The Next Steps in PLCs

One of the books on my summer reading list was one that all of the principals in our school district were given by our curriculum and instruction department, Collaborative Teams that Transform Schools, by Robert Marzano, Tammy Heflebower, Jan Hoegh, Phil Warrick, and Gavin Grift. 

I first witnessed the power of PLCs after attending the PLC conference with a team from a previous district I worked in and then working with our leadership team to implement PLCs on our campus.  I quickly learned that PLCs are not the latest buzz word or trend.  When implemented and facilitated correctly, they are truly effective, meaningful, and impactful to student learning as well as professional growth for teachers. 

Much has been written about PLCs, so I won’t delve deeply into the basics of PLCs, but my purpose in this post is to share what impacted me most from this book as I think about how we can take our PLCs to the next level. 

Marzano and his colleagues propose that there are two additional questions we should be asking ourselves in addition the four critical questions of a PLC.  The four questions are:

• ·      What is it we want our students to know?
• ·      How will we know if our students are learning?
• ·      How will we respond when students do not learn?
• ·      How will we enrich and extend the learning for students who are proficient?

The fifth and a sixth question, both have implications for the leadership on our campus:

• ·      How will we increase our instructional competence?
• ·      How will we coordinate our efforts as a school?

At first glance, it seems those questions are embedded in the four original questions, but as I read this book, I began thinking about how it would be easy to gloss over these questions in a PLC conversation with the constraints of time and all of the work that needs to be done.  When we ask these two questions, we intentionally seek to increase our instructional competence, and we intentionally coordinate our efforts as a school. 

There are implications for us as the instructional leaders on the campus to respond to both the fifth and sixth questions.  How are we going to set up the systems, the context, the expectation, and the mindset that we are one unified team seeking to improve learning for all of our students?  Interdependence is a word that kept coming to mind as I began to think deeply about this.  It is our responsibility to create the conditions for our students and our teachers to grow.

I love how the authors link all of the pieces of curriculum, instruction and assessment and talk about them through the lense of PLCs.  This book is rich in content; however, what struck me most were the leadership behaviors I must exhibit in order to impact the PLC process.  While the authors listed 21 behaviors on pages 104-105, I am going to highlight a few that I believe make the greatest impact on our campus.

• ·      Providing affirmation and celebration of staff effort and achievement.  Our staff works so hard, and they care about our kids so much.  Guiding them to write smart goals and then recognizing and celebrating their progess toward those goals is so important!
• ·      Shaping the assumptions, beliefs, expectations, and habits that constitute the school’s culture. PLCs should be what we do. They’re how we do the important work of ensuring every child is making progress toward the learning goals, intervening when there is a concern, and providing meaningful enrichment opportunities for students who have met or exceeded the learning goals.
• ·      Protecting teachers from outside distraction.  Be sure to embed time for teacher collaboration into the school day and protect that time so that the teachers come to value it as well.  On that same note, it is important to monitor to make sure that time for collaboration is used as it is inteneded.
• ·      Soliciting input from staff in the design and implementation of procedures and policies. Decisions should not be made solely by the principal or leadership team.  Teachers are professionals and deserve to have a voice in important decisions that directly impact the quality of student learning and/or the school as a whole.
• ·      Establishing a positive working relationship with teachers and staff.  Listen to them. Get to know them on both a personal and professional level.  Work to earn their trust by being genuine, showing compassion and grace, and following through with all commitments. 

As the instructional leader on our campus, I know it is my responsibility to clearly communicate the work that is to be done and to monitor our progress on that work. I love that this book gives me some ideas and tools for taking the next steps toward increasing our effectiveness as a collaborative team.

~Megan