Professional Learning Communities

1
Professional Learning Communities

• South Central
• Regional Professional
• Development Center

2
Todays Road map

• Big Ideas
• Priorities
• Moving Forward

3
Professional Learning Communities

• the most promising strategy for substantive
  school improvement is developing the capacity of
  school personnel to function as a professional
  learning community (PLC).
• Eaker, DuFour, DuFour (2002)

4
Professional Learning Community 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.
• - DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, Many

5
PLC The Big ideas

• Laying the Foundation
• Collaborative Teams
• Focus on Results

6
Building a Foundation
A solid foundation of collaboratively developed
and widely shared mission, vision, values, and
goals.
7
Four Pillars
Mission
Vision
Values
Goals
How will we mark our progress?
WHY?
WHAT?
HOW?
Fundamental Purpose
Compelling Future
Collective Commitments
Targets Timelines
Clarifies Priorities Sharpens Focus
Gives Directions
Guides Behavior
Establishes Priorities
8
Mission

• Why do
• we exist?

9
Mission

• At ABC School
• District, we believe that all children can learn
• something?

10
Vision

• What must
• we become in order to accomplish our fundamental
  purpose?

11
Values

• How must we behave to create the school that will
  achieve our purpose?

12
Goals

• How will we mark our progress?

13
Collaborative Teams
Contributing members of a collective effort
14
Collaborative Teams

• Implement team concept
• By grade level or subject
• On the basis of shared students
• In schoolwide task forces
• By area of professional development

15
Structures for Teamwork

• On-going Teams
• Exist for the duration
• Membership stable
• Ongoing mission, purpose
• Often members similar
• Allegiance to team

16
Effective teams

• Shared beliefs/values
• High levels of trust
• Make decisions and assume responsibility
• Effectively manage meetings
• Ongoing assessment

17
Effective Collaborative Teams also

• Time built-in
• Explicit purpose
• Training and support
• Work as true professional colleagues

18
Focus on Results
Student Learning
19
Corollary Questions

• What do we expect students to learn?
• How will we know what students have learned?
• How will we respond to students who arent
  learning?
• How will we respond to students who have learned
  it?

20
Professional Learning Communities
Clear and Compelling Purpose Focus on
Learning Focus on Collaborative Culture Focus
on Results
21
Moving forward

• Move into action
• Build shared knowledge
• Use the foundation
• Recognize nonlinear process
• Its what you do that counts, not what you call it

22
Next steps

• Agreement
• Establish a leadership team
• Training and support
• Begin the work

23
First Year

• Laying the foundation
• Structures and processes
• Examining current reality
• Collaborative teams and their work
• Critical issues for teams
• Assessment of and for learning
• Pyramid of interventions

24
South Central RPDC800-667-0665

• http//rpdc.mst.edu
• Michelle Smith- mlsmith_at_mst.edu
• Butch ORiley- orileyb_at_mst.edu
• Chris Combs- combsc_at_mst.edu