Bringing About Change Using Professional Learning Communities

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Bringing About ChangeUsing ProfessionalLearning
Communities

• OSPI Winter Conference
• 2006
• Dave Colombini Principal, South Kitsap High
  School
• Dan Whitford Director Instructional Services,
• South Kitsap School District

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CHARACTERISTICS of a Professional Learning
Community

• Shared mission (why do we exist)
• Vision (what do we hope to become?)
• Values (how must we behave?)
• Goals (which steps and when?)
• Collaborative teams
• Collective inquiry
• Action orientation/experimentation
• Commitment to continuous improvement
• Results focus

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Critical Corollary QuestionsIf 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 dont learn?
• How will we respond when they already know it?

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The First (and Biggest) BIG IDEA of a PLC

• The guiding principle of a PLC is that the
  purpose of the school is to ensure high levels of
  learning for all students.
• - Will focus the attention and energy of the
  entire school on learning.
• - The frame of reference for all decisions will
  become, what is the impact on learning?

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Making the Complex Simple

• If we could truly establish high levels of
  learning for all students as the guiding
  principle of the school...
• and if we were willing to honestly confront the
  brutal facts of the current reality in our
  school...
• the right decisions about what to do and what to
  stop doing often become evident.

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The Second BIG IDEA of the PLC

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

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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.

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Old Time Schedule

• Block 1 and 4 725-910
• SKR 920-940
• Sustained Silent Reading
• Block 2 and 5 940-1200
• Includes 4 Lunches
• Block 3 and 6 1210-155

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New Schedule

• Collaboration 725-803
• Tutorial and Pack
• Block 1 and 4 810-946
• Block 2 and 5 953-1210
• Includes 4 Lunches
• Block 3 and 6 1217-155

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Keys to Effective Teams

• Collaboration embedded in routine practices
• Time for collaboration build in school day and
  school calendar
• Teams focus on key questions
• Products of collaboration are made explicit
• Team norms guide collaboration
• Teams pursue specific and measurable performance
  goals.

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Value of Common Assessments

• Focused instruction
• Common core curriculum
• Focused, common learning
• Better tests
• Identification of curricular areas needing
  attention

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Value of Common Assessmentscontinued

• Provision of objective indicators of
  effectiveness for teachers
• Promotes collaboration
• Promotes higher order thinking skills

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• Collective inquiry
• People in a learning community relentlessly
  question the status quo, seek new methods of
  teaching and learning, test the methods, and then
  reflect on the results
• They reflect publicly on their beliefs and
  challenge each others beliefs.
• They share insights and hammer out common
  meanings.
• They work jointly to plan and test actions and
  initiatives.
• They coordinate their actions, so that the work
  of each individual contributes to the common
  effort.

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A Third BIG IDEA of the PLC Concept

• We assess our individual and collective
  effectiveness in helping all students learn at
  high levels on the basis of results rather than
  activity. We eagerly seek out multiple
  indicators of student achievement and use that
  information to promote continuous improvement.

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Our Collective Response RevealsOur Commitment to
Student Success

• High expectations for student success will be
  judged not only by the initial staff beliefs and
  behaviors, but also by the organizations
  response when some students do not learn.
• - Larry Lezotte, 1991

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Fundamental Human Longings

• To be successful (Achievement)
• To belong (Connection)
• To make a difference (Significance)

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Its Never Quick and Easy!Systems thinking is
the realization that change is non-linear. Its
just one damn thing after another.-Fullan