-Press Release, Public Impact
Public Impact announces with pleasure our fifth cohort of Opportunity Culture Fellows. This year’s 15 fellows are Opportunity Culture multi-classroom leaders and principals who have achieved strong results and been leaders in their schools and districts.
Fellows provide support to their cohort, take one another’s ideas back to their schools, write columns about their experiences, and speak locally and nationally about their Opportunity Culture roles. Their feedback and leadership are invaluable in helping to improve the Opportunity Culture initiative, and all materials related to it.
This year’s fellows come from Arizona, Illinois, and four North Carolina school districts. We welcome and congratulate:
Multi-Classroom Leaders:
James Cerasani, Randolph Elementary, Chicago Public Schools, Illinois
Casandra Cherry, Phillips Middle, Edgecombe County Public Schools, North Carolina
Cherie Dixon, LB Yancey Elementary, Vance County Schools, North Carolina
Frederick Hoffman, Ferndale Middle, Guilford County Schools, North Carolina
Casey Jackson, Aycock Elementary, Vance County Schools, North Carolina
Steven Kennedy, Wilson Middle School, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, North Carolina
Amy Pearce, North Edgecombe High, Edgecombe County Public Schools, North Carolina
Angela Porter, Hairston Middle, Guilford County Schools, North Carolina
Christina Ross, Desert Oasis Elementary, Nadaburg Unified School District No. 81, Arizona
Keisha Wheat, Randolph Elementary, Chicago Public Schools, Illinois
Kristen Boyd, Aycock Elementary, Vance County Schools, North Carolina
Elizabeth Meyers, Randolph Elementary, Chicago Public Schools, Illinois
Jenny O’Meara, Phillips Middle, Edgecombe County Public Schools, North Carolina
Merrie Conaway, Foust Elementary, Guilford County Schools, North Carolina
Eric Ward, Harding University High School, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, North Carolina
As this cohort begins the fellowship over the summer, the 2018–19 cohort will be wrapping up their year, culminating in a convening for all past and current fellows in September. We thank all fellows for their participation, Opportunity Culture advocacy, and feedback to improve the initiative.
“Every year, fellows lead in their classrooms and schools; the fellowship gives them an opportunity to lead and advocate for a stronger profession at a national level,” said Sharon Kebschull Barrett, vice president for editorial services and communications at Public Impact, who oversees the fellowship and works closely with fellows to learn from their experiences through interviews and column writing. “They lead us as well, pointing the way for Public Impact to continually improve Opportunity Culture for other educators.”
The national Opportunity Culture initiative, founded by Public Impact and now in 28 sites in nine states, extends the reach of excellent teachers and their teams to more students, for more pay, within schools’ recurring budgets.
Research indicates that Multi-Classroom Leadership, the foundation of an Opportunity Culture, helps teams of teachers produce substantially higher student learning growth than in typical schools. Multi-classroom leaders (MCLs) lead a small teaching team, providing instructional guidance and frequent, on-the-job development while continuing to teach part of the time.
Each school’s design and implementation team, which includes teachers, determines how to use Multi-Classroom Leadership and other roles to reach more of their students with high-standards, personalized instruction—one hallmark of great teachers.
The school’s redesign schedule provides additional school-day time for teacher planning, coaching, and collaboration. MCLs typically lead the introduction of more effective curricula, instructional methods, classroom management, and schoolwide culture-building.
Learn more about multi-classroom leaders and principals in Opportunity Culture schools at OpportunityCulture.org.
