1. Professional Learning Communities
A PROCESS THAT WILL CHANGE A SCHOOL’S CULTURE!

2. Professional Learning Communities
Improving Instructional Practices
Professional Learning Communities
Background/Experiences
What I have learned about NKSD thus far related to collaboration practices…

3. What does the effective schools research say?
Throughout our ten-year study, whenever we found an effective school or an effective department within a school, without exception that school or department has been a part of a collaborative professional learning community.
Milbrey McLaughlin – Stanford University Effective Schools Research

4. The 90/90/90 Schools have the following characteristics:
More than 90 percent of the students are eligible for free and reduced lunch
More than 90 percent of the students are from ethnic minorities.
More than 90 percent of the students met or achieved high academic standards, according to independently conducted tests of academic achievement.

5. What is a Professional Learning Community?
In a professional learning community, staff members will come together to clarify what it is they want students to learn, how they will know when each student has mastered the essential learning, how they will respond when students experience difficulty, and how they will deepen the learning for each student once they have mastered the essential learning.

6. What is a Professional Learning Community?
Dufour”…A Professional Learning Community is a collaboration of teachers, administrators, parents, and students, who work together to seek out best practices, test them in the classroom, continuously improve processes, and focus on results.”

7. A Professional Learning Community is NOT:
A program to be implemented
A package of reforms to be adopted
A step-by-step recipe for change
A sure-fire system borrowed from another school
One more thing to add to an already cluttered school agenda
A PLC IS A PROCESS THAT WILL CHANGE A SCHOOL’S CULTURE…

8. Big Ideas of Professional Learning Communities
Ensuring that all students learn
A culture of collaboration
A focus on results

9. Ensuring That Students Learn
Crucial Questions:
What do we want each student to learn (in a particular content area.)?
How will we know when each student has learned it?
How will we respond when a student experiences a difficulty in learning? (What is our coordinated strategy?)

10. Ensuring That Students Learn
In addition to being systematic and school wide, the professional learning community’s response to students who experience difficulty is:
Timely. The school quickly identifies students who need additional time and support.
Based on intervention rather than remediation. The plan provides students with help as soon as they experience difficulty rather than relying on summer school, retention, and remedial courses.
Directive. Instead of inviting students to seek additional help, the systematic plan requires students to devote extra time and receive additional assistance until they have mastered the necessary concepts.

11. Protocol for Collaboration

12. A PLC is always focused on student learning.
“In a professional learning community…attempts at school improvement are judged on the basis of how student learning is affected.” (Not about BEST INTENTIONS)
Robert Eaker, Richard DuFour, and Rebecca DuFour, Getting Started: Reculturing Schools to Become Professional Learning Communities

13. A PLC narrows the curriculum to its essence.
“In a professional learning community, time is viewed as a precious resource, so attempts are made to focus our efforts on less, but more meaningful content. The time that is saved allows the teaching of more meaningful content at a greater depth.”
Getting Started, page 19

14. Working as a team, PLCs typically:
Develop common assessments.
Develop a common rubric.
Examine student work.
Strategize common interventions.
Provide objective feedback to one another.

15. Structure Considerations/Example
When will people meet?
-Burlington Example
-Once a week – During school hours, outside regular planning period
-During 2-hour late starts

16. PLC Example Teachers jointly determine norms
Exactly what is it that we want all students to learn?
Power Standard related to problem solving
How will we know when each has acquired the essential knowledge and skills?
Common Assessments developed (Both pre and post assessments)
Rubrics developed to score the assessments

17. PLC Example Teachers go through a given unit of study.
Students take assessment
Assessment scored together
Results analyzed and charted

18. PLC Example Compared teaching strategies
What worked well, what didn’t work so well
What will we do with the students who are below standard?
What about the students above standard?
Adjust instruction
Try it again!
Continuous Improvement Cycle

19. A Focus on Results
PLC schools assess their effectiveness on the basis of results rather than intentions. Individuals, teams, and schools seek relevant data and information and use that information to promote continuous improvement.
SMART goals are developed based on student achievement.

20. Professional Learning Communities Cohort 1
NKSD Professional Learning Community Steering Committee – Attend Washington State Summit: PLC at Work
January – PLC teams will attend PLC training at our ESD with Rick and Rebecca Dufour
3 more times throughout the year will be set for continued training

21. Bibliography Professional Learning Communities
Failure is Not an Option: Six Principles that Guide Student Achievement in High Performing Schools, Alan Blankstein, 2005
Getting Started: Reculturing Schools to Become Professional Learning Communities, Robert Eaker, Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, 2002
Leading Learning Communies: Standards for What Principals Should Know and Be Able to Do, NAESP, 2002
On Common Ground: The Power of Professional Learning Communities, Richard DuFour, Robert Eaker, Rebecca DuFour (Editors), 2005
Professional Learning Communities At Work: Best Practices for Enhancing Student Achievement, Richard DuFour and Robert Eaker
Whatever It Takes: How Professional Learning Communities Respond When Kids Don’t Learn, Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, and Gayle Karhanek, 2004
John Golden & Donna Vigneau Carlson, Nov 2005 RIDE Fall Leadership Conference Power Point presentation