Professional Learning Community (PLC)
What is a PLC?
The term "professional learning community" (PLC) has become so commonplace, and used so ambiguously to describe any loose coupling of individuals who share a common interest in education, that the term PLC itself, is in danger of losing all meaning.
It is difficult to bring this PLC term to life in a school or district when there is a shared understanding of its meaning. It is impossible when there is no common understanding, and the term means different things to different people within the same organization.
It is difficult to bring this PLC term to life in a school or district when there is a shared understanding of its meaning. It is impossible when there is no common understanding, and the term means different things to different people within the same organization.
- A PLC is not a program. It cannot be purchased, nor can it be implemented by anyone other than the staff itself.
- A PLC is not a meeting. It is not an occasional event where colleagues meet to complete a task.
- A PLC is not a book or article study where members meet to share impressions about what they have read.
A Call to Action:
Why Should Schools Implement the PLC Processes in their own Schools and Districts?
Why Should Schools Implement the PLC Processes in their own Schools and Districts?
Rick DuFour (2015) asserted, "American educators must view every student as if he or she were their own child and provide the same education they would want for their own."
Educators have a moral imperative to improve their individual and collective practice.
Contemporary American educators have accomplished more, with a diverse student population, than any previous generation.
Contemporary American educators have accomplished more, with a diverse student population, than any previous generation.
- Scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress have improved steadily since that test was first administered in the 1970s (Ravitch, 2014).
- American students score in the top ten in the world and considerably above the international mean on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMSS) exams (Martin, Mullis, Foy, & Stanco, 2012; Mullis, Martin, Foy, & Arora, 2012).
- Since 2009, parent satisfaction with their local schools has been among the highest ever recorded in more than four decades since Phi Delta Kappan and the Gallup Poll began conducting the survey (Phi Delta Kappan/Gallup Poll Archive, 2014).
- One in five American schools has more than 75 percent of their students living in poverty. When American schools with low poverty are compared to the highest performing countries in the world with similar poverty rates, American students outperform their international peers (Shyamalan, 2013).
- American students consistently rate their teachers among the highest in the world in such qualities as fairness and willingness to provide them extra support (DuFour, 2015).
However, the need to help every student succeed in school has never been greater because the consequences of failure in the K-12 system have never been more grim.
- Students who fail in school are three times more likely to be unemployed (Breslow, 2012).
- Students who fail in the K-12 environment are more likely to live in poverty, earning an annual salary of $20,241 or less (Breslow, 2012).
- High school dropouts in the United States earn thirty-five cents for every dollar a college graduate earns and sixty cents for every dollar a high school graduate earns. The United States has one of the largest income discrepancies between college graduates and high school dropouts of all the major economies in the world (Ananiadou & Claro, 2014).
- High school drop outs are sixty-three more times more likely to be incarcerated (Breslow, 2012).
- On average, each high school dropout costs taxpayers $292,000 over his or her lifetime (Breslow, 2012).
"At no time before in education has there ever been greater consensus on what educators can do to improve their schools:
- Schools must be committed to high levels of learning for each student;
- Educators work collaboratively to clarify the knowledge, skills, and dispositions students are to acquire for each unit, course, and grade level;
- Student learning is monitored on an ongoing basis;
- School has a systematic process for providing students with extra time and support if they struggle and extended learning if they are proficient;
- And, educators work together to use transparent evidence of student learning to inform and to improve their individual and collective practice.
Three Big Ideas that Drive PLC Work
1. A Focus on Learning
The fundamental purpose of the school is to ensure that all students learn at high levels. In order to achieve this purpose, all members of the PLC are guided by this vision.
The fundamental purpose of the school is to ensure that all students learn at high levels. In order to achieve this purpose, all members of the PLC are guided by this vision.
- They make collective commitments clarifying what each member will do to create the learning organization.
- They use results-oriented goals to mark their progress.
- Members work together to clarify exactly what each student must learn, and monitor each student's learning on a timely basis.
- They provide systemic interventions that ensure student receive additional time and support when students struggle.
- They extend student learning when student students have already mastered the intended outcomes.
2. A Collaborative Culture and Collective Responsibility
To ensure all students learn at high levels, educators must work collaboratively and take collective responsibility for the success of each student.
To ensure all students learn at high levels, educators must work collaboratively and take collective responsibility for the success of each student.
- Working collaboratively is not optional, but instead is an expectation and requirement of employment.
- The structure of a PLC is the collaborative teams of educators whose members work interdependently to achieve common goals for which members are mutually accountable.
- It is important to note that collaboration does not lead to improved results unless people are focused on the right work. Collaboration is a means to an end, not the end itself.
- Collaboration represents a systemic process in which teachers work together interdependently in order to impact their classroom practice in ways that will lead to better results for their students, for their team, and for the school.
3. A Results Orientation
In order to assess their effectiveness in helping all students learn, educators in a PLC focus on results--evidence of student learning. They then use that evidence of learning to inform and to improve their professional practice and to respond to individual students who need intervention or enrichment.
In order to assess their effectiveness in helping all students learn, educators in a PLC focus on results--evidence of student learning. They then use that evidence of learning to inform and to improve their professional practice and to respond to individual students who need intervention or enrichment.
- Members of a PLC recognize that all of their efforts must be ultimately assessed on the basis of results rather than intentions.
- The constant search for a better way to improve results leads to a cyclical process of improvement to create the conditions for perpetual learning, and participation in the cycle of improvement is the responsibility of every member of the organization.
- The focus on results drives teams to create a series of common formative assessments that are administered to students multiple times throughout the year to gather ongoing evidence of student learning.
- Teams review the results from assessments to identify and to address program concerns and to discover strengths and weaknesses in their individual teaching in order to learn from one another.
- Teams use assessments to identify students who need additional time and support for learning.
Education today can no longer be an "invitation to learn" for students;
Education today must be a "guarantee to learn" for students.
For teachers to be anything other than a professional learning community
is to offer less than what is possible for our children.
Education today must be a "guarantee to learn" for students.
For teachers to be anything other than a professional learning community
is to offer less than what is possible for our children.
References
Ananiadou, K. and M. Claro (2009). 21st Century Skills and Competences for New Millennium Learners in OECD Countries. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 41,
OECD Publishing: Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/
Breslow, J.M. (2012, September 21). By the numbers: Dropping out of high school. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/by-the-numbers-dropping-out-of-high-school/
DuFour, R. (2015). In praise of American educators: And how they can become even better. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T., & Mattos, M. (2016). Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at work. Bloomington, IN:
Solution Tree Press.
Martin, M., Mullis, I., Foy, P., & Stanco, G. (2012). TIMSS 2011 international results in science. Amsterdam: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational
Achievement. Retrieved from https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/timss2011/downloads/T11_IR_Science_FullBook.pdf
Mullis, I., Martin, J., Foy, P., & Arora, A. (2012). TIMSS 2011 international results in mathematics. Amsterdam: International Association for the Evaluation of
Educational Achievement. Retrieved from https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/timss2011/downloads/T11_IR_Mathematics_FullBook.pdf
Ravitch, D. (2014). Reign of terror: The hoax of the privatization movement and the danger to America's public schools. New York: Vintage Books.
Shyamalan, M.N. (2013). I got schooled: The unlikely story of how a moonlighting movie maker learned the five keys to closing America's education gap. New York:
Simon & Schuster.
Ananiadou, K. and M. Claro (2009). 21st Century Skills and Competences for New Millennium Learners in OECD Countries. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 41,
OECD Publishing: Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/
Breslow, J.M. (2012, September 21). By the numbers: Dropping out of high school. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/by-the-numbers-dropping-out-of-high-school/
DuFour, R. (2015). In praise of American educators: And how they can become even better. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T., & Mattos, M. (2016). Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at work. Bloomington, IN:
Solution Tree Press.
Martin, M., Mullis, I., Foy, P., & Stanco, G. (2012). TIMSS 2011 international results in science. Amsterdam: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational
Achievement. Retrieved from https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/timss2011/downloads/T11_IR_Science_FullBook.pdf
Mullis, I., Martin, J., Foy, P., & Arora, A. (2012). TIMSS 2011 international results in mathematics. Amsterdam: International Association for the Evaluation of
Educational Achievement. Retrieved from https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/timss2011/downloads/T11_IR_Mathematics_FullBook.pdf
Ravitch, D. (2014). Reign of terror: The hoax of the privatization movement and the danger to America's public schools. New York: Vintage Books.
Shyamalan, M.N. (2013). I got schooled: The unlikely story of how a moonlighting movie maker learned the five keys to closing America's education gap. New York:
Simon & Schuster.