NJASA SOUTHERN REGIONAL SUMMIT PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES PRESENTED BY: DR. JACK McCULLEY STERLING REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

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NJASA SOUTHERN REGIONAL SUMMITPROFESSIONAL
LEARNING COMMUNITIESPRESENTED BYDR. JACK
McCULLEYSTERLING REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
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What is a Professional Learning Community?
We define a professional learning community as
educators committed to working collaboratively in
ongoing processes of collective inquiry and
action research to achieve better results for the
students they serve. Professional learning
communities operate under the assumption that the
key to improved learning for students is
continuous, job-embedded learning for educators.
(DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, Many, 2006).
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Learning Community is Characterized by

• Shared mission, vision, and values
• Collaborative Teams.
• Collective inquiry.
• Action orientation/experimentation.
• Commitment to continuous improvement.
• Results orientation.

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Shared Mission (Purpose), Vision (Clear
Direction), Values (Collective Commitments, and
Goals (Indicators, Timelines, and Targets) All
Focused on Student Learning

• The very essence of a learning community is a
  focus on and a commitment to the learning
  of each student
• Educators embrace high levels of learning for
  all students as both the reason the organization
  exists and the fundamental responsibility of
  those who work within it.
• Members of a PLC create and are guided by a
  clear and compelling of what their schools and
  districts must become to help all students learn.
• Collective commitments clarify what each member
  will do to contribute to creating such
  organizations.
• Use results-oriented goals to mark their
  progress.

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A Collaborative Culture With a Focus on Learning

• Collaborative teams are the fundamental
  building blocks of the school community.
• A PLC is composed of collaborative teams whose
  members work interdependently to achieve common
  goals.
• Goals linked to the purpose of learning for all
• All members are held mutually accountable.

1. Collective Inquiry Into Best Practice and Current
   Reality

• Educators in a PLC engage in collective inquiry
  into
• Best Practices about teaching and learning
• A candid clarification of their current practices
  
• An honest assessment of their students current
  levels of learning.
• Collective inquiry helps educators build shared
  knowledge.
• Educators in a PLC have an acute sense of
  curiosity and openness to new possibilities.

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Action Orientation Learning By Doing

• Members of PLCs are action-oriented
• They move quickly to turn aspirations into action
  and visions into reality.
• They understand that the most powerful learning
  always occurs in a context of taking action.
• They value engagement and experience as the most
  effective teachers.
• Learning by doing develops a deeper and more
  profound knowledge and greater commitment than
  learning by reading, listening, planning, or
  thinking (Pfeffer Sutton, 2000).
• Educators in PLCs recognize that until members
  of the organization do differently, there is no
  reason to anticipate different results.

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A Commitment to Continuous Improvement

• Work to eliminate the status quo
• Constant searches for a better way to achieve
  goals and accomplish the purpose of the
  organization are inherent in the PLC culture.
• Systematic processes engage each member of the
  school community in an ongoing cycle of
• Gathering evidence of current levels of student
  learning.
• Developing strategies and ideas to build on
  strengths and address weaknesses in that
  learning.
• Implementing the strategies and ideas.
• Analyzing the impact of the changes to discover
  what was effective and what was not.
• Applying the knowledge in the next cycle of
  continuous improvement.

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Results Orientation

• Members of a PLC realize that all of their
  efforts in these areas
• Focus on learning.
• Collaborative teams.
• Collective inquiry
• Action orientation
• Continuous improvement must be assessed on the
  basis of results rather than intentions
• Initiatives are subjected to ongoing assessment
  on the basis of tangible results.

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The Big Ideas That Drive Professional Learning
Communities

• First, the fundamental purpose of the school is
  to ensure all students learn at high levels.
• The future success of students will depend on
  how effective educators are in achieving that
  fundamental purpose.
• Commitment to learning and schools must align
  all practices, procedures, and policies.
• Members of a PLC work together.
• Clarify exactly what each student must learn.
• Monitor each students learning on a timely
  basis
• Support for learning when they struggle
• Extend and enrich learning when students have
  already mastered the intended outcomes.
• If all students are to learn at high levels,
  the professional staff in the school community
  must also continue to learn.

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The Big Ideas That Drive Professional Learning
Communities

• Second, schools will not know whether or not
  all students are learning unless professional
  staff have a strong desire for evidence that
  students are acquiring the knowledge, skills, and
  dispositions deemed most essential to their
  success.
• Schools must systematically monitor student
  learning on an ongoing basis.
• Use evidence of results to respond immediately
  to students who experience difficulty.
• To inform individual and collective practice.
• To fuel continuous improvement.

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Origin of Professional Learning Community

• Professional
• Someone with expertise in a specialized field,
  an individual who has not only pursued advanced
  training to enter the field, but who is also
  expected to remain current in its evolving
  knowledge base.
• Knowledge base of education has expanded
  dramatically in the past 30 years.
• In terms of research and in the articulation of
  recommended standards for the profession.
• Professional staff in a professional learning
  community make these findings the basis of their
  collaborative investigation into how they can
  better achieve their goals.
• Practice teaching and leading by constantly
  enhancing their skills and knowledge in the same
  way a doctor practices medicine or a lawyer
  practices law.

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Origin of Professional Learning Community

• Learning
• The need for professional staff to shift from a
  focus on teaching to a focus on learning.
• To move beyond the question Was it taught? to
  the far more relevant question, Was it learned?
• Avocation for learning communities, not
  teaching communities.
• The best way to improve student learning is to
  invest and improve the learning of the
  professional staff.
• Learning suggests ongoing action and perpetual
  curiosity.
• Educators must engage in the ongoing study and
  constant practice of their field.
• If all students are to learn, those who educate
  them must be lifelong learners.

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Origin of Professional Learning Community

• Community
• A group linked by common interests.
• Common understandings.
• Sense of identity
• Belonging and involvement
• Meaningful relationships
• Communities form around common characteristics,
  experiences, practices
• Members of the communitys beliefs are
  important enough to develop a kinship.

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In a Professional Learning Community

• Professional staff create an environment that
  fosters shared
• Understanding
• Sense of identity
• High levels of involvement
• Mutual cooperation
• Collective responsibility
• Emotional support
• A strong sense of belonging
• Collaborating together to achieve what they
  cannot accomplish alone

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Cultural Shifts

• Becoming a Professional
• Learning Community
• Robert Eaker

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Culture is often defined asHow we do things
around here.Compared to more traditional
schools, how are things done in a professional
learning community?
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Cultural Shift

• Traditional Schools
• Teacher isolation

• Professional Learning Communities
• Collaboration

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Cultural Shift Developing a Mission Statement
Student Learning

• Traditional Schools
• Generic.
• Belief statements such as, We believe all kids
  can learn.

• Professional Learning Communities
• Clarifies what students will learn.
• Clarifies how we will know what students have
  learned.
• Clarifies how the school will respond when
  students do not learn.

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Cultural Shift Primary Focus

• Traditional Schools
• Primary Focus is on teaching.

• Professional Learning Communities
• Primary focus is on learning.

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Cultural Shift - Curriculum

• Traditional Schools
• Each teacher independently decides what to teach.
• Curriculum overloaded.

• Professional Learning Communities
• Collaboratively agreed upon curriculum that focus
  on what students are expected to learn.
• Reduced content meaningful content taught at
  greater depth.
• Collaboratively developed assessment.
• A collaboratively developed plan for responding
  to students who are not learning.

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Cultural Shift - Decisions

• Traditional Schools
• Decisions about improvement strategies are made
  by averaging opinions.

• Professional Learning Communities
• Decisions are research-based with collaborative
  teams of teachers seeking out best practices.

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Cultural Shift - Validation

• Traditional Schools
• Effectiveness of improvement strategies are
  externally validated. Teachers rely on others
  outside the school regarding what works.
• Emphasis is given to how teachers liked various
  approaches.

• Professional Learning Communities
• Approaches are internally validated. Teams of
  teachers try various approaches and collaborate
  about how the approaches impacted student
  learning.
• Effects on student learning as the primary basis
  for assessing various improvement strategies.
  Collaboratively developed assessment.

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Cultural Shift - Leadership
Traditional Schools Administrators are viewed as
being in leadership positions while teachers are
viewed as implementers or followers.

• Professional Learning Communities
• Administrators are viewed as leaders of leaders.
  Teachers are viewed as transformational leaders.

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Cultural Shift Improvement Plans

• Traditional Schools
• School improvement plans focus on a wide variety
  of things.
• Often, the goal is to get the plan turned in.
  Then, the plan is ignored.

• Professional Learning Communities
• School improvement plans focus on a few,
  important goals that will impact student
  learning.
• The school improvement plan is the vehicle for
  organized, sustained school improvement.

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Cultural Shift - Recognition

• Traditional Schools
• Celebration is infrequent and when recognizing
  teachers almost always focuses on groups.
• Celebration and recognition occurs when students
  reach an arbitrary standard.
• Recognition is limited to few.

• Professional Learning Communities
• Celebration is frequent and singles out
  individuals as well as groups.
• In addition to celebration and recognition when a
  standard is met, celebrations recognized
  improvement
• The school works hard to create winners and
  celebrate their success.
• Celebrations are linked to the vision and values
  of the school and improved student
  achievementRenaissance Program

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Cultural Shift New Initiatives

• Traditional Schools
• Improvement efforts frequently shift as new fads
  or trends come along.

• Professional Learning Communities
• The school is committed to staying the course
  in the attainment of the school vision. New
  initiatives are only implemented if it is
  determined that the change will help the school
  achieve its vision of the future.

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Cultural Educational Shifts

• Becoming a Professional Learning Community
• Sterling High School
• Somerdale, NJ

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WHERE WE STARTED
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PLC At Sterling

• Grew out of professional development on
  alternative assessment
• Teachers sent to Adlai Stevenson High School in
  Chicago to view PLC process of common planning
  and assessment
• Teachers became interested in developing common
  goals and assessments for each course
• Needed common planning time for successful
  implementation
• PLC was initiated to facilitate this goal and to
  focus instruction on student learning
• Two morning in-service days / month are set aside
  for PLC time

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MISSION OF PLC

• The three essential questions of the PLC
  initiative are
• What do we expect students to learn?
• How will we know that students have learned?
• How will we respond to students who are not
  learning

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What do we want students to learn?

• State Standards
• Established Curriculum Outlines
• Strengths and Weaknesses of Students
• Expectations of the community
• Essential vs. Inessential Content
• Establish specific essential outcomes per unit
• Development of mandatory and elective activities

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How do we know if they have learned it?

• Common Assessments for each course at all levels
• Establish specific standards of performance,
  targets or benchmarks for each test to indicate
  student mastery of intended outcomes
• Clarify criteria by which work is judged
  (rubrics)
• Analyze results

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How will we respond when students do not learn?

• Analyze results of assessment
• Utilize collaboration and best practices to
  identify and implement improvement strategies
• Ensure that all students who need it receive
  additional time and support for learning
• Re-assess to determine mastery

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PLC FOCUS ON LEARNING
Traditional Schools PLC
Each teacher decides what to teach and test Instruction and testing becomes a collaborative effort
Curriculum is overloaded Focus is on essential questions with content taught in greater depth
Effectiveness of instruction is externally validatedstandardized testing, etc. Effectiveness is internally validated by teachers using various strategies
Emphasis is placed on how teachers like various approaches and topics Improvement strategies are assessed based state local standards and student learning
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WHERE WE ARE NOW

• CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL SHIFT

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PLC --Cultural Shift

• Professional Learning Communities
• Collaboration

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Cultural Shift Primary Focus

• Professional Learning Communities
• Primary focus is on learning.

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Cultural Shift - Decisions

• Professional Learning Communities
• Decisions are research-based with collaborative
  teams of teachers seeking out best practices.

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Cultural Shift - Validation

• Professional Learning Communities
• Approaches are internally validated. Teams of
  teachers try various approaches and collaborate
  about how the approaches impacted student
  learning.
• Effects on student learning as the primary basis
  for assessing various improvement strategies.
  Collaboratively developed assessment.

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Cultural Shift - Recognition

• Professional Learning Communities
• Celebration is frequent and singles out
  individuals as well as groups.
• In addition to celebration and recognition when a
  standard is met, celebrations recognized
  improvement
• The school works hard to create winners and
  celebrate their success.
• Celebrations are linked to the vision and values
  of the school and improved student
  achievementRenaissance Program

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Cultural Shift New Initiatives

• Professional Learning Communities
• The school is committed to staying the course
  in the attainment of the school vision. New
  initiatives are only implemented if it is
  determined that the change will help the school
  achieve its vision of the future.

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Educational ShiftCurricular Focus in a Learning
Community

• Until a school has clarifies what students should
  know and be able to do, and the skills and
  dispositions they should acquire as a result of
  schooling, the school cannot function as a
  learning community
• There are four major assumptions for curricular
  development

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Educational Shift Teacher should work
collaboratively to design a research-based
curriculum

• If a curriculum is overloaded --Pay attention to
  everything it cannot have the necessary focus
  on results
• Teachers need to be informed about initiatives
  and search for the right combination of theory
  and practice for their students and school at a
  particular time
• Pooling uninformed opinions just results in
  making uninformed decisions
• Teachers should be familiar with what is known
  about best practices and utilize and adapt those
  findings to the culture of each individual school
  and student population

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Educational ShiftThe curriculum should clarify
the specific knowledge, skills, and dispositions
that students should acquire as a result of their
schooling.

• Collaboratively agreed upon curriculum focuses on
  essential and significant learning topics.
• Organized abandonmentdeciding what not to
  teach. Reduced content allows meaningful content
  to be taught at greater depth
• Develop a process of identifying significant
  content, eliminating non-essential material.
  Curriculum is a mile long and an inch deep.
• Analyze each unit what does every student need
  to know, what information would benefit students
  if there were time, what is insignificant enough
  to eliminate?

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Educational ShiftThe curriculum process should
allow teachers to monitor student achievement at
the classroom level

• What do we want students to do as a result of
  this unit?
• Not students will understand a topic, but what
  will they do to demonstrate that understanding
• What methods and material will we use to teach
  the lesson? (Science department required
  activities, elective activities)
• How will we know whether students have achieved
  the intended outcomes? Observation, written
  tests, questioning, review of homework student
  performance projects, etc.

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Educational ShiftCurriculum and Assessment
Process should foster continuous improvement

• Culmination of the three previous sections. An
  effective learning community will
• Ensure that a teachers daily instruction is
  consistent with the essential learning goals
  identified through the curriculum process
• Insist that students are asked to learn content
  that has been chosen based on essential outcomes
  rather than on the idiosyncrasies of an
  individual teacher
• Establish the expectation that each instructional
  unit will provide students the opportunity to
  practice the kinds of skill they will be asked to
  demonstrate during assessment
• Ensure that assessments are aligned with
  curriculum and instruction

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WHERE WE ARE HEADED
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Year 1 2005-2006

• Define Vision and Mission for each department
• Develop departmental goals
• Departments begin working toward development of
  common curriculum and assessment
• Academic departmental folders were established on
  the S-drive for departmental work
• Curriculum Committee of PLC leaders was
  established to monitor progress, concerns, etc.
• Curriculum Committee felt the need for framework
  or structure in which the departments could work
  

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Year 2 2006-2007

• Framework was developed so that every department
  needed to re-align each individual curriculum
  relative to the standards and re-structure if
  necessary
• Led to an examination of each individual
  curriculum relative to the NJ State
  StandardsScience department restructured the
  curriculum using this data
• Assessments in Science, Social Studies and World
  Language were developed to reflect NJCCCS and
  generate data on student achievement relative to
  the standards
• Scoring and dissemination of assessment data took
  place
• Common Final Examinations were developed and
  placed in shared departmental folders
• Goals for 2007-2008 were established

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Year 32007-2008

• Align all curriculum to the state standards
• Begin to develop a working curriculum for each
  course
• Identify essential topics
• Develop mandatory and optional activities for
  each unit
• Develop common unit assessments
• Use data to target areas of weakness and develop
  strategies for improvement

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Year 42008-2009

• Continue to focus on data driven information
  regarding student learning
• Teachers work in groups to determine essential
  topics for each course aligned to the State
  Standards
• Topics will form the basis of unit assessments
  that will be given at all levels
• Remediation should be targeted to specific
  deficiencies
• Data should foster discussion regarding teaching
  and assessment techniques to improve student
  learning
• Formative assessments will be developed to assess
  student learning and benchmark proficiencies

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2009-2010 and Beyond

• Continue to clarify essential outcomes for each
  course
• Develop formative assessments that can serve to
  assess student proficiencies
• Collect and analyze feedback on formative
  assessments to continually assess student
  performance
• Develop activities ( required and optional) that
  address the essential activity and remediate any
  misunderstandings or problems
• Continue to develop and refine common unit
  assessments
• Establish a cyclical process of data driven,
  research based responses to student achievement
• Recognize and celebrate student teacher
  successes
• Recognize that PLC is a constant work in
  progress

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PLC THE SCIENCE MODEL

• Chemistry Essential Questions
• Chemistry Working Curriculum
• Chemistry Unit Test Data Analysis

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PLC AND EDUCATIONAL CHANGE

• In times of drastic change, it is the learners
  who inherit the future.
• The learned usually find themselves beautifully
  equipped to live in a world that no longer
  exists.
• Eric Hoffer, 1972

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QA

• Thank You