David H. Petree Elementary

Why David H. Petree Elementary was nominated

Petree Elementary and its district are part of the national Opportunity Culture initiative, in which schools extend the reach of excellent teachers and their teams to many more students, for more pay, within regular budgets. Petree went from failing to meet state expectations for student learning growth in 2018 to exceeding growth in 2022, and was removed from the state’s list of low-performing schools. The foundation of the Opportunity Culture model is the Multi-Classroom Leader role, or MCL, an excellent teacher who leads a small teaching team, providing instructional guidance and frequent, on-the-job development, while continuing to teach part of the time. Petree creatively used resources to implement this and other team teaching roles to reach more students with excellent instruction, and is continuing to use resources carefully to expand those roles despite the lowered funding that comes as a consequence of being removed from the low-performing list, so that students can continue to make strong growth., Petree Elementary School implements the innovative staffing model, Opportunity Culture, which organizes teachers into teams led by excellent teachers and supports pay increases within the current school budget in order to extend the reach of instruction to more students.