By Sharon Kebschull Barrett; first published in EducationNC. Can deep dives into large flows of student learning data actually lower teacher stress? Successful multi-classroom leaders, who lead small teaching teams in data analysis, say yes. When schools focus on small teams led by highly successful teachers, they help address the concerns North Carolina teachers expressed in […]
Profiles of Leaders of Color: Building an Effective Staff
Report profiles three leaders about how they trained teachers in empathy to fight biases, developed a leader training program, and founded an alliance to develop future leaders of color.
What Schools Can Learn From Google (Spoiler: It’s Not What You’d Expect)
eSchool News, October 3, 2018, by Talia Milgrom-Elcott and Mo-Yun Lei Fong
One of the American workplaces with the most to learn is, ironically, public schools themselves. Too few schools prioritize employee satisfaction, failing to recognize the link between it and customer value. In other words, they fail to see how fulfilled and supported teachers lead to better student learning and growth.
The Whole Package: 12 Factors of High-Impact Teacher-Leader Roles
Brief offers a quick list of the common pitfalls of designing such roles, and a chart of the 12 essential factors for creating high-quality, lasting teacher-leader roles.
Analysis: New Study Finds Huge Student Learning Gains in Schools Where Teachers Mentor Their Colleagues as Multi-Classroom Leaders
By Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan Hassel; first published on The 74. In survey after survey, teachers report dissatisfaction with the professional development they receive. Many aren’t satisfied with their professional learning communities or coaching opportunities. Teachers say they want more on-the-job development, career advancement while teaching, and collaboration time. Some teachers are getting what they want. But is that good news for students? […]
Painting the ESSA Canvas: Four Ideas for States to Think Big on Educator Quality
Leaders from four organizations describe clear, actionable ideas for states who are ready to think big and use ESSA Title II-A funds strategically.
Evaluation, Accountability, and Professional Development in an Opportunity Culture: A Practical Guide
This guide will help education leaders align evaluation and its uses with an Opportunity Culture and similar school models and career paths.
Coaching and Developing Turnaround Leader Actions: A Professional Learning Module
This professional learning module provides state and district leaders with tools to coach and develop school turnaround leaders to take key leader actions.
Coaching for Impact: Six Pillars to Create Coaching Roles That Achieve Their Potential to Improve Teaching and Learning
Report outlines six pillars essential to creating meaningful coaching roles along with recommendations for those responsible for creating and supporting results-oriented coaching programs.
Recruit, Select, and Support: Turnaround Leader Competencies
Learning module provides state and district leaders with tools to identify and apply turnaround leader competencies to the selection and development of school turnaround leaders.
Free, In-depth Training Materials for Teaching-Team Leaders
With advice and feedback from the first multi-classroom leaders (MCLs) in the Opportunity Culture initiative, Public Impact has created a free set of in-depth training sessions uniquely suited to the MCL role. The sessions may also benefit other teacher-leaders who lead teams and develop colleagues on the job.
Multi-Classroom Leadership is the most popular model chosen by school design teams implementing Opportunity Culture models. Multi-classroom leaders are excellent teachers who continue teaching while leading a team of teachers, taking full accountability for the success of the team’s teachers and students—for a lot more pay. But that combination of teaching and team leadership requires new skills that few teachers—even excellent ones—have developed. Feedback from MCLs indicated that leadership programs focused on aspiring principals or traditional coach/mentor roles don’t suit the needs of the high-accountability MCL role, which requires daily instructional management and leadership to succeed.
Opportunity Culture models use teamwork, job redesign, and technology to extend the reach of excellent teachers and their teams to more students, for more pay, within recurring budgets. Each school creates a design team that selects and adapts models that will suit their school best. Teachers and principals on these teams cite the importance of genuine team leadership and consistent, on-the-job feedback and development as key factors in the frequent choice to use Multi-Classroom Leadership, as well as the desire to reach as many students as possible with great teaching. In some schools, MCLs operate as a team of leaders for the school, supporting one another and the principal.
The MCL training sessions are structured to run over three summer days, followed by six shorter sessions during the school year. New and experienced MCLs can experience these sessions in formal training, study them on their own, or study them in meetings with other MCLs in their schools. District professional learning staff, principals, assistant principals, and other training providers can lead sessions using the included facilitator notes. Public Impact also organizes formal training and train-the-trainer sessions—with experienced, successful MCLs co-facilitating—and helps districts and schools establish a clear process for MCLs and principals to support one another’s success.
In 2014–15, the Opportunity Culture initiative included more than 30 schools, 450 teachers, and 16,000 students, and will include more than 60 schools in 2015–16. Early data from the initiative reveal that:
Teacher-Led Professional Learning: To Reach Every Student with Excellent Teaching
Materials provide a simple framework of the elements of effective on-the-job professional learning from teacher-leaders.