Lucama Elementary

Why Lucama Elementary was nominated

Lucama 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. Under Principal April Shackleford, Lucama dramatically “exceeded growth” in 2021–22 under the state definition. 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. Under Shackleford, Lucama creatively used resources to take this role and other team teaching roles schoolwide in its second Opportunity Culture year to shift student learning and school culture, and to involve as many teachers, paraprofessionals, and retired teachers serving as paid tutors as possible in providing small-group instruction, to give students in this Title I school equitable access to tutoring during and after school., Lucama 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. The school has achieved high-growth learning results for its students, moving from a C letter grade from the state in 2017 to an A in 2025, and it received Certified Opportunity Culture® School status, Level 2, signifying a focus on student access to instruction led by Multi-Classroom Leader® teaching teams and incorporation of small-group, high-dosage tutoring into daily schedules. The foundation of the Opportunity Culture model is the Multi-Classroom Leader role, 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. The school uses this and other teacher and paraprofessional team roles to reach more students with excellent teaching.