Opportunity Culture Audio
What do great Opportunity Culture educators do, and what have they learned about successfully redesigning school roles to reach all students with excellent teaching? Opportunity Culture Audio pieces bring their voices and advice to you, to help confront some of the stickiest issues facing education.
Episodes
20 episodes
#15. How Small Groups Led to Big Middle School Math Growth
Math Team Reach Teacher™ Brian Tavenner discusses his wholehearted belief in the power of extensive small-group instruction to improve all students’ outcomes and the difference it makes in how he works with student learning data. He delves into...
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Season 2
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Episode 15
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11:15
#14. Becoming a Student Growth State Leader: Lessons from Winchester
For the 2023–24 school year, Winchester Public Schools had student learning growth results to celebrate: Their seventh-grade math students were number 1 in the state for learning growth; fourth-grade math was in the top 10, and eighth-grade mat...
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Season 2
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Episode 14
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15:01
#13. BONUS: Use a Central Applicant Pool for Robust Hiring
Superintendent Jason van Heukelum of Winchester Public Schools developed a rigorous selection process at the division level to guard against bias and to send a message that teachers selected for the team leader role have to produce results.
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Season 2
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2:43
#13 BONUS: How Opportunity Culture® Career Paths Keep Educators in Their Best-fit Role
With the Multi-Classroom Leader™ role, some teachers who want to grow in their profession choose to stay in the classroom because they've been empowered to lead without having to be an administrator, says Winchester Public Schools superin...
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Season 2
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1:31
#13. A Superintendent’s View: Go All-In with Opportunity Culture® Teams, Small-Group
Viewing Opportunity Culture® implementation as a single, cost-neutral solution for multiple issues—student outcomes and educator career paths and satisfaction—Winchester Public Schools Superintendent Jason van Heukelum discusses why the distric...
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Season 2
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Episode 13
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15:46
#12. For N.C. Superintendent, Opportunity Culture® Teams Lead to a “Return on Instructional Investment”
Since 2017, the Vance County, N.C., school system has used Opportunity Culture® teaching teams to improve teacher retention and student learning. How has the district sustained implementation through a pandemic and transition to a new sup...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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19:52
#11. Public Impact Module Helps Schools Create a Tutoring Culture
Former Multi-Classroom Leader Okema Owens Simpson led the development of Public Impact’s on-demand module, Building a Scalable, Sustainable Tutoring Culture ...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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17:17
#10. How Collaborative District Leadership Supports Opportunity Culture Success
Successful Opportunity Culture implementation in a school district isn’t all up to the schools: Getting broad participation and communication from multiple district offices provides the support schools need. In North Carolina’s Winston-Salem/Fo...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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20:56
#9. Kids Need Tutoring. Few Kids Get Tutoring. Opportunity Culture Models Can Help.
A recent report from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that high-dosage tutoring reaches only about one in 10 students—despite the national push for it. But if schools build innovative staffing models such as Opportunity Cultur...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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3:57
#8. Dramatic Student Growth Follows Focus on Data, Small-Group Tutoring, and Collaboration
Lucama Elementary, a rural, Title I school in Wilson County, North Carolina, implemented several Opportunity Culture roles in 2021–22. Following a focus on data-driven, small-group tutoring, instruction based on the science of reading, and grea...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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15:30
#7. Making the Most of Opportunity Culture Innovations
Superintendent Scott Muri, a finalist for state superintendent of the year in Texas, has Opportunity Culture experience in multiple districts; since he brought Opportunity Culture models to Ector County Independent School District in 2019, the ...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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15:13
#6. Becoming a Committed Opportunity Culture School
Susan Hendricks was the principal of Ross Elementary in Ector County, Texas, before becoming the district’s director of leadership in August. Under her leadership, Ross Elementary received high ratings on the annual, anonymous survey given to O...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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6:10
#5. Comprehensive Communications Strengthen Opportunity Culture School
Principal Julie Shields leads a school that ranks very high on Opportunity Culture surveys for communicating its Opportunity Culture plans and impact. She spoke with Public Impact about how she thinks through a communications strategy to keep O...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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9:40
#4. Advice from an Opportunity Culture Director
As Anne Claire Tejtel Nornhold, who leads the Opportunity Culture work in Baltimore City Public Schools, prepared to move out of that role in spring 2022, she spoke with Public Impact about what worked well and her advice for other district Opp...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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22:36
#3. How Opportunity Culture Redesigns Help Address Teacher Shortages
What if you could improve student outcomes even in a time of rising teacher shortages? Many schools and districts report feeling stuck on the hamster wheel of trying to fill all their open positions—a struggle that has been worsening for years....
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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11:20
#2. Teacher-Assistant Partnership Helps Students Grow
Angela Caldwell, an Opportunity Culture expanded-impact kindergarten teacher in Guilford County, North Carolina, and her teaching assistant, Lora Terry, speak with Public Impact about their teaching partnership and the impact they see small-gro...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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5:56
