Speaking Up: A Year’s Worth of Opportunity Culture Voices
“How many teachers are out there struggling daily because of lack of support? How many burn out because they’ve tried all they know? How many leave our profession early because they can’t do it on their own any longer? How many kids suffer because they have access to only one teacher? How many students are falling more and more behind because they have zero control over their educational trajectory? We need a change; more important,…
Higher Pay for Charlotte Teachers: What Opportunity Culture Provides
A great article in Saturday’s Charlotte Observer highlighted what some Opportunity Culture multi-classroom leaders (MCLs) make. As noted, 26 MCLs in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools receive supplements of $16,000 to $23,000–within school budgets, not from temporary grants, done by reallocating budgets. But did you know that many others working in Opportunity Culture roles in CMS make more, too? In fact, Charlotte’s Opportunity Culture schools this year have a total of 56 MCLs–the 30 not mentioned in the…
Done Well, School Restarts Make a Difference for Students
This column was first published on May 17, 2016, on msdf.org, home of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. This is part of a blog series about one way we can help our nation’s lowest performing schools. In this series, we will introduce the concept of restart and will highlight: Who’s doing it, how it works and, ultimately, does it work. You can find the entire series here. Over the past year, we’ve shared our experiences…
Opportunity Culture Voices: What Is My Job, Anyway? An MCL’s Thoughts
“When I became a multi-classroom leader in 2013, the position was new to our school, district and state—new to the nation, in fact. I have vivid memories of the questions I received, especially in an early meeting with team teachers, when one said, ‘So what exactly do you do now? What is your job, anyway?’ “I remember feeling a little flushed and nervous, considering I wasn’t 100-percent sure, myself, of everything I would do. With…
Georgia Schools Join Opportunity Culture Movement
Measuring School Turnaround Success: Report Explores Options
Turning a failing school around takes hard work—and can be even harder to sustain. And right now, most states don’t even have a clear, robust definition of turnaround success. So Public Impact collaborated with the Center on School Turnaround on Measuring School Turnaround Success to explore an approach that states, districts, and schools can adapt to fit their own contexts. The authors detail the analyses conducted to test a critical part of this approach—measuring academic…
Every School Can Have a Great Principal: A Fresh Vision for How
Opportunity Culture Voices: Showing Veteran Teachers Some Love
“We’ve all heard the saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” but how many of us have actually stopped to wonder why? Is the dog just apathetic? Insecure in his ability to learn? Unsure of the goal? Maybe the greater question to ask is, “Why not?” With the right motivation, feedback, love, and support, I could have my 13-year-old black lab, Linus, rolling over by sunrise. This, however, can only happen…
Learning from Tennessee: Growing High-Quality Charter Schools
Is Multi-Classroom Leadership Right for You?
If you’re interested in: –Spreading your excellent teaching to many more students –Leading a team of teaching peers toward the great outcomes you’ve gotten with your students by: collaborating with them co-teaching coaching co-planning giving (and getting) consistent, on-the-job, genuine professional development and support –Taking responsibility for the learning of all students in the team –Making significantly higher pay for taking on this leadership and responsibility …then a Multi-Classroom Leader role is waiting for your…
School Turnarounds: How Successful Principals Use Teacher Leadership
As the Opportunity Culture initiative was beginning, three principals signed on to lead low-performing, high-poverty schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Metropolitan Nashville districts. The odds were stacked against them and their students—one school, for example, has student transiency rates of 70 percent and higher. But within a few short years, their schools all showed very high growth—one school was in the top 1 percent in North Carolina for growth, and the other two received the…
Opportunity Culture Voices: Raising My Teacher Voice
“What does ‘teacher voice’ actually mean? Until this year, it sounded like a nice phrase, but it didn’t hold much meaning for me.
“But I have a job I love, one that shakes up traditional teaching and holds the promise of making a huge difference in students’ and teachers lives—as it did for my students. I wanted to spread the word about my job—and now, with positions like mine under threat at…
For Charter School Kids’ Sake, Prevent Authorizer Shopping
A strength of the charter school community has been its willingness to address quality and accountability issues, especially in the face of inconsistent academic quality among charters. Charter school advocates increasingly realize that great authorizing includes the will and ability to close failing schools. As authorizers and states have increased performance expectations and grown less hesitant to close failing schools, “authorizer shopping” has emerged as a growing threat to overall charter school quality. Authorizer shopping…
Where Is Teaching Really Different? New Opportunity Culture Video
What could you do in an Opportunity Culture? In a new video, teachers in Opportunity Culture schools tell how their roles let them: –Reach more students with great teaching –Lead other teachers without leaving teaching—“the best of both worlds” –Give and get support—“the best part of an Opportunity Culture” –Personalize learning for more students –Help students learn far more –Earn higher pay for the long haul—pay supplements in Opportunity Culture schools range up to 50…