even organizations that are fully functioning as PLCs could use some retooling to encompass new staff or to readjust their focus. The tools found within each chapter can assist all leaders, from novices to advanced practitioners, as they support, develop, or refine the PLC culture. This book does not focus on the initial foundational stages of PLC implementation but rather looks to provide practical guidance based on the work of Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, and Robert Eaker that will enhance implementation. By providing this guide, we hope leaders and staff members will be better able to guide their schools in the difficult but rewarding work required to create and transform PLCs from contenders into championship teams.
The book is divided into five chapters, each addressing specific actionable elements for capacity building within district- and building-level teams. Chapter 1 focuses on bringing clarity to the plan. Chapter 2 discusses the importance of collaboration in strengthening teams. Chapter 3 addresses increasing student learning. Chapter 4 emphasizes using data to support student learning. Chapter 5 details how to avoid pitfalls and how to promote winning throughout the school.
At the beginning of each chapter, you will see epigraphs to provide leaders with quotes for both self-reflection and application in their work with staff. Many of the quotes pertain to embracing the idea that school teams need to act and function much like a champion sports team, and they also add relevant real-world connections.
Each chapter then provides evidence and research to support why a specific concept is needed to achieve full implementation of a game plan. Working models are always helpful to both leadership teams and staff, while abstract ideas and generalizations have been known to hinder leadership teams attempting to develop clarity or meet objectives. For this reason, every chapter suggests coaching points that identify and explain critical concepts and offer processes and tools to achieve the objective. Coaching points are organized into three parts: (1) an introduction and explanation of the critical concept, (2) a description of the process or tool we recommend using to achieve the objective (we call this the what), and (3) implementation guidance for leaders to use with staff (we refer to this as the how). The coaching points also include application tools such as facilitation guides, guiding questions, and discussion prompts. The coaching points are meant to be a starting point for crafting more customized pieces to meet the teams’ needs. As with any tool, the process of developing clarity through meaningful research, discussion, collaboration, and consensus is far more important to the implementation process than basic adoption of the document or template. Much of the PLC process is about building the teamwork and collaborative culture required in 21st century schools.
Chapter 1
Bringing Clarity to the Plan
People who are role models for the principles and values of the organization, who buy in and understand the vision of what the organization is trying to accomplish, and have the personality to inspire other people to the vision. You know, that’s what team chemistry and leadership is all about.
—Nick Saban, NCAA Champion College Football Coach
Educators are currently embarking on a new journey of accountability measures. They are being evaluated and held accountable through measurements of student achievement like never before. Organizations and leaders alike are feeling the pressure of trying to prepare for these new expectations. There is a need to move away from the traditional work that employees know and are comfortable with toward a new learning structure that needs to be built, not only for students but for teachers as well. Teaching and learning needs to take on a new structure, one that moves away from individuals’ desires to learn something of personal interest to a more collaborative path of districtwide improvement.
Why do districts and schools continue to fall short of their goals when the best-intended leaders are on the front lines leading the charge? The answer is simple: the work being done is not focused on or is not derived from a shared understanding. One of the major barriers that schools face in their attempt to successfully implement a culture of learning and collaboration is the inability to convey a shared mission and vision of improvement. Leaders and leadership teams often assume that their well-prepared message or big-picture idea will be easily understood by a wide range of staff members who will intuitively rally around the same cause. Yet, the reality is that people interpret ideas and concepts very differently. Bringing strategic clarity and focus to the work of grade-level or content-area teams will infuse motivation and commitment into any organization. Leadership teams need to be cognizant of the fact that clarity in the mind of the coach or leadership team is worthless if they are not able to effectively communicate the idea to the larger team. Leaving the issue of school improvement to haphazard or partially developed school improvement plans does not result in more effective schools. As Richard Elmore (2010), educational leadership professor and the director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, describes, “You can have strong, well-informed leadership, teachers working in teams, external support and professional development, coherent curriculum, a school improvement plan, and everything the literature tells us we should have and yet not be getting the expected growth” (p. 3). Without a coherent and well-understood plan, a school will develop pockets of excellence or variance and then struggle to meet the rigorous demands that will impact growth. As Elmore (2004) explains, “Variability in practice produces variability in student learning.”
Leaders and staff need to share a common understanding of the mission and vision as well as all of the components of the central improvement effort or initiative and to work toward ensuring that every new teacher clearly understands and can live the school’s game plan. To achieve strategic clarity, organizations will need to move away from the question of How are we doing? toward focusing on What steps do we need to take? As 2001 National Teacher of the Year Michelle Forman (2009) writes:
Before schools can respond to external pressure for increased academic performance, they must transform themselves from atomized, incoherent organizations to ones in which faculty share an explicit set of norms and expectations about what good instructional practice looks like.
Leaders, teachers, and community members alike need to share in the collective responsibility to produce long-lasting transformation. Effective teachers must see themselves not as passive, dependent implementers of someone else’s script but as active members of research teams—or, as Michael Fullan describes them, “scientists who continuously develop their intellectual and investigative effectiveness” (as cited in Sparks, 2003, p. 57). Elmore (2002) asserts that “the practice of improvement is largely about moving whole organizations—teachers, administrators and schools—toward the culture, structure, norms and processes that support quality professional development in the service of student learning” (p. 15). This process starts with building a shared understanding around current realities while allowing team members to build trust, commitment, and accountability around a shared goal.
To that end, in this chapter, we present five coaching points:
1. Establishing clarity through a schoolwide template
2. Identifying and evaluating our current reality
3. Selecting the right team members
4. Building shared ownership and purpose
5. Ensuring effective communication throughout the organization
These points are dedicated to specific strategies that any leader can use to build clarity and a shared understanding among all stakeholders to ensure everyone is executing
