Common Questions about Professional Learning Communities:

• What is a professional Learning Community?
• What is the administrator's role in a PLC?
• What are some strategies for finding time for embedded professional development and team collaboration?
• What are resources for understanding more about PLC?

What is a professional learning community?

Schools that operate as a professional learning community have developed a culture and a structure that embrace continuous improvement on behalf of their students. The key characteristics of a PLC school include:

• A well-defined mission, vision, values, and goals
• A collaborative culture
• A focus on collective inquiry and the use of data for instructional decisions
• An action and results orientation
• A commitment to continuous improvement.

The engine behind school improvement is the team--grade level teams, department or course teams, and cross departmental/grade teams. The actions of these teams are guided by the following questions:

• What should students know and do?
• How do we know they are learning?
• What do we do when they're not learning?

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What is the Administrator’s Role in Helping Teams Accomplish the Goals?

• Provide information, training, and research findings to arrive at informed opinions.
• Provide training to master the skills that will allow them to achieve school goals
• Facilitate embedded staff development
• Supply data, information and feedback to make necessary course adjustments.
• Provide clear guidelines and boundaries to help them direct their work, self monitor progress, and assess outcomes.
• SMART goal development
• Monitor and reinforce actions of teams
• Celebrations
• Provide structure for reflection and information sharing.
• Click here to see more articles on administrative roles and support
  

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Ideas for Finding Time

• Waive duty-free lunch and buy lunch for teachers
• Release teachers during assemblies/scheduled showings of movies, etc.
• Pair buddy classes for field trips (provide release day for one grade level and then swap the next time)
• Have buddy classes design integrated lessons for 1/2 hour during the day, and release teachers during that time
• Develop an email relationship with neighboring schools to enhance articulation
• Use email and websites/newsletters for "administrivia", which leaves more time for learning in staff meetings
• Click here to see more articles on finding time

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Other Resources for Professional Learning Communities:

Article: Coping With Malcontents: You can deal with negative staff and prevent yourself from becoming negative