Lincoln To Participate In 'Opportunity Culture' Pilot

LINCOLN -- Lincoln Middle School will be part of a pilot program next year designed to help retain excellent teachers with extra pay for taking on more teaching responsibilities.

Michele Price, middle school principal, and Jana Claybrook, the school district's learning service director, recently attended their first training session on the program, called "Opportunity Culture," at the Arkansas Department of Education in Little Rock. Other school districts in the pilot are Forrest City, Lead Hill, North Little Rock and Jacksonville.

Lincoln School Board on Jan. 21 voted to extend the three-year contract for Superintendent Mary Ann Spears another year to run through 2021-22. Spears is in her sixth year as superintendent of Lincoln Consolidated School District.

Price and Claybrook gave a report on the program at Lincoln School Board's Jan. 21 meeting.

Claybrook said the program will allow smaller school districts to come up with alternative ways to keep teachers, while trying to compete with salaries paid by larger districts in the area. She and Price will develop a plan for the middle school based on the school's needs.

They will participate in about seven or eight training sessions for the program. Lincoln received a $70,000 grant to pay for the training.

Principles of the Opportunity Culture are:

• To reach more students with excellent teachers and their teams.

• Pay teachers more for extending their reach.

• Fund the pay within regular budgets.

• Provide protected in-school time and clarity about how to use it for planning, collaboration and development.

• Match authority and accountability to each person's responsibilities.

For example, Price explained, one teacher can have a class of 25 students. If this teacher is a "rock star," then under the program the school could use the same teacher to reach more students, maybe by having more kids in the classroom or having the teacher go to another classroom to teach the lesson.

The teacher would then be compensated for the additional work. The idea is to provide the stipends within a school's current budget so the program does not cost a school additional money.

Price said the school will use scheduling to maximize a teacher's time.

"It's thinking outside the box," Price said.

She wants to try it on a small scale at the middle school at first to see how the program will work in Lincoln.

Mary Ann Spears, superintendent of Lincoln Consolidated School District, said the program will be tied to data, looking at the academic growth of students.

Teachers will be allowed to apply for one of the "lead teacher" positions next year and these lead positions could change year to year, depending on the needs of the students.

The program has had good results at schools in North Carolina, Spears said. Several Lincoln administrators have observed the program in Charlotte, N.C., and others are planning to go in the future.

Spears said teachers of the future may not be paid based on their years of experience but on their ability to grow students academically and their advancements in meeting professional goals.

The Arkansas Department of Education's website says that Opportunity Culture will create a "culture of community and student achievement, while developing teacher leaders and collaborative leadership."

General News on 01/30/2019