Welcome!

Technical Assistance for Schools on Corrective Action and Restructuring

Session 2: December 15 & 16, 2008

Presented by Erin Sullivan & Gail VarneyTitle I School lmprovement Coordinators

“The use of professional learning communities is the best, least expensive, most professionally rewarding way to improve schools such communities hold out immense, unprecedented hope for schools and the improvement of teaching.” Mike Schmoker

What are the Essential

Characteristics of a PLC?

#1Shared Mission,

Vision, Collective Commitments,

and Goals

#2Collaborative Teams

Focused on

Learning

#3Collective Inquiry into the Current

Reality of the School and Best School Practices

#4An Action Orientation

#5A Commitment to

Continuous Improvement

#6A Focus

on Results

 

Activity:Think/Pair/Share Your

Definition of a PLC.

What Cultural Shifts Take Place in a

PLC?

“Probably the most important – and the most difficult – job of the school-based reformer is to change the prevailing culture of a school ultimately, a school’s culture has far more influence on life and learning in the schoolhouse than the state department of education, the superintendent, the school board, or even the principal can ever have.”

Roland Barth

From a Focus on

Teaching...

to a Focus on

Learning

From Working in Isolation...

to Working Collaboratively

From External Professional

Development...

to Job-Embedded Learning

From Focusing on Activities...

to Focusing on Results

From Fixed Time...

to Flexible Time

From Average Learning...

to Individual Learning

From Punitive...

to Positive

From “Teacher Tell/Student Listen...”

to “Teacher Coach/Student

Practice”

From Recognizing the Elite...

to Creating Opportunity for Many

Learners

Why

Professional Learning

Communities to Support

School Improvement?

Do you see a benefit in a school wide focus on what you expect students to learn?

Would effective assessment – knowing when students have learned and when they haven’t and intervening to help individual students - improve achievement?

Do you think collaboration would increase accountability?

The framework of a PLC is inextricably

linked to the effective integration of

standards, assessment, and

accountability.

(Reeves, 2005)

Will school improvement be supported by teachers actively involved in ongoing, professional learning and application of proven strategies?

Well-implemented PLCs are a

powerful means of seamlessly

blending teaching and professional

learning in ways that produce

complex, intelligent behavior in all

teachers.

(Sparks, 2005)

A Professional Learning Community is a

FRAMEWORK in Which a School Can Focus on

School Improvement