1. Professional Learning Communities

2. Learning Objectives:
Educators will define Professional Learning Communities.
Educators will Examine how PLC’s work in schools
Educators will describe the culture shift that is necessary when moving toward PLC’s
Educators will identify ways they can and will implement PLC practices in their schools.

3. What current teams are you on?

4. Focus on Learning
Is your team always…….focused on student learning? (graphic)
Student learning should be at the center of every team.

5. Why do we need to change?
The “factory model” of education will not prepare students to succeed in a knowledge-based global economy.
Previous attempts at reforming the American educational system have failed.
Past models focus on procedures rather then results.

6. What is a Professional Learning Community?
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.
PLC’s operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous job-embedded learning for educators.
DuFour, DuFour, Eaker
2007 PLC Institute

7. Characteristics of Professional Learning Communities
Shared mission, vision, values, goals
Collaborative teams focused on learning
Collective inquiry
Action oriented
Commitment to continuous improvement
Results orientated
DuFour, DuFour, Eaker
2007 PLC Institute

8. Asking the Right Questions: PLC Fundamentals
What do we want students to learn?
▪ Essential Outcomes vs. Covering the Material
How do we know if they learned it?
▪ Common Formative Assessments
▪ Data Driven Instruction
What do we do when they don’t learn?
▪ Pyramid of Intervention
What do we do when they do learn?
▪ Celebrate and Enrich

9. Changing the Culture of Education
Even the grandest design eventually degenerates into hard work.
Richard DuFour
May 2004
Professional Learning Communities represent a shift from “doing” to “being.” PLC is not a design, but rather change in how we think about teaching and learning.

10. A Culture Shift From To ▪ A focus on teaching ▪ A focus on learning
▪ Teacher “covers” content
▪ Isolation
▪ Assessment of learning
▪ Determining the average of students who got it
▪ Voluntary remediation
▪ Infrequent summative assessments
▪ Specialization of knowledge
▪ “My kids” To
▪ A focus on learning
▪ Students master essential learnings
▪ Collaboration
▪ Assessment for learning
▪ Looking at the needs of individual
students
▪ Direct, timely, systematic intervention
▪ Common Formative Assessments
▪ Sharing expertise
▪ “Our kids”

11. Identify two challenges to implementing PLCs at your school

12. Our Challenges

13. In a perfect world, PLC’s would be a built on a shared vision, from the community to the school building.
District-wide or Building-based Initiative
Team by Team - Grass Roots Effort

14. Implementing PLC Practices K-12
Collaboration in Elementary School
Collaboration in Middle School
Collaboration in High School
▪ Large Schools
▪ Small Schools

15. Role of the Principal
“A critical element in creating these powerful school cultures is the principal’s leadership”
Dr. R. DuFour
Empower Teachers to be Leaders
Delegate Authority
Developing Collaborative Decision Making Processes
Promote, Protect, and Defend the Mission, Vision, and core values.

16. The Principal as a Learning Leader
“PLC’s will shift the focus of school improvement efforts from supervision and evaluation of individual teachers to an emphasis on building collaborative teams of teachers that will take the responsibility of their own learning.”
Dr. R. DuFour

17. Learning Leader Performance Indicators:
Will you schedule for collaborative meetings?
Will you model commitment to the vision and the process of putting the focus on learning?
Will you celebrate progress and success?
Will you confront roadblocks?
Will you ask the fundamental questions?
Will you allocate resources?

18. ARE YOU READY? You cannot wait for the stars to align!
If you want to BE a Professional
Learning Community, you
must begin doing the work of a
Professional Learning
Community NOW!

19. Group Work:
Using what you have learned about PLC’s, identify two ways that you could incorporate PLC practices into a team that you are currently a part of.