and support for learning through a process that is timely, specific, directive, and systematic. It presents common mistakes that schools are making as they attempt to implement a response to intervention (RTI) process and suggests how to avoid those mistakes. Chapter 8 offers a tool to help principals reflect on the effectiveness of their communication, including strategies for addressing staff members who resist any effort to align the practices of their school with the PLC process. Chapter 9 outlines three keys for sustaining a school improvement initiative. Finally, chapter 10 argues that one of a principal’s most important responsibilities is helping others to believe in their ability to accomplish important objectives in spite of the obstacles they confront. It offers keys to creating this sense of collective efficacy among a staff.
What Is a Professional Learning Community?
In order to lead a PLC, principals must have a deep understanding of what constitutes a PLC and what does not. The growing recognition of the potential of the PLC process to impact student achievement in a powerful and positive way has helped bring the term professional learning community into the common vocabulary of educators throughout the world. While the term has become widespread, the underlying practices have not, and many of the schools that proudly proclaim to be professional learning communities do none of the things PLCs actually do. It will be difficult to implement the PLC process in schools when the principal and staff recognize what the process entails: it will be impossible to do so when there is ambiguity or only a superficial understanding of what must be done.
Some educators approach the PLC process as if it were a program—simply one more addition to the school’s existing practices. It is not a program to be purchased or an appendage to the existing structure and culture of a school but a process that profoundly impacts the existing structure and culture. Others regard it as a meeting, as in, “We do PLCs on Wednesdays from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m., and then we return to business as usual.” It is not a meeting. Still others equate a PLC to a book club, as in, “We all read the same book and talk about it.” It is not a book club. It is “an ethos that infuses every single aspect of a school’s operation” (Hargreaves as cited in Sparks, 2004, p. 48) that calls on all educators in the school to redefine their roles and responsibilities.
The following section, adapted from DuFour and Marzano (2011), attempts to clarify the three big ideas that drive the PLC process. Each of these ideas has a significant implication for educators.
1. The first big idea is that the fundamental purpose of our school is to ensure that all students learn at high levels. In order to bring this idea to life, educators work together to clarify the following.
› What is it we want our students to know? What knowledge, skills, and dispositions must all students acquire as a result of this grade level, this course, and this unit we are about to teach? What systems have we put in place to ensure we are providing every student with access to a guaranteed and viable curriculum regardless of the teacher to whom that student might be assigned?
› How will we know if our students are learning? How can we check for understanding on an ongoing basis in our individual classrooms? How will we gather evidence of each student’s learning as a team? What criteria will we establish to assess the quality of student work? How can we be certain we can apply the criteria consistently?
› How will we respond when students do not learn? What steps can we put in place to provide students who struggle with additional time and support for learning in a way that is timely, directive, and systematic rather than invitational and random? How can we provide students with multiple opportunities to demonstrate learning?
› How will we enrich and extend the learning for students who are proficient? How can we differentiate instruction among us so that the needs of all students are being met without relying on rigid tracking?
2. The second big idea is that if we are to help all students learn, it will require us to work collaboratively in a collective effort to meet the needs of each student. Bringing this idea to life requires attention to the following conditions:
› Educators are organized into meaningful collaborative teams in which members work interdependently to achieve common goals for which they are mutually accountable.
› Regular time for collaboration is embedded into the school’s routine practices.
› Educators are clear on the purpose and priorities of their collaboration. They stay focused on the right work.
› Principals demonstrate reciprocal accountability (Elmore, 2004). They provide teachers with the resources, training, and ongoing support to help them succeed in implementing the PLC process.
3. The third big idea is that in order to know if students are learning and to respond appropriately to their needs, educators must create a results orientation. They must be hungry for evidence of student learning and use that evidence to drive continuous improvement of the PLC process. This big idea requires attention to the following conditions:
› Every member of the organization is working collaboratively with others to achieve SMART goals that are (O’Neill & Conzemius, 2006):
a. Strategically and specifically aligned with school and district goals
b. Measurable
c. Attainable
d. Results oriented, that is, requiring evidence of higher levels of student learning in order to be achieved
e. Time bound
› Every member of the organization is working collaboratively with others to gather and analyze evidence of student learning on a regular basis to inform and improve his or her professional practice as well as the collective practice of the collaborative team. Team members explore questions such as, Who among us is getting excellent results teaching this skill? How can we learn from one another? What is the area in which our students are having the most difficulty? What must we learn as a team in order to better address that area of difficulty?
› Evidence of student learning is being used on a regular basis to identify the specific needs of individual students. The school moves beyond using data to make general observations about the achievement of all students. It creates processes to use assessment results to respond to students by name and by need.
› Educators throughout the school assess the effectiveness of every policy, program, procedure, and practice on the basis of its impact on student learning.
It is imperative to note that the emphasis placed on student learning in a PLC does not diminish the importance of teaching. In fact, the primary reason to become a PLC is to impact and improve teaching. Too many school reforms have swirled around but not within the classroom. Schools have changed their schedules, added graduation requirements, administered required tests, and responded to countless other reform initiatives, and yet, instructional practice in the classroom has too often remained unchanged. The PLC process is specifically intended to create the conditions that help educators become more skillful in teaching because great teaching and high levels of learning go hand in hand.
Before addressing the actionable steps that bring
