In 2009, Public Impact launched the Opportunity Culture initiative, which identifies ways for effective teachers to take on roles that enable them to positively affect many more students.
For example, under the multiclassroom leadership model, a highly effective teacher is placed in charge of a team of teachers and is accountable for the learning of all the students who are taught by her team. This multiclassroom leader is responsible for supervising instruction, evaluating and developing teachers’ skills, and facilitating team collaboration and planning. The team leaders are either not assigned students or given a light teaching load that enables them to focus on their mentorship role. The other model used in the study’s data—the time-swap model—uses learning stations facilitated by paraprofessionals to enable effective teachers to lead instruction for more students.
Earlier this month, CALDER released a working paper that examined the relationship between Public Impact partner districts that adopted these staffing models and student achievement in math and reading. Data was drawn from three public school districts: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina, which contributed nearly 90 percent of the students in the research sample, Cabarrus County Schools in North Carolina, and the Syracuse City School District in New York. All three districts implemented the new staffing models in a minimum of three schools for at least two academic years. In total, the sample comprised more than 15,000 students.
Most students experienced the multiclassroom leadership model, either through direct instruction by a multiclassroom leader or via a teacher on a team overseen by a leader. Student achievement was reported using the respective state’s standardized tests. Although random assignment was not possible—schools were targeted for participation by their districts and then chose whether to participate—the research approach is similar to other studies that have measured the impact of certain teachers, such as Teach For America corps members, on student achievement.
The study finds that participating schools significantly improved students’ math performance. The multiclassroom leadership model, in particular, produced larger math gains than other models. Though many models were also correlated with positive and significant effects for reading, some were not. And overall results for models other than the multiclassroom leadership model were mixed.
This study suggests that the Opportunity Culture initiative is a promising, innovative strategy. It increases math achievement and offers teachers upward career mobility without requiring them to leave the classroom for administrative positions—a problem that regularly plagues districts and schools looking to retain their best teachers. In addition, although teachers are paid substantial salary supplements, the initiative uses models that operate within the constraints of a school’s normal operating budget—an intriguing premise that better compensates teachers without affecting the bottom line. Districts looking for an innovative way to empower and improve their teaching force would do well to take a look at this program.
SOURCE: Ben Backes and Michael Hansen, “Reaching Further and Learning More? Evaluating Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture Initiative,” American Institutes for Research (January 2018).
