Opportunity Culture: Positive Impacts for Educators and Students

This session opened with an introduction about the program from Stephanie Dean with Public Impact. Dean shared the vision of Opportunity Culture as ensuring every student has consistency with exposure to excellent teachers and that teachers have career opportunities through advancement and on-the-job coaching. She also described the five culture principles of the program, the structure, high student outcomes from participating districts, teacher satisfaction with the program and how Opportunity Culture advances systems change.

“What we want to do is change the staffing model to make sure that every child is being influenced by the instruction of those great teachers.”
– Stephanie Dean

Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District in North Carolina has participated in this program for since 2013. Bishay Faris, the Program Manager for the Teacher Leader Pathway (TLP) with the district, shared how they are implementing this program. He reviewed how many schools within the district participate, the vision of TLP, key strategies, roles and the process for teachers becoming involved. Faris also shared how schools onboard with the program, metrics and program fidelity and how the program has increased the adaptability with challenges.

“What impact does this [Opportunity Culture] actually have? We have seen big impacts here, with student outcomes as one of the biggest ones. When we have teachers supported by an MCL [multi-classroom leader] they will typically have growth that moves from the 49^th up to the 69^th percentile.”
– Bishay Faris

The GLR community of Winchester, Virginia, is led by the organization Literacy Volunteers Winchester Area and funded by the John and Janice Wyatt Foundation. Andy Gail and Matt Peterson shared how their community mobilized around literacy to join the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading in 2021. Their local school district is a key partner in the work and it implements the Opportunity Culture program. The mobilization effort in Winchester includes over 20 members dedicated to addressing school readiness, chronic absence and out-of-school learning.

“The closest partners are the public schools. We couldn’t do it without them, their staff and teachers. They’ve always been there. They support what we’re working toward and we want to work with them to better our outcomes.”
– Andy Gail

Jacob Boula of Winchester Public Schools discussed how they are implementing Opportunity Culture, why they are participating in the program, the district’s vision and how the program model works within the district. Having just begun to adopt Opportunity Culture in 2021, Boula also talked about the future implementation plan based on current outcomes, lessons learned in implementation and the early successes they have experienced.

“The hands-on approach to our coaching has been really beneficial. Our teachers and multi-classroom leaders are really enjoying having that role.”
– Jacob Boula