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Welcome to this edition of the Opportunity Culture® Newsletter! Opportunity Culture® portal subscribers receive these newsletters automatically as part of their district’s portal benefits (log in here). Not already subscribed to this newsletter? Join our mailing list here! |
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OPPORTUNITY CULTURE® AUDIO
For Big Results, Go Big with Teaching Teams |
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New school years bring optimism and hope—and at the Opportunity Culture® initiative, they bring big goals as well, to reach as many students as possible with excellent learning. When schools and districts begin using Multi-Classroom Leader® teams, should they wade in, or dive in? In this podcast, hear what district leaders have said over the past decade on how best to improve student learning growth and teacher careers. |
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Superintendents, district leaders, principals, and team leaders from North Carolina’s Wilson County, Hertford County, and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County districts, as well as Winchester, Virginia, and Ector County and Midland districts in Texas—several of whom have Opportunity Culture® experience in multiple districts—discuss what worked for them. |
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IN THE NEWS
Read: A classroom staffing model is improving outcomes for teachers and students
How is your Opportunity Culture® work making a difference for students and teachers? Read about the results in this article in EducationNC, and see the highlights of Opportunity Culture® data below: |
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Students taught by teacher-led teams make about an extra half-year of
additional learning progress annually |
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In a 2023–24 survey, 80% of all
participating educators rated their experience 5 or higher on a 0–10 scale |
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Some Title I schools using Opportunity Culture® models saw teacher turnover fall by 54% over two years |
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Since the Opportunity Culture® initiative began, its educators have earned more than $100 million in additional pay |
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SOCIAL MEDIA
Keep Up with the Latest—Follow Us!
Opportunity Culture® Newsletters come out six times a year—to keep up between editions, follow us on LinkedIn for thoughtful posts on timely topics, upcoming events, and celebrations of great things happening in your schools!
For example, check out the latest post from Public Impact® Co-President Bryan Hassel, which begins:
"It would be a tragedy—and a huge economic loss—if the nation’s leaders turned away from tutoring based on one article.
I’m talking about a piece in The Hechinger Report on a University of Chicago Education Lab study finding strong impact for tutoring across 20,000 students, but not as strong as in prior trials.
Instead of giving up on tutoring, let’s learn lessons from a much broader body of research, and get it right at scale. ..."
Follow us to read his whole post! |
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SHOUT-OUT
Welcome to Newly Certified Schools |
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Congratulations to the last round of schools to attain Certified Opportunity Culture School® status for the 2024–25 school year! Since the June newsletter, six more schools have received Level 2 certification—in Edgecombe, Guilford, and Wilson County school districts in North Carolina. Many more have received Level 1 and provisional certification. What schools are on the list? Find out on the Opportunity Culture® Dashboard, and watch for more throughout the year, as schools get certified for 2025–26! |
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CERTIFICATION
This Month in Opportunity Culture® Certification
Opportunity Culture® certification is built on more than a decade of data and experience, reflecting what consistently works for students and educators. As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, we’re excited about the September 24 launch of our redesigned self-assertion process for schools to become certified. The new process is more intuitive and user-friendly, helping schools and districts identify Opportunity Culture® design strengths and growth areas. Schools can re-assert for certification after making improvements—highlighting their progress while staying focused on what works. |
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To support this rollout, we’ll host a webinar on September 23 at 1:00 p.m. ET to walk through updates to the certification language. Following that, we’ll offer monthly support webinars, beginning October 16, to guide schools through completing self-assertion. |
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EVENTS
Upcoming Events
A busy fall awaits…we’re looking forward to district-hosted site visits to show off their results and spread the Opportunity Culture® word and lots of professional learning opportunities, plus design workshops for a cost-effective way to plan and implement teaching teams that get student results and make teachers happy.
New this year: Participants who successfully complete Opportunity Culture® design and professional learning courses can post course credentials on their LinkedIn profiles!
See all fall events here. |
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September 2025
11 Observation & Feedback: Coaching Conversations, 4:05–6:00 p.m. ET | Register*
18 Opportunity Culture® Info Session, 1:00–1:45 p.m. ET | FREE | Register
18 Guiding and Developing Teacher-Leaders, 12:05–2:00 p.m. ET | Register*
18 Building Productive Relationships with Students, 4:05–6:00 p.m. ET | Register*
23 Understanding Changes to Certification Elements, 1:00 p.m. ET | FREE | Register
25 Differentiating Your Coaching, 4:05–6:00 p.m. ET | Register*
*Educators with Opportunity Culture® portal accounts should log in there to register
October 2025
2 Office Hours for Principals, 4:05–5:00 p.m. ET | Register*
9 Office Hours for Teacher-Leaders, 4:05–5:00 p.m. ET | Register*
16 Navigating the OC™ Certification Process, 10:00 a.m. ET | FREE | Register
16 Opportunity Culture® Info Session, 1:00–1:45 p.m. ET | FREE | Register
16 Office Hours for RA™ Paraprofessionals, 4:05–5:00 p.m. ET | Register*
22–23 District-Level Staffing Design Workshop, 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. ET | Register
23 Visit to Carlsbad Municipal School District, 8:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. MT | Register
*Educators with Opportunity Culture® portal accounts should log in there to register |
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RESOURCES
Tools You Need Now
Have you seen the through-the-year instructional leadership and excellence resources on the Opportunity Culture® website? Each critical element shown below includes related study guides, discussion questions, tools, short videos, and other resources. |
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Leading a Team, for teaching team and school leaders |
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Launch and Lead
Establish leadership by ensuring the right people are on the team and clarifying the team’s vision, goals, roles, and process for collaborating to achieve excellence. |
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Support and Develop Individuals
Provide support and development to each educator, through co-planning, co-teaching or co-leading, modeling, observing and providing feedback, and coaching. |
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Build Team Cohesion
Build team spirit and help your team collaborate productively to achieve your common goal of teaching and learning excellence. |
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Manage Yourself
Take care of yourself and improve your leadership and professional skills and competencies to achieve consistent performance. |
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Here are just a few of our many videos about leading a team: |
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Achieving Instructional Excellence, for all educators |
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Plan Ahead and Raise Sights
Pre-plan high standards for each grade/course—with schoolwide curriculum, lessons, and useful assessments up to & beyond standards—to support achievement and growth. |
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Execute Rigor and Personalization
Execute rigorous lessons aligned with the curriculum, personalizing and differentiating instruction for highly engaging, high-growth learning. |
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Monitor Learning
Assess students’ learning achievement and growth frequently with data—daily and weekly—from the start and continuing through the year. |
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Lead the Classroom
Lead with purpose and compassion, setting and reinforcing norms for routines and behavior, in face-to-face learning and online. |
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Connect
Establish strong relationships with students and families to cultivate a culture of learning and respect. |
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Adjust Instruction
Change instruction when learning slows—and to help students advance faster—based on monitoring. |
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Share
Engage students and families in each student’s growth by sharing progress and inviting student-driven improvements. |
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Improve
Continuously improve all of the instructional excellence elements.
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Enjoy a few of our videos about achieving instructional excellence: |
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ICYMI
Are you a new Opportunity Culture® educator?
Learn much more on the Opportunity Culture® website—start with the blog, which highlights new audio, video, and written publications from Public Impact®. And start with the pieces below, from the June newsletter and worth a repeat! |
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How-To’s for Some Pressing Education Concerns |
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How can you reverse student learning slides in three steps ? Avoid K-12 scale fail? Stop wasting student teachers’ time and money? Add tutoring time for free? Right-size your tutoring groups? |
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In a recent series of short posts, Public Impact® Co-President Bryan Hassel has advice! Get your thoughts flowing on all these topics—with interrelated solutions.
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Making 6-Figure Educator Pay a Reality
In The 74, from Sharon Kebschull Barrett of Public Impact®: |
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“Ask teachers how much their pay matters, and they often shy away from a direct answer, feeling ashamed to admit they do their job for anything beyond a sheer love of helping students. |
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District leaders more openly acknowledge the importance of compensation, especially for teachers who must work a second job to make ends meet, and in regions that struggle to hire and retain educators.
But they can do more than just help their educators escape a two-job grind. In Texas, one district has made it possible for teachers to earn six-figure salaries without leaving the classroom — and without having to wait for decades. ..." |
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