Professional Learning Communities

Change is difficult, making changes in schools can be extremely difficult. Schools have many moving components; students, teachers, parents, the community and the required curriculum. Schools have to contend with numerous outside factors that are beyond their control. With all the things that contribute to the running of a school change is not easy, making significant changes can be extremely challenging. Change cannot be facilitated if the problems or concerns are not identified. The identification of problems can be one of the most difficult steps. When identifying problems, it is best to use data to support the need for change rather than personal feelings.

This combined with the achievement related goals and social values become the basis of the schools mission statement.

We need to be a school district that prepares all students to be productive members of society. We need to expose our students to the real world and help them see that the world is bigger than our very small community. We need to ensure that all students have the opportunity to succeed and reach their goals. We need be a school with a pluralistic culture. Our students need to be culturally competent and have a good understanding of diversity. We need to promote the acceptance and celebration of people from all walks of life. We need to develop a supportive atmosphere where students feel they can express their beliefs freely without prejudice or judgment.

The professional learning community will develop the steps of transforming our schools. It will use these eight steps as professional development protocols in reducing the dropout rate and increasing college and career readiness.

Using Glickman (2014) as a reference point, there are two types of opportunity for learning that could be used to make staff development meaningful to teachers: integrated school-wide staff development and individual professional development. When using an integrated school-wide professional development, "it is critical that all members of the school community provide input into the school wide professional development goals” (Glickman, Gordon and Ross-Gordon, 2014). Moreover, the administration must provide an expansive objective for professional development so that all participants can adopt it and stay consistent with the school’s objective. A perfect example of a school-wide professional development would be addressing student discipline (Glickman et al., 2014). While certain groups of teachers might want to compare their decision with other schools, other groups could choose ”to attend a training program on effective discipline” (Glickman et al., 2014). When using individual professional development as an opportunity for learning, it is significant to consider the teacher’s personal input to the school-wide

I am a member of the Better Seeking Team at my elementary school. This committee is a leadership team responsible for driving decisions and changes in a positive direction. The National Institute for Urban School Improvement describes the school leadership team as “a school-based group of individuals who work to provide a strong organizational process for school renewal and improvements.” (2005, p. 2) As a member of this team, we recently attended the 2015 Model Schools Conference presented by the International Center for Leadership in Education. Bill Daggett, the founder and chairman of the ICLE, says its focus “has been devoted to observing, studying, and supporting the transformation of the nation’s most rapidly improving schools. The key to improving student performance is a tireless focus on providing rigorous and relevant instruction, and that every level of the education organization must be tightly aligned and carefully coordinated around that singular goal.” (n.d.) My professional goal for the coming school year is to implement the major aspects from one of the presentations our team deemed most significant at the conference, the Rigor/Relevance Framework for teaching in a twenty-first-century classroom.

Identifies skills, theories of change, program designs, partnerships, and ways of building schools where students achieve.

As an administrator, the mission is to use skill and dedication to build an education system, for my school, that will produce positive academic success for all students and manage a complex urban system with efficiency and effectiveness. With reason and prioritized urgency the administrator makes decisions that benefit the school, students, their parents, and surrounding community. Finally, such a mission includes the support from a staff that recognizes the importance of these elements.

I agree, we often mistake PLCs for when teachers meet with other teachers. In my opinion, in order to have a successful PLC, you need to see student growth as well as have action steps to move the students forward. This is very different than when teachers meet with other teachers to discuss issues, but do not come out with action steps.

Unfortunately, thorough research on the impact of professional development on student achievement is limited because it is challenging, complex and expensive to study. Nonetheless, Hoaglund, Birkenfeld, and Box, (2015), conducted a study that illustrated that learning communities are viable tools for providing professional development to both pre-service teachers and current teachers. Their study showed how a group of pre-service teachers and their supervisors participated in a professional experience learning community for two terms prior to the pre-service teacher’s junior year at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Questionnaires and interviews were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. The results of the study indicated that all participants valued the experience and consequently were able to gain and identify some benefits of a professional learning community (PLC). Participants specifically reported a greater appreciation of collaboration with more experienced educators as a practical way of solving issues and implementing processes and procedures for increasing student achievement. The activities incorporated within the

Though the idea of working collaboratively is not a new one, the concept of professional learning communities (PLCs) has recently become very popular in education. During the summer of 2012, the Pasco County School District introduced the concept of PLCs into its schools in an effort to improve student learning in this era of increased educational scrutiny and accountability. Department heads suddenly found themselves relabeled PLC facilitators and called to attend two days of summer training meant to prepare them to lead PLCs once the school year began. The other PLC participants, the

In light of accountability requirements, fear of not meeting AYP (Annual Yearly Progress), and required school improvement plans, often the idea of “school improvement” is considered a negative attribute. Obviously schools do not want to be singled out or identified as in need of improvement. Teachers often take the same view towards the idea of improvement. We as teachers take very personal that concept of improvement; we often parallel the need for improvement to failure. However my belief is that effective schools are always in a school improvement process and effective teachers too also are constantly adapting their practice in a culture of continuous improvement and growth. Therefore it is important as an effective leader to build a community of trust and collaboration. I quote “We are all in this together. Once we know that we are, we’re all stars and we see that we’re all in this together.” (Disney High School Musical, 2006) These lyrics from a popular Disney movie put to light exactly the school culture where the goal is not personal but as a community to use data driven and research based approaches in reflection and growth that assist all stakeholders.

As an educational leader, I must have a vision and mission statement for the school that is known by the staff, students, and parents. The vision will address the needs of the students academically, emotionally, and socially. According to DuFour (1998), “ Those who seek to transform their school into a professional learning community as characterized by an environment fostering mutual cooperation, emotional support, personal growth, and a synergy of efforts.” The leader must implement a plan that will cultivate the success of all students. The mission will speak to the direction of the school community stating what the desire goals are. The building leader will lead by example. High expectations will be communicated and encourage by staff and students. The educational leader of a school must develop a culture of team work to create a climate that is student friendly. The vision mission and goals of the leader should be transparent. The establishment of common goals is the first step. Without common goals, sustainable progress will be impossible and thus everyone will have lower expectations. The students, parents, and staff should be commented to the goals of every child reaching their full academic potential. The school environment should speak to goal setting and high expectations for all students and staff.

Traditionally, teacher development typically occurs through trial and error in the isolated confinements of each teacher’s classroom with some periodic whole-group professional development (Goddard & Goddard, 2007). Within the past few decades, many schools and districts, including ours, have considered and experimented with Professional Learning Communities (PLC) as an alternative framework in guiding a more efficient development program for their teachers. PLCs are focused on enhancing student learning through developing teacher practices. The concept of PLC relies on using structured collaborative sessions amongst teachers within the school to build internal capacity. Through PLCs, teachers critically reflect on current

School improvement is transformation. It is one of the most important actions of a school. It is a process that schools must use with fidelity to ensure that at all students are given the opportunity to perform and achieve at exemplary levels. School improvement is vital to schools and it is a process that cannot be done in isolation. It requires team work, collaboration, and constant analysis of data and setting of goals. School improvement goals focus on how to meet the needs of students. Addressing the educational needs, funding, and achievement gaps between subgroups is collaborative effort involves everyone that has a vested interest in the schools. These basic measures set the foundation for improvement. And so, if it is the