Action Planner for Principals in OC Schools - A Through-the-Year Checklist to Help You Succeed

Aug 31, 2026

Action Planner for Principals in OC Schools provides a through-the-year sequence of leadership actions for principals committed to excellent academics for all students. It focuses on launching and sustaining change using Opportunity Culture’s Multi-Classroom Leadership approach, including building instructional leadership teams, monitoring interim learning data, and solving problems collaboratively. The planner offers step-by-step guidance, preset customizable to-do lists, and embedded links to tools for communication and implementation, supporting improvement with achievement gaps and turnarounds.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatDOCX

Pages23

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

Action Planner Overview

What the Action Planner Does

What the Action Planner Does Not

Major Opportunity Culture Action Strands

Communication

Leading a Team: Instructional Team of Leaders (MCLs)

Action Planner for Principals A through-the-year checklist to help you succeed Dear Principal, If you are leading a school with accountable teacher-leader roles, including Opportunity Culture roles, this tool is for you. This tool is for principals in any school committed to excellent academics for all students. It includes actions to launch and sustain change in schools, including improvement in schools with stubborn achievement gaps and turnarounds in schools with large numbers of disadvantaged students or low learning outcomes. It incorporates the leader actions found in organizations that make large improvements rapidly, in schools and other fields. The HYPERLINK "https://www.opportunityculture.org/opportunity-culture-educator-roles/" Multi-Classroom Leadership model, the foundation of Opportunity Culture innovative staffing, introduces one of the critical elements of successful improvement and turnarounds: an instructional team of leaders to help principals implement change. In the many Opportunity Culture (OC) schools that have seen sustained high growth, principals lead the team of excellent teachers in the Multi-Classroom Leader (MCL) role to ensure instructional excellence schoolwide. MCLs lead small, collaborative teams of two to eight teachers and are accountable for strong outcomes of all the team’s students. Having MCLs or similar teacher-leaders schoolwide is an essential ingredient for a rapid, sustained school improvement. HYPERLINK "https://www.opportunityculture.org/research" Research studies show very strong student learning gains for MCL teams. Leading a team of leaders may be a new experience, even for veteran principals—very different from leading 20 to 50 teachers individually. Principals empower MCLs by building their leadership skills, working as a team to monitor interim student learning data, and solving problems together to HYPERLINK "https://opportunityculture.org/teacher-support-in-an-opportunity-culture/" help other teachers excel day to day. This planner has steps to lead MCLs and similar teacher-leaders to achieve your school’s goals. What this Action Planner does: Show critical steps, in sequence, to lead a teacher-leader team in a school that wants to improve fast Remind you when to communicate…and take action as a change leader Link to tools to help with each step (return to this online for new tools!), when needed Keep you from reinventing the wheel Provide you with preset “to do” lists that you can customize, if needed What this planner does not do: Tell you what your school should teach Tell you the specific needs of your teaching team Tell you the right goals for your students Our sources included interviews with HYPERLINK "https://opportunityculture.org/how-principals-use-multi-classroom-leadership-in-school-turnarounds/" successful principals in early Opportunity Culture schools (note that in the years since, some Opportunity Culture terminology and implementation has evolved based on data and results), HYPERLINK "http://opportunityculture.org/category/teacher-columns/" columns by MCLs, research on successful school and cross-sector turnarounds, research on instructional excellence, and input from Public Impact team members working with Opportunity Culture schools. You can find additional tools and materials to help you succeed at HYPERLINK "https://opportunityculture.org/" OpportunityCulture.org on the HYPERLINK "https://opportunityculture.org/instructional-leadership-and-excellence/" Instructional Leadership and Excellence web pages, which provide training, videos, team discussion questions, and additional resources aligned with this action planner. We will continue adding and updating tools. Your suggestions are welcome HYPERLINK "https://opportunityculture.org/contact/" here. Instructions Skim the major action strands below. Use each page that follows for specific actions in each Action Strand. The pages are divided into four periods: HYPERLINK "ht

FAQs

Who is this action planner designed for?

It is designed for principals leading schools with accountable teacher-leader roles, including Opportunity Culture roles, and for any school committed to excellent academics for all students.

What is the core leadership model referenced in the planner?

The planner is grounded in the Multi-Classroom Leadership model, where principals lead instructional teams of teacher leaders (MCLs) responsible for strong outcomes for their teams’ students.

How is the planner organized across the year?

It divides actions into four periods: Summer (before school starts), Fall (beginning of school–November), Winter (December–February), and Spring (March–June).

Does the planner provide curriculum content or only leadership actions?

It does not tell schools what they should teach, define specific teaching needs, or set the right student goals; it centers on leadership steps to communicate, launch, and sustain change.

Aug 31, 2026

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