The Hill, March 13, 2021, by Thomas Toch and Lynn Olson. The pandemic relief package that just cleared Congress includes no less than $126 billion for schools, and there’s talk in education circles of using a portion of the money to reduce class sizes by hiring thousands of teachers to increase social distancing in schools. But scattered teacher shortages in parts […]
Federal Policy for Opportunity Anew
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 […]
Opportunity Culture Spreads in Arkansas, North Carolina with State Support
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 […]
Eight Ways New Schools Innovate
Forbes, November 19, 2020, by Tom Vander Ark. The rapid global shift to hybrid and remote learning—with lots of versions and variability—provoked renewed interest in new school models. And, compared to 20 years ago, the invention opportunity is enhanced by the science of learning, broad agreement on the importance of success skills, and better tools. […]
Cost-Effective Ways to Rethink School Staffing
By Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan Hassel; first published in Education Week. Even before COVID-19 sent students and educators home, teachers’ jobs had grown increasingly complex. Rightful demands for standards matching those of other nations—and for equitable opportunities allowing students to meet or exceed those standards—swelled over recent decades. With research clearly indicating how important […]
Report: Pandemic could spur new school staffing approaches
Education Dive, September 28, 2020, by Kara Arundel Overnight, it seemed, some teachers’ roles changed from being leaders in their classrooms to including broader responsibilities as mentors and coaches to other teachers, curriculum designers, technology facilitators, data coaches and assessment designers. What if that were the norm, asks the AIR paper. The differentiated school staffing approach […]
Coaching Teachers Remotely During Covid: Keys to Providing Great Teacher Support Amid Crises
In this webinar, three experienced multi-classroom leaders detail how they support their teaching teams remotely during the pandemic.
How Schools Can Redeploy Teachers in Creative Ways During COVID-19
Education Week, August 5, 2020, by Catherine Gewertz Extending the reach of excellent teachers One teacher-leadership model is sparking increased interest as schools grapple with how best to support students. It’s called the Multi-Classroom Leadership model, and it was designed by the education advocacy group Public Impact to help excellent teachers reach more students. More than […]
What is an Opportunity Culture? Broadening the reach of the most effective teachers
Little Things First, June 2, 2020 Public Impact has been serving urban and rural schools for many years, helping them rethink what is possible in schools. Opportunity Culture is a subset of Public Impact that explores ways to increase the reach of our best teachers. is it time to rethink our model of instructional coaching? […]
3 Model Options Give Schools Budget-Neutral Plans, Schedules, Roles for Partial School Closures
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 […]
High-growth learning potential during COVID-19: Where North Carolina stands
By Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan Hassel; first published by Education NC, April 24, 2020 As Public Impact’s co-presidents, we’re pleased to have our organization collaborate with EdNC on the 1.0 version of the NC District Response to COVID-19 School Closures Database, based on CRPE’s national database. What do the data tell us so far? We took […]
More Stories and Tips from Top Educators
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 […]