Professional Learning Communities

Professional Learning Communities, often called PLCs, have become the main focus for school improvement, professional development and decision making in schools. I was reading an article by Richard DuFour called "Schools as Learning Communities" and I was thinking that many people do not really know what a PLC is. The reason according to DuFour is that "Professional Learning Community" has become a buzz word that can refer to almost anything happening in education today. According to DuFour, a PLC has 3 main ideas. First DuFour asks "What Is a Professional Learning Community?" He then answers his own question with the following definition, "To create a professional learning community, focus on learning rather than teaching, work collaboratively, and hold yourself accountable for results." These are the 3 main ideas.

A focus on student learning is actually a shift from what has been done for years. Many of us were trained in a system that focused on teaching. We took methods courses and studied teaching strategies. These are fine things to know as long as you don't lose sight of what the purpose of education is. It is not what we teach as much as what they learn. Dufour asks 3 questions. What do we want students to learn? How will we know when they learn it? What do we do when students struggle or don't learn? When we focus on teaching we spend a lot of time on the first question, some time on the second question and no time on the third question. A focus on learning gives equal weight to each question with a plan for the third question because we all know that students will struggle. The question is: What will we do? Dufour says it should be a timely intervention that directly targets what the student needs. I often compare this to learning to play an instrument or participating in sports. When you learn to play the trumpet your teacher sits with you and guides you through the music. The moment you make an error. It is immediately addressed. Adjustments are made to how you are holding the instrument or how tight your lips are. You practice over and over until you get it right and then you move on. Once you can play the music all the way through you move onto something harder. It is a timely intervention that you must work on until you can move on.

Working collaboratively is a problem I addressed in an earlier post. Teachers need to work together to analyze their practice. It promotes deep conversation and debate, which enhances team learning for the purpose of student achievement. Many think collaboration is teams of teachers getting along with each other, making operational decision or just working together on a project. Although these things are important they do not focus on improving instruction and improving student achievement. As a principal there are many barriers that I need to address before collaboration can be affective.

Finally, there is a focus on results. We often call this looking at data. The problem is we often look at data but we don't use the data to make changes. Assessment information used properly can have the biggest impact on student success. Summative assessments just look at what students learned. Formative assessments actually drive instruction. It helps teachers plan instruction. To use my previous example. The music teacher doesn't just let the student play the song poorly and fail. The music teacher is making adjustments throughout his instruction. Every time the student plays there is an assessment made on what to do next for the student. Assessment and adjustment! The only way to make this happen is to stop doing what doesn't work and to use the collaborative process to share ideas, materials and strategies. We must also stop blaming factors outside the classrooms when our students struggle. We need to really address what is going on behind the closed doors of the classroom. The first step is to open the doors.

People often celebrate the success of charter schools. Many charter schools are no different than their public school neighbors. The kids are the same and the facilities are the same. The teachers have the same training. The only difference is that charter schools are often PLCs. The teachers put everything aside for the achievement of their students. The administrator embraces his faculty and gives them opportunities to collaborate. It is about time public school teachers and administrators begin to do the same.