“Making the Case for Professional

Learning Communities”

Placer County Office of Education

Renee Regacho-Anaclerio- Assistant Superintendent Educational Services

Gerald Williams- Coordinator Professional Development

Schools Don’t Make a Difference

Schools have little influence on a child’s achievement that is independent of the background and social content of that student.

James Coleman, Equality in Educational Opportunity, 1966

Schools Do Make a Difference Effective Schools Research of Ron Edmonds,

Larry Lezotte, Wilbur Brookover, Michael Rutter, and others included:

all children can learn; and the school controls the factors to assure student mastery of the core curriculum.

Correlates of Effective SchoolsStrong Instructional LeadershipClear and Focused MissionSafe and Orderly EnvironmentClimate of High ExpectationsFrequent Monitoring of Student ProgressPositive Home/School RelationsOpportunity to Learn & Student Time on Task

Schools Do Make a DifferenceAn analysis of research conducted over a

thirty-five year period demonstrates that schools that are highly effective produce results that almost entirely overcome the effects of student backgrounds.

Robert Marzano, What Works in Schools, 2003

Sustained & Substantive School Improvement The most promising strategy for sustained,

substantive school improvement is building the capacity of school personnel to function as a professional learning community. The path to change in the classroom lies within and through professional learning communities. - Milbrey McLaughlin

Secondary School Principals Endorse PLCsBreaking Ranks II outlines the need for

current high schools to engage in the process of change that will ensure success for every student. Its first set of recommendations and tools focuses on the development of professional learning communities. – NASSP, Breaking Ranks II, 2004

NSDC Endorses PLCsStaff development that improves the learning

of all students organizes adults into learning communities whose goals are aligned with those of the school and district.

NSDC. Standards for Staff Development, 2001

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Endorse PLCs“In order to take advantage of the broad

range of professional knowledge and expertise that resides within the school… Teachers are Members of Learning Communities.”

-What Teachers Should Know and Be Able to Do: The Five Core Propositions of the National Board

National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future“The commission recommends that schools

be restructured to become genuine learning organizations for both students and teachers; organizations that respect learning, honor teaching, and teach for understanding.”

- National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, 1996

NEA KEYS Initiative:A Reflective, Data-Driven Strategy for Continuous School Improvement

Shared understanding and commitment to high goals

Open communication and collaborative problem-solving

Continuous assessment for teaching and learning

Personal and professional learningCurriculum and instruction

On Common Ground: The Power of Professional Learning Communities (Solution Tree, 2005)

Roland Barth Rebecca DuFour Richard DuFour Robert Eaker Barbara Eason-Watkins Michael Fullan Lawrence Lezotte Douglas Reeves Mike Schmoker Dennis Sparks Rick Stiggins

A Powerful Guiding PrincipleGreat organizations simplify a complex world

into a single organizing idea or guiding principle. This guiding principle makes the complex simple, helps focus the attention and energy of the organization on the essentials, and becomes the frame of reference for all decisions - Jim Collins

What is a Professional Learning Community?

PLC Defined: Educators committed to working

collaboratively in ongoing processes of collective inquiry and action research in order to achieve better results for the students they serve. PLC’s operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous, job-embedded learning for educators. - DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, 2006

The term, “Professional Learning Community” has become so common place and has been used so ambiguously to describe any loose coupling of individuals who share a common interest in education that it is in danger of losing all meaning. DuFour, DuFour, Eaker,many, 2006

They opt out for “sorta PLC’s” and the concept begins a slow but inevitable death from constant compromise of its core principles. DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, 2008

One of the most damaging myths about school leadership is that the change process, if managed well, will proceed smoothly. DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, 2008

“Clarity precedes competence” Schmoker 2004

It is difficult enough to bring these concepts to life in a school or district where there is shared understanding of their meaning.It is impossible when there is no common understanding and the terms mean very different things to different people within the same organization. DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, Many, 2006

Characteristics of a Professional Learning Community1. Shared Mission (Purpose), Vision (Clear

Direction), Values (Collective Commitments), Goals (Targets)

2. Collaborative teams Focused on Learning3. Collective inquiry into “best practice” and

“current reality”4. Action orientation/experimentation: Learning

by Doing5. Commitment to continuous improvement6. Results orientation

Focus on Learning

We embrace high levels of learning for all students as the reason the organization exists and fundamental responsibility of those who work within it and therefore are willing to examine all practices in light of their impact on learning.

First Big Idea of PLCs:

Whereas many schools operate as if their primary purpose is to ensure that all children are taught, PLC’s are dedicated to the idea that their organization exists to ensure that all children learn. DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, Many, 2006

Members of a PLC:Are guided by a clear and compelling vision of what their district/school must become to help all students learnMake collective commitments that clarify what each memberUse results-oriented goals to mark their progress

If the purpose of school is truly to ensure high levels of learning for all students, then schools will:

Clarify what each student is expected to learnMonitor each student’s learning on a timely basisCreate systems to ensure students receive

additional time and support if they are not learning

What Happens When Kids Don’t Learn?

High expectations for success will be judged not only by the initial staff beliefs and behaviors, but also by the organization’s response when some students do not learn.

- Larry Lezotte, 1991

Whatever It Takes: How PLCs Respond When Kids Don’t Learn

In the four schools studied there was no ambiguity and no hedging regarding each school’s fundamental purpose. Staff members embraced the premise that the very reason their school existed was to help all of their students – the flawed, imperfect, boys and girls who come to them each day – acquire knowledge and skills given the current resources available to them. Period! – DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, Karhnek, Solution Tree, 2004

PLCs Create systems to ensure students receive additional time

and support that are:

DirectiveTimelySystematic

Assess Your School’s Response When Kids Don’t Learn

Are our students assured EXTRA TIME AND SUPPORT for learning?

Is our response TIMELY? How quickly are we able to identify the kids who need extra time and support?

Is our response DIRECTIVE rather than invitational? Are kids invited to put in extra time or does our system ensure they put in the extra time?

Is our response SYSTEMATIC? Do kids receive this intervention according to a school-wide plan rather than at the direction of individual teachers?

A Collaborative Culture With a Focus on Learning for ALL

We can achieve our fundamental purpose of high levels of learning for all students only if we work together. We cultivate a collaborative culture through the development of high performing teams.

Second Big Idea of PLCs:

Need for a Collaborative Culture

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

Need for a Collaborative Culture

Improving schools require collaborative cultures… Without collaborative skills and relationships, it is not possible to learn and to continue to learn as much as you need to know to improve. - Michael Fullan

Need for a Collaborative Culture

Creating a collaborative culture is the single most important factor for successful school improvement initiatives and the first order of business for those seeking to enhance the effectiveness of their schools. - Eastwood and Lewis

Need for a Collaborative Culture

If schools want to enhance their capacity to boost student learning, they should work on building a collaborative culture…When groups, rather than individuals, are seen as the main units for implementing curriculum, instruction, and assessment, they facilitate development of shared purposes for student learning and collective responsibility to achieve it.

- Fred Newmann

Collaboration is a means to an end, not the end itself. DuFour, Dufour, Eaker, Many, 2006

A collaborative culture can be powerful, but unless people are focusing on the right things they may end up being powerfully wrong. Fullan, 2001

Advantages of Teachers Working in Collaborative TeamsGains in Student AchievementHigher Quality Solutions to ProblemsIncreased Confidence Among All StaffTeachers Able to Support One Another’s

Strengths and Accommodate WeaknessesAbility to Test New IdeasMore Support for New TeachersExpanded Pool of Ideas, Material, Methods Judith

Warren Little

Group IQ

There is such a thing as a group IQ. While a group can be no smarter than the sum total of the knowledge and skills of its members, it can be much “dumber” if its internal workings don’t allow people to share their talents. - Robert Sternberg

What is Collaboration?A systematic process in which we work

together, interdependently, to analyze and impact professional practice in order to improve our individual and collective results.

A PLC is composed of collaborative teams whose members work interdependently to achieve common goals- goals linked to the purpose of learning for all- for which members are held mutually accountable.

- DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, 2006

Critical Corollary Questions: If We Believe All Kids Can Learn

What is it we expect them to learn?How will we know when they have learned it?How will we respond when they don’t learn?How will we respond when they already know

it?

Keys to Effective TeamsCollaboration, with a FOCUS ON LEARNING,

is embedded in routine practicesTime for collaboration built in school day and

school calendarTeams focus on key questionsProducts of collaboration are made explicitTeam norms guide collaboration

Hand in Hand, We All Learn

Ultimately there are two kinds of schools: learning enriched schools and learning impoverished schools. I have yet to see a school where the learning curves…of the adults were steep upward and those of the students were not. Teachers and students go hand in hand as learners.. or they don’t go at all. -Roland Barth

Collective Inquiry Into Best Practice and Current Reality

Members of a PLC engage in Collective Inquiry:Into best practices about teaching and learningFor candid clarification of their current practicesTo gain an honest assessment of their students’ current levels of learningTo build shared knowledgeTo make better, more informed decisionsTo increase likelihood they will arrive at consensus

Members of PLC’s are action orientedValue engagement and experience as the

most effective teachersRecognize that learning by doing develops a

deeper, and more profound knowledge as well as a greater commitment

Engage in collective inquiry and action research

Fourth Big Idea of PLCs:

Action Orientation: Learning by Doing

Professional Learning Communities recognize that until members of the organization “do” differently, there is no reason to anticipate different results. DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, Many 2006

Traditional schools have developed a variety of strategies to resist meaningful action, preferring the comfort of the familiar. DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, Many, 2006

PLC’s display a persistent disquiet with the status quo and a constant search for a better way to achieve goals and accomplish the purpose of the organization which is high levels of learning for all students.

Fifth Big Idea of PLCs:

A Commitment to Continuous Improvement

Commitment to Continuous Improvement

Systematic processes engage members of a PLC in an ongoing cycle of:

Gathering evidence of student learningDeveloping strategies and ideas that build on

strengths and address weaknesses in learningImplementing those strategies and ideasAnalyzing the impact of the changes Applying new knowledge in the next cycle of

continuous improvement

Action Research – where innovation and experimentation are viewed not as tasks to be accomplished but as a way of conducting day-to-day business, forever.

Commitment to Continuous Improvement

Results Orientation: Focus on Results

We assess our effectiveness on the basis of results rather than intentions.

Individual, teams and schools seek relevant data and information and use that information to promote continuous improvement.

Unless initiatives are subjected to ongoing assessment on the basis of tangible results, they represent random groping in the dark. DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, 2008

Sixth Big Idea of PLCs:

Focus on Results Rather Than Activity

Unless you can subject your decision-making to a ruthless and continuous judgment by results, all your zigs and zags will be random lunges in the dark. - James Champy

Without data you are just another person with an opinion.

Focus on Results

Today’s school leaders shift both their own focus and that of the school community from inputs to outcomes and from intentions to results. - Rick DuFour

By the end of the 2008-09 school year all teachers will be trained in and incorporate cooperative learning strategies into their instructional day.

Keys to Effective TeamsCollaboration embedded in routine practicesTime for collaboration built in school day and

school calendarTeams focus on key questionsProducts of collaboration are made explicitTeam norms guide collaborationTeams pursue specific & measurable

performance goals

SMART Goals Contribute to a Results-Orientation

Strategic and SpecificMeasurableAttainableResults-OrientedTime-Bound - Conzemius & O’Neil

Are these SMART Goals?Strategically aligned with the school-wide goal of

improving student performance in language arts, by the end of the 2006-2007 school year we will:

Create and administer 4 common assessments in writing.

Increase the use of cooperative learning activities in our Language Arts lessons by 25%.

Increase the number of students achieving the target score (80% or higher) on the district reading assessment from 81% to 90%.

Keys to Effective TeamsCollaboration embedded in routine practicesTime for collaboration built in school day

and school calendarTeams focus on key questionsProducts of collaboration are made explicitTeam norms guide collaborationTeams pursue specific and measurable

performance goalsTeams have access to relevant

information

How can we do this work!Asking how is a favorite defense against taking action. Peter Block, 2003

Our own work with schools has confirmed that a group that is determined not to act can always find a justification for inaction. DuFour, Fufor, Eaker, Many, 2006

Verbal persuasion rarely works against resistors who don’t merely believe you are wrong; they need you to be wrong to preserve the status quo. Patterson

Something to Think About

We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need to do that. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven’t so far. Ron Edmonds- Effective Schools Researcher, 1987