The College Board and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) are partnering with Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture initiative to reach rural North Carolina school districts with excellent NCSSM teachers.
The national Opportunity Culture initiative extends the reach of excellent teachers and their teams to more students, for more pay, within schools’ recurring budgets. In the first phase of the new pilot, an excellent NCSSM teacher will become an Opportunity Culture multi-classroom leader for a team of pre-calculus teachers spread across rural North Carolina in the spring 2019 semester. The first phase will lay the groundwork to add more remotely located multi-classroom leaders from NCSSM and elsewhere.
Opportunity Culture multi-classroom leaders usually lead a small grade or subject teaching team within one school, providing instructional guidance and frequent on-the-job coaching while continuing to teach part of the time. Accountable for the results of all students in the team, they 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.
Many rural and urban schools do not have enough teachers prepared to ensure student success in advanced math, science and other courses leading up to and including the AP level. This shortage was the impetus for the partnership of the College Board, Public Impact and NCSSM.
Originally published Jan. 17, 2019.