Public Impact News & Views

As districts continue to cope with a drawn-out end to the pandemic and worsening staff shortages, education research groups, advocacy organizations, and state and federal offices have publicized strategies for Covid recovery—with many suggesting Opportunity Culture models as one strategy to consider. U.S. Department of Education, Strategies for Using American Rescue Plan Funding to Address the Impact of Lost Instructional Time (page 16)The U.S. Department of Education suggests schools and districts take a creative approach to staffing…

Researchers from Texas Tech University report that students served by Opportunity Culture multi-classroom leader teaching teams achieved learning growth in the top quartile teamwide, on average, according to their study of the Ector County Independent School District’s first Opportunity Culture year. The district asked the researchers to conduct an independent review of its first eight Opportunity Culture schools, which began using Opportunity Culture roles in 2020–21 with 27 multi-classroom leaders. In those first schools, 72% of students—7,121…

Bringing a fresh approach to teacher training, five more Texas school districts will be providing yearlong, paid teacher residencies on teaching teams led by excellent teachers in the 2021–22 school year, by implementing Opportunity Culture roles in partnership with local universities and US PREP National Center (University-School Partnerships for the Renewal of Educator Preparation). The national Opportunity Culture initiative, led by Public Impact, is now in more than 45 districts and charter school organizations in 10 states. Opportunity Culture teaching…

By Public Impact Public Impact announces with pleasure the seventh cohort of Opportunity Culture Fellows, made up of eight principals who have achieved strong results in their schools and districts. Fellows provide support to their cohort, take one another’s ideas back to their schools, write columns or lead webinars about their experiences, and speak locally and nationally about their Opportunity Culture roles. Their feedback and leadership are invaluable in helping to improve the Opportunity Culture…

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…