Opportunity Culture

The Opportunity Culture initiative helps pre-K–12 districts and schools restructure to extend the reach of excellent teachers, principals, and their teams to more students, for more pay, within recurring school budgets. Yearlong, paid residencies make on-the-job learning possible before teaching and leading.

The Opportunity Culture initiative is:

Grounded in five key design principles
Research-based
Found in districts across the U.S.
Continually refined and strengthened by all Opportunity Culture educators, including Opportunity Culture Fellows Valued by educators

JOIN US IN CREATING AN OPPORTUNITY CULTURE FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS!

Our school district is part of a growing, national Opportunity Culture movement to extend the reach of excellent teachers, principals, and their teams to more students, for more pay, within regular school budgets. That means great opportunities to have a fulfilling career path full of support.

Are you a great teacher who’s ready to take the next step in your career—without leaving the students you love? Do you like to set ambitious goals for yourself and your students? Do you enjoy supporting your colleagues to become more effective teachers? Are you looking for ways to help others succeed professionally?

In an Opportunity Culture, you can share your excellent teaching and build relationships with many more students, and lead and support other teachers. You’ll do that with more support for your own leadership, and more school-day time for planning and collaboration—for significantly more pay, sustainably funded.

ARE YOU A TEACHER WHO:

Believes all students can learn?
Wants to impact more students and advance without leaving the classroom?
Wishes you could help other teachers grow?
And dreams of doing this with more planning and collaboration time for pay competitive with other professions?

Do you want to reach more students with your great teaching; with the strong support and collaboration of an enthusiastic teaching team and leader?

This is your chance to help even more students challenge themselves and succeed, for more pay, with powerful, proven support and more in-school time for planning and collaboration!

Opportunity Culture schools offer innovative team-based roles that allow teachers to lead from the classroom, learn on the job, pursue teaching excellence together, and earn significantly more for reaching more students. All roles are funded sustainably at the school level, rather than with temporary grants.

If you are committed to high standards of excellence, teamwork, and student impact, join us!

JOIN OUR OPPORTUNITY CULTURE TEAM. CLICK HERE TO APPLY!

Opportunity Culture Flyer - pictures of teachers in classrooms and students learning

JOIN OUR OPPORTUNITY CULTURE TEAM. CLICK HERE TO APPLY!

Why Did We Choose Opportunity Culture?

To provide all students with excellent teaching and to help students close achievement gaps and leap ahead, our schools are creating an Opportunity Culture for their teachers and students. Opportunity Culture models enable schools to reach every student with excellent teachers and their teams—consistently—while paying teachers more for their extra responsibilities, and helping all educators improve on the job and work collaboratively. All pay supplements are funded through reallocations of existing budgets–no temporary grants.

An Opportunity Culture creates new roles for teachers–through a foundation of Multi-Classroom Leadership–and support staff, and it carefully integrates technology to save teachers time and help individualize instruction, often through small groups. The most effective teachers are responsible not only for helping more students, but also for helping their peers achieve teaching excellence, too. Research has shown large student learning gains for students on multi-classroom leader teams. In each Opportunity Culture school, a team of teachers and administrators adopts new roles to reach more students with teachers who have produced high-growth student learning. The team decides what reallocations to make to fund higher-paid roles, how to design school schedules for collaboration at school, how fast to reach all students with excellent teaching, and other design elements.

Opportunity Culture schools have attracted large numbers of outstanding educators committed to creating a culture of excellence for students, teachers, and staff. Learn more at OpportunityCulture.org.

The Opportunity Culture team at Public Impact supports and trains districts, schools, and partners who share our commitment to reaching every student with excellent teaching, every year, and to providing outstanding career opportunities to teachers. Learn more about Opportunity Culture! Learn More

How Does Opportunity Culture Work?

Opportunity Culture provides on-the-job, consistent support for all teachers to reach many more students with excellence, learn more, and earn more—by having great teachers lead teams or reach more students directly, with more school-day collaboration and planning time.

An Opportunity Culture restructures pre-K–12 schools to extend the reach of excellent teachers, principals, and their teams to more students, for more pay, within regular school budgets.

Opportunity Culture career paths let you stay in the classroom while continuing to advance as a teacher and teacher-leader, reaching many more students with excellent instruction and getting and giving great support—while earning more! Career paths include yearlong, paid teacher and principal residencies, advanced paraprofessionals called reach associates, team reach teachers, multi-classroom leaders, and multi-school leaders.

IN EACH OPPORTUNITY CULTURE SCHOOL:

A design and implementation team of teachers and administrators determines how to use Multi-Classroom Leadership and other roles to reach more students with teachers who have demonstrated high-growth student learning.

Multi-classroom leaders lead a teaching team, providing guidance and frequent on-the-job coaching while continuing to teach, often by leading small-group instruction.
Accountable for the results of all students in the team, multi-classroom leaders also earn supplements averaging 20 percent (and up to 50 percent) of teacher pay, within the regular school budget.
The schools redesign schedules to provide additional school-day time for teacher planning, coaching, and collaboration.

LEARN MORE

MULTI-CLASSROOM LEADERSHIP IS THE CORNERSTONE OF AN OPPORTUNITY CULTURE.

Independent research found that students in classrooms of team teachers led by multi-classroom leaders showed sizeable academic gains.

Multi-Classroom Leaders, or MCLs:

Are teacher-leaders with a track record of high-growth student learning and leadership qualities.
Lead a small grade or subject team: co-planning, coaching, co-teaching, and modeling instruction and data analysis for and with the team.
Continue to teach part of the time, often by leading small-group instruction.
Work with other multi-classroom leaders as a team to help principals lead instruction, behavior policies, and other critical activities affecting learning in each school.
Take accountability for student learning, teacher satisfaction, and other outcomes for all the classrooms they lead.

LEARN MORE

OPPORTUNITY CULTURE IS GROUNDED IN FIVE PRINCIPLES.

Teams of teachers and school leaders must choose and tailor models to:

Reach more students with excellent teachers and their teams
Pay teachers more for extending their reach
Fund pay within regular budgets
Provide protected in-school time and clarity about how to use it for planning, collaboration, and development
Match authority and accountability to each person’s responsibilities

LEARN MORE

Opportunity Culture Initiative at La Vega ISD.

Opportunity Culture Initiative with La Vega ISD

La Vega ISD is located primarily in the city of Bellmead with one campus (La Vega Jr. High George Dixon Campus) residing in the city of Waco. LVISD serves approximately 3200 students in 5 campus buildings. (La Vega Primary School Phil Bancale Campus, La Vega Elementary, La Vega Intermediate School H.P Miles Campus, La Vega Jr. High George Dixon Campus, and La Vega High School).

The mission of the District is to provide a needs-satisfying environment where everyone can produce successfully, with the understanding that learning adds quality to life. Preparing each student to contribute to an ever-changing, interdependent society is our commitment. "La Vega ISD is thrilled about the opportunity to participate in the Opportunity Culture grant, " said Dr. Sharon Shields, La Vega ISD Superintendent.

"The OC objectives support and expand on existing efforts in La Vega. The impact of OC in LVISD is unlimited. The potential and opportunity to replicate our most effective teachers will further improve our instructional programs leading to student success."

Opportunity Culture Roles & Job Descriptions.

Opportunity Culture Roles & Job Descriptions

Multi-Classroom Leader 1 & 2

A multi-classroom leader (MCL) leads a small team of teachers, paraprofessionals, and teacher residents in the same grade or subject to meet the MCL’s standards of excellence. MCLs establish each team member’s roles and goals at least annually, determine how students spend time, and organize teaching roles to fit each teacher’s strengths, content knowledge, and professional development goals. The team uses the MCL’s methods and tools.

The MCL:

co-plans, co-teaches, models, coaches, and gives feedback.
teaches students part of the time, in most cases.
organizes the team to analyze student learning data and change instruction to ensure high-growth learning for every child.
collaborates with the team, using the team’s ideas and innovations that the MCL agrees may improve learning.
is fully accountable for the learning and development of all students taught by the team members.
helps choose team members and leads their development, and monitors, assesses, and shares their progress with the principal.

Master Team Reach Teacher

A Master Team Reach Teacher (MTRT) serves on a multi-classroom leader’s (MCL’s) team, directly teaching more students than usual, but typically without raising instructional group sizes. With guidance from the team’s MCL, the MTRT plans and delivers instruction for multiple classes in a school where students rotate between face-to-face learning with the teacher and digital or offline learning supervised by a paraprofessional known as a reach associate or by a teacher resident. While one class of students is with a reach associate, the MTRT teaches another class of students, focusing on delivering personalized and enriched instruction.

The MTRT:

is responsible for co-planning, co-preparing, and delivering instruction, and co-monitoring student progress to determine instructional needs.
is responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of instruction supervised by the reach associate(s) and making or recommending changes.
collaborates with others working with the same students or subjects, including other members of the multi-classroom leader’s team as well as reach associates, to review student progress and change instruction to ensure high-progress, enriched learning for every student.
may specialize by subject in elementary schools.

Team Reach Teacher

The Team Reach Teacher (TRT) serves on a multi-classroom leader’s (MCL’s) team, directly teaching more students than usual, but typically without raising instructional group sizes. With guidance from the team’s MCL, the TRT plans and delivers instruction for multiple classes in a school where students rotate between face-to-face learning with the teacher and digital or offline learning supervised by a paraprofessional known as a reach associate or a teacher resident. While one class of students is with a reach associate, the TRT teaches another class of students, focusing on delivering personalized and enriched instruction.

The TRT is responsible for co-planning, co-preparing, and delivering instruction, and co-monitoring student progress to determine instructional needs. The TRT is also responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of instruction supervised by the reach associate(s) and making or recommending changes. The TRT collaborates with others working with the same students or subjects, including other members of the multi-classroom leader’s team as well as reach associates, to review student progress and change instruction to ensure high- progress, enriched learning for every student. In elementary schools, the TRT may specialize by subject.

Reach Associate

A reach associate typically provides both instructional and non-instructional support to a team of teachers, as designated by the team’s multi-classroom leader. All activities are directed by the multi-classroom leader or team reach teachers.

A reach associate:

works closely with the teacher to complete various administrative tasks and non-instructional paperwork.
manages procedures and supervises student behavior during transitions, lunch, recess, assemblies, and other unstructured activities, and while teacher(s) deliver instruction.
aids instruction by supervising time on projects, skills practice, and digital learning, and/or by instructing students in small groups or individually.

Download a detailed job description.

The Benefits of Opportunity Culture.

The Benefits of Opportunity Culture

Highly successful teachers, who can show other teachers how to achieve success by sharing what works and what doesn’t – plus, they’ll advance their careers and receive additional compensation for their success and willingness to lead others.

All teachers, who can benefit from collaboration and learning how their coworkers are making it work in their own classrooms. La Vega ISD is committed to providing all teachers with the absolute best professional development; what better place to learn than from inside your own school and community?

Students, who will benefit from excellent educators who are expanding their reach. Research on the national Opportunity Culture initiative shows that schools implementing this team-leader approach see strong academic gains for their students in math and reading.

Frequently Asked Questions - Opportunity Culture

HOW DID THE OPPORTUNITY CULTURE CONCEPT BEGIN?

In 2009, Public Impact, a national education policy and management firm, published a paper calling for more teachers to have paid, advanced roles while continuing to teach, in order to reach all students with excellent teaching. In 2012–13, the first two districts in the nation designed their Opportunity Culture models, adhering to five Opportunity Culture Principles, which call for teams of teachers and school leaders to choose and tailor models to:

Reach more students with excellent teachers and their teams;
Pay teachers more for extending their reach;
Fund pay within regular budgets;
Provide protected in-school time and clarity about how to use it for planning, collaboration, and development;
Match authority and accountability to each person’s responsibilities.

WHERE ARE THERE OPPORTUNITY CULTURE SCHOOLS?

WHY DID THIS DISTRICT IMPLEMENT AN OPPORTUNITY CULTURE?

We believe that the teacher in the classroom has the most impact on a student’s performance, so we implemented Opportunity Culture as a way to recruit, develop, retain, and reward excellent teachers. Teachers consistently say that they long to make more of an impact, have leadership opportunities that do not take them out of the classroom, and be paid commensurate with their level of responsibility and impact on students. Opportunity Culture addresses all of this. We also focus on supporting and developing our teachers, and an Opportunity Culture makes consistent, personalized, on-the-job, weekly or even daily support possible.

HOW DO YOU KNOW AN OPPORTUNITY CULTURE IS GOOD FOR STUDENTS?

Researchers from the Brookings Institution and American Institutes for Research found large student learning gains associated with Multi-Classroom Leadership. Teachers who were on average at the 50th percentile in student learning gains, who then joined teams led by teacher-leaders known as multi-classroom leaders, or MCLs (who had prior high growth as teachers), produced learning gains equivalent to those of teachers from the 75th to 85th percentile in math, and, in six of the seven statistical models, from 66th to 72nd percentile in reading. Teams had a median of five teachers in addition to the MCL. For more information, see this column.

WHAT IS THE SELECTION PROCESS LIKE?

HOW ARE THESE POSITIONS CREATED WITHIN A SCHOOL?

HOW AM I SUPPORTED IN THESE NEW ROLES?

ARE THESE POSITIONS HERE TO STAY LONG-TERM?

Yes. Another hallmark of an Opportunity Culture is that the roles are sustainably funded through reallocating the school’s budget, not through temporary grants. We believe these roles will be the new norm in education, and they continue to spread in other states as well. We believe these roles are best for students, providing them with a great education through well-supported, great teachers or teachers on a team led by a highly successful teacher—and we believe these roles are best for teachers and the teaching profession.

WHAT DOES A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN "MCL" LOOK LIKE?

Busy and rewarding! An MCL’s day may include direct instruction with students, co-teaching, coaching, modeling instruction for teachers, planning with teachers, and data analysis, observation, and feedback. MCLs are granted much schedule flexibility, but expected to plan their schedules carefully to focus on what will make the most impact on student achievement. For an example of one MCL’s days, watch this video.

AN "MCL" SOUNDS SIMILAR TO AN INSTRUCTIONAL COACH/FACILITATOR. WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Unlike most coaches, multi-classroom leaders are fully accountable for the results of all the students assigned to them and their team—and they continue to teach part of the time in some way as well. And unlike many coaches/facilitators, MCLs lead small teams—typically two to five, although advanced MCLs may lead teams of six to eight. This gives them the protected, in-school time to provide the on-the-job guidance, co-planning, help with data analysis, and feedback that is a hallmark of the support in an Opportunity Culture.

Additionally, many MCLs help select their teammates, help them advance in their own careers, and help principals lead instructional excellence schoolwide. Finally, additional pay for this advanced role does not depend on grants.

HOW AM I EVALUATED AS AN "MCL"?

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A TEAM REACH TEACHER?

Team reach teachers on a multi-classroom leader’s team directly teach more students than usual, but typically without raising instructional group sizes. Students rotate among teachers and paraprofessionals (“reach associates”) or teacher residents, who may tutor individuals and small groups and supervise skills practice, project work, and limited, age-appropriate digital instruction. Teachers use their face-to-face teaching time for higher-order learning and personalized follow-up, often using small-group instruction. In elementary schools, teachers may specialize by subject.

Teachers with prior, consistently high growth may assume an advanced role as a master team reach teacher, to assist a multi-classroom leader with a larger team and/or to reach significantly more students than other teachers. A small number of team teachers may be teacher residents who are more heavily supervised while completing a degree or certification.

HOW AM I EVALUATED AS A TEAM REACH TEACHER?

WHAT DOES A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A TEAM TEACHER LOOK LIKE?

HOW AM I EVALUATED AS A TEAM TEACHER?

HOW IS A REACH ASSOCIATE DIFFERENT FROM A TRADITIONAL TEACHING ASSISTANT?

The reach associate role is an advanced paraprofessional role. Reach associates take on greater levels of responsibility to support teachers with instruction. They are expected to support student learning through various activities such as leading small groups, working with students one on one, and managing larger groups of students while the lead teacher (such as a multi-classroom leader or team reach teacher) works with individuals or small groups. While working with students, reach associates often reteach concepts to students who have not mastered a skill, or extend and enrich instruction for students who are ready to move forward.

Reach associates also must have some classroom management skills to supervise students independently. Reach associates do not create lesson plans, but implement plans created by the lead teacher. They may provide input for lesson plans based on their observations and data gathered on student performance. The reach associate role may be played by a teacher resident who is obtaining a degree or certification while working.