools—smaller networks and schools that make up the majority of charters—were able to respond quickly to students’ and families’ needs, taking advantage of…

Without decisive state expectations and action on remote learning, student learning will suffer: That’s the message from a new analysis of state reopening plans by CRPE (the Center for Reinventing Public Education) and Public Impact. Our just-released database of state reopening plans and accompanying blog post highlight the need for state action now, before it’s too late. As CRPE’s Ashley Jochim and Public Impact’s Bryan C. Hassel and Beth Clifford detail, state recommendations focus more on the logistics of…

“Student learning is an afterthought in many state reopening plans; that’s a huge mistake” We’ve been working with the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) to create a database of all states’ reopening plans, accompanied by a series of briefs and analyses. The database will be published soon. Meanwhile, a new blog by CRPE’s Ashley Jochim and Georgia Heyward and Public Impact’s Beth Clifford provides a peek at the early findings. “CRPE and Public Impact…

The deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor are the tip of a mammoth iceberg of racial injustice in our nation. Behind these three injustices are millions of others, large and small, that, when unaddressed, leave those in power unchecked and emboldened to perpetuate more. As loud as the shouting of protestors may be right now, the sound of silence at the routine, everyday wrongs is the most deafening. When a Black man…

Districts and schools are confronting the learning loss caused by missed school time so far. Opportunity Culture schools—90 percent of which are Title I—have a special responsibility and opportunity to reverse that learning loss with the same method they’ve used for years: highly connective, high-standards instruction that helps more students achieve high-growth learning. Multi-Classroom Leadership by teachers with a high-growth track record is the foundation. What can that look like if some students and teachers need to…

By Paola Gilliam To understand how North Carolina’s 115 school districts are dealing with school closures, Public Impact and EducationNC joined forces to develop the NC District Response to COVID-19 School Closures Database. Read more about the database below, as well as an opinion piece on what the data tell us so far from Public Impact’s co-presidents. Why a Database? We decided to do this after seeing the informative database that the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) developed last…

By Paola Gilliam Opportunity Culture Fellows are educators with a track record of high-growth student learning who lead more students, fellow teachers, and, as principals or assistant principals, whole schools. This week, we added to the collection of stories and tips from these field leaders focused on helping students learn—and supporting their social-emotional health—no matter what challenges they or their students face. See links below to each educator’s story. They all shared their thoughts on what schools…

By Paola Gilliam Over the past week and a half, Public Impact’s Sharon Kebschull Barrett has interviewed many current and past Opportunity Culture Fellows about their shifts to at-home learning—what’s going well, what worries them, and what tips they have for other Opportunity Culture educators and districts. Use this link to find these stories of how great teachers adapted in the early weeks after school closures—four columns so far, with more to come next week, including some from Opportunity…

By Paola Gilliam With little time to prepare for at-home teaching and learning, Opportunity Culture educators are bravely and innovatively doing what’s best for students. We’re not surprised: Each year, we report the latest Opportunity Culture statistics in our online dashboard. Opportunity Culture—currently composed of 90 percent Title I-eligible schools—continues to expand Multi-Classroom Leadership, growing 50 percent annually, on average, and empowering well-paid multi-classroom leaders to help a wide range of teachers produce higher-growth learning. “Opportunity Culture continues to…

By Sharon Kebschull Barrett  As many schools close and turn to online learning due to COVID-19, multi-classroom leaders (MCLs) can help smooth and lead the way for their teaching teams and students. Students need their teachers’ steadying hand even more when the world feels chaotic and parents face extra stress. Public Impact published initial guidance on Friday, with more to come for schools using Opportunity Culture and those who have not yet used it. See here for…