1. High Impact/Job-embedded Professional Learning
PD in the PLC
High Impact/Job-embedded Professional Learning
March 6, 2017
Kimberly Moody & Dr. LaTisha Smith, 2017

2. Leading Effective PD: The Vision
“Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.”
—Peter F. Drucker
Smith

3. INTRODUCTIONS
Dr. LaTisha A. Smith is the Director of Curriculum & Development for St. Louis Public Schools. She is also a member of several professional organizations include Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., The St. Louis Consortium for Educational Renewal, and St. Mary’s Special Services (Board Member). Dr. Smith initiates and facilitates many programs aimed at fostering effective educators for a global society. Her work in the public school system renders effective Professional Learning opportunities and a continuous review of the curriculum and resources needed for student success. Dr. Smith coordinates several certification partnership programs within SLPS, including Reading Specialist Certification, Gifted Certification, and the Teacher Assistant Certification Program.
Dave – Where we are with the Transformation Plan? Big picture what we’ve been focused on (Framing Question)
Visual of 4 goals
Smith

4. INTRODUCTIONS
Kimberly A. Moody is a Professional Development Specialist for St. Louis Public Schools. She is a Doctoral student in teacher leadership at Maryville University in St. Louis Missouri, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated , Learning Forward, and a member of the Learning Forward Academy Class of She specializes in the development and facilitation of professional learning to build teacher capacity including data driven lesson planning, responsive teaching and behavioral intervention strategies and teacher leadership programming. Before becoming a Professional development specialist, Kimberly spent 13 years as a classroom teacher in special education and secondary English.
Moody

5. NORMS Be Present Be In The Work
Be Respectful to the Space…Time…Agenda…Others
Smith

6. Why PD in the PLC How we should operate What we should provide/support
Transparency
Consistency
Alignment
Focus
What we should provide/support
Professional Development
Continuous Improvement
Culture of Learning/Growth
Strong Implementation
Smith

7. What This Means for SLPS
The Big Three
Increase Love of Learning
Improve Staff and Support
Better Meet the Needs of Our Clientele
…And Could Hopefully Mean For You!
Dave – overview the 3 big areas of focus for the academic office – specific language to be finalized based on ALT feedback/input
Smith

8. So What’s the Big Deal?
Professional development provides outlets for teachers to constantly learn more about what they teach and more about how students learn (accountability, high-stakes testing, data-driven practices, student achievement).
Professional development plays a key role in efforts to improve education and teacher quality.
Professional development provides the “tools” and support to teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical practices.
Professional development also addresses curriculum resources, performance standards, and preparing teachers for ever-changing classroom environments.
Still knowing and believing all this, we still faced a challenge…getting staff buy-in for their own professional learning…which led to our work with PD in the PLC.
Smith

9. Objectives
At the end of this session, participants will be able to define the “PD in the PLC” as it relates to their context, in order to establish job- embedded professional learning opportunities that meet the needs of their respective organizations.
At the end of this session, participants will start planning their next “PD in the PLC” sessions, in order to design the perfect PLC for their educators, to include the following elements: Schedule - Day(s) & Time(s), Agenda Type, Norms, Cycle for Continued Improvement, and Content (Book Study, PD, Data Review, Student Work Study, etc.)
Smith

10. Breaking the Ice NAME SCHOOL POSITION
Locate the Cardstock and Marker Sets on your tables.
1) Write your name, school district, and position on your place card
2) Add a symbol, famous logo, tag line or marketing slogan that embodies your philosophy of education or professional learning.
3) Please be prepared to share the information on your place card along with an explanation of your slogan or logo.
NAME
SCHOOL
POSITION
Smith

11. So What, Now What?
Just as there is a process for delivering effective instruction to students, there is a process for providing effective professional development to educators:
Set Goals—The plan should focus on student learning and should incorporate student data.
Learn—The program should increase teachers’ content knowledge and/or pedagogical skills.
Model—As part of professional development, teachers should have an opportunity to see what good teaching looks like in the classroom.
Practice—Teachers must have opportunities to try new strategies in their own classrooms and to receive support and feedback.
Refine—You must be prepared to adjust the plan as needed, giving teachers time for ongoing practice with new strategies and support from mentors, coaches, and peers.
The question became could we make these wonderful experience occur during the “job day?” We believed so.
Smith

12. PD in the PLC IS NOT… Smith A Staff Meeting A Department Meeting
A Gripe Session
Data Review Only with No Next Steps
Top Down
Sit and Listen
Non-Collaborative
Boring
Aggravating
Non-Rewarding
Non-Impactful
Smith

13. PD in the PLC IS … Smith A Professional learning community (PLC).
An ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve.
A group of learning communities that operates under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous job-embedded learning for educators.
Inclusive of:
A Collaborative Culture With a Focus on Learning for All
Collective Inquiry Into Best Practice and Current Reality
Action Orientation: Learning by Doing
A Commitment to Continuous Improvement
Data-Driven outcomes
Results Oriented
Smith

14. PD in the PLC is…
All About STUDENTS
Hard Working Teachers
Smith

15. Why PD in the PLCs?
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, signed by president Obama on December 10, 2015 indicates that educator learning is an integral local strategy for building educator capacity to help students succeed with high academic standards via professional development that is sustained, (not stand-alone, 1-day, and short-term workshops), intensive, collaborative, job-embedded, data-driven, classroom focused.
In response to this national movement, SLPS has developed the PD in the PLC programming.
Just in case there is someone in the group who wants to act like they know everything… You may want to acknowledge that although professional development has had its place in PLC’s since Dufor & Eaker Professional Learning Communities at Work (1998) and is apart of Learning Forward’s Seven Step Cycle of Continuous Improvement for PLCs, We noticed that in our district and other surrounding districts, PLCs were not being consistently used as a place were professional learning genuinely and consistently occurred.
Smith

16. Why PD in the PLCs?
Professional development is most effective when it occurs in the context of educators’ daily work.
When learning is part of the school day, all educators are engaged in growth rather than learning being limited to those who volunteer to participate on their own.
School-based professional development helps educators analyze student achievement data during the school year to immediately identify learning problems, develop solutions, and promptly apply those solutions to address students’ needs.
Smith

17. Your Turn…
Before you can begin to look at the practice in your organization and the compatibility of PD in the PLC, let’s reflect on where your PLC process rates- from your perspective.
Kimberly Moody will now take you though the process of Grading your PLC, and then developing the perfect PD in the PLC model for your clientele.
Smith

18. Grade Your PLC
Locate the PD in the PLC Planning Sheet. Complete Section 1.
Locate the PLC Implementation Rubric. Use the Missouri PLC Implementation Rubric to score your current PLC in the 6 strands of PLC Implementation:
Culture & Continuous Improvement
Effectiveness of Building Level Leadership Teams
Effectiveness of PLC Teams
Identifying what students need to know and do
Defining Indicators to determine when students have learned
Responsiveness to students who have/have not learned
Calculate your score: divide your total score by 136 to determine your %
Moody

19. Deeper Analysis of your PLC
If your would like a deeper analysis of your plc, you may take the online survey at or scan the QR code below. This survey was created using Learning Forward’s Innovation Configuration Map for Standards for Professional Learning for Director of Professional Learning to assist you in determining the performance level of your PLC s in the areas of: community, leadership, resources data, learning design, implementation and outcomes

20. Table Talk…. Deep thought … Deeper discussion… Is your PLC a farce?
If so, why do you think it is and if not, what makes it a genuine PLC?
Discuss with your table partners and be prepared to share your deepest introspection with the group!
Deep thought …
Deeper discussion…
Moody

21. Who Participates in PD in the PLC?
All Stakeholders
Configuration is based on school culture and participant expertise.
Moody

22. Making Time for PD in the PLC
Typically, PLC’s meet for 1 class period one time each week.
DISCUSS…
Is this enough time for effective & impactful collaboration?
How can we glean more time from our day to extend PLC meeting times?
SHARE…
Some possibilities are:
Common Preps
Parallel Scheduling
Adjusted Start and End Time
Leadership PBL Instructional Sessions
Moody

23. PD in the PLC Norms & Agendas
Any group that meets regularly or that is trying to “do business’’ needs to identify its existing norms or develop new norms.
Because every group has unspoken norms for behavior, groups need to work at being explicit about what they expect from each other.
Agendas…
Get Buy-In
Set Goals
Allow Others to Prepare
Pick Up Where You Left Off
Everyone on the Same Page
Everyone Knows What's Expected After the Meeting
Give Power to the People
Moody

24. Identifying Issues & Planning SMART Goals
Identifying Problems
Setting smart goals
A problem is the difference between the actual situation and the desired outcome.
Formative data should be collected to support any identified problems.
S - specific M - measurable A – attainable action-oriented R - realistic, relevant, results- oriented T - time-bound, timely, tangible, trackable
Moody

25. Evidenced-Based Professional Learning What kind of PD happens in the PLC?
Individual or Group Reading/Study/Research.
Peer study groups focused on a shared need or topic.
Observation: teachers observing other teachers.
Coaching: an expert teacher coaching one or more colleagues.
Mentoring of new educators by more experienced colleagues.
Satellite College/University Courses
Direct or Contracted Professional Learning from Experts, including Peers
Proprietary programs by private vendors.
Moody

26. How do we judge the Effectiveness of PD?
Basic Evaluation
Did this PD produce the intended results?
Measure impact rather than program delivery.
Deep Evaluation
Determine what evidence to collect. Decide from whom or what sources to collect the evidence, how to collect the evidence, and how to analyze the evidence (evaluation questions).
Collect data. collect evidence to answer the evaluation questions.
Organize and analyze data. Evaluators organize and analyze collected data and display analyzed data in multiple formats.
Interpret data. Working together, interpret the data to make sense of it, draw conclusions, assign meaning, and formulate recommendations.
Report findings. Present findings and make recommendations in related to the intended outcomes.
Reflect ! As a reflective practitioners, looks back at the work done and identify its strengths and areas for continued refinement and growth.
Moody

27. Continuous Improvement Cycle
Continuous improvement is an ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes. These efforts can seek “incremental” improvement over time or “breakthrough” improvement all at once. .
Moody

28. LF-7 Step Cycle of Continuous Improvement
Moody

29. Continuous Improvement Chart
This chart is a tool to assist in the process of identifying…
Strengths
Challenges
Changes to strengthen the work and ensure shifts in practice.
It can be used at the school or district level and serves to assist users in the implementation of the LF-7 Step Cycle of Continuous Improvement.

30. Coaching & PD in the PLC
Peer Coaching… perfecting implementation of pedagogical strategies.
Peer coaching: a non-evaluative reciprocal process in which teachers are paired to discuss and share a strategy, observe each other and provide mutual support. (Hodges Simons, 2006)
Peer coaching is a learning partnership between two individual teachers who coach each other in a reciprocal manner. Mutual learning, professional growth and teacher empowerment are the goals.
Peer coaches do not need to be 'expert' in the area they are coaching. They act as a 'mirror' or another pair of 'eyes and ears' to assist their valued colleague to reflect, actively examine their practice, identify where they want to go and how they will get there.
Moody

31. Coaching & PD in the PLC
Moody

32. Coaching & the PLC
Instructional Coaching – Build capacity to implement
School-based (instructional) coaches are master teachers who have received specialized training to work with adult learners, design and facilitate professional learning, provide confidential classroom-based support, and assist the administrative team in reaching data-driven student achievement goals. (Killion & Harrison, 2005)
The work of the instructional coach is complex, and the roles they play may vary. Their over-arching purpose, which is to assist teacher learning & build teacher capacity to implement effective instructional practices to improve student learning and achievement, remains constant, and drives the work they do.
Moody

33. Coaching & the PLC
Moody

34. Plan your work! Work your plan!
Moody

35. Planning your PD in the PLC
Locate the PD in the PLC Planning Sheet. Complete Section 2.
Section 2 addresses Objective 2, planning a potential PD in the PLC session.
Take time to think about ONE PD in the PLC that you could, would, should or are most likely to implement.
Follow the prompts on the PD in the PLC Planning Sheet (Section 2). answer
Answer and reflect on the questions for optimal planning.
I think that we should share this slide. You take the fist three check marks and I will take the last two. We have a genuinely good rapport, I think we can handle it.
Smith/Moody

36. Share your plan! (Time permitting)…
Smith

37. Thank you for your Time, Attention, and Collaboration.
Questions?
Thank you for your Time, Attention, and Collaboration.
Kimberly Moody
Dr. LaTisha Smith
Moody & Smith

38. Resources
DuFour, R., & Eaker, R. (1998). Professional Learning Communities at Work best Practices for Enhancing Student Achievement . Bloomington, IN: National Education Services.
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory
development/evaluating-the-impact-of-professional-development-in-eight-steps
an-agenda-for-your-business-meetings/