Beyond PLC Lite Sample

Evidence-Based Teaching and Learning in a Professional Learning Community at Work®

ANTHONY R. REIBEL

TROY GOBBLE

MARK ONUSCHECK

ERIC TWADELL

©2025 Grift Education. All rights reserved.

B E Y O N D PLC Lite

© 2025 Grift Education. All rights reserved.

This work is copyright. Apart from fair dealings for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review, or as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), no part should be reproduced, transmitted, communicated or recorded, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

PO Box 3160 Mentone East, Victoria 3194, Australia Phone: (03) 8686 9077 Website: www.grifteducation.com Email: orders@grifteducation.com Code: SOT8500 ISBN: 9781923198500 Printed in Australia

©2025 Grift Education. All rights reserved.

Originally published in ©2010 by Solution Tree Press

Acknowledgments

To my wife, Kathy, you are a special person. Your care and love for our family are without equal. To my boys, Tony and Andrew, I am proud of you both. No need for awards, trophies, or “winning”—I love you just as you are. To Eric, Troy, and Mark, I consider our collaboration over the past ten years one of the most special times in my life. If this is our last project together, what a ride it has been.

From Troy: To my wife and kids, Danielle, Adeline, Claire and Owen, I love you more every single day.

From Mark: To the educators I have the honor of collaborating with every day, I’m so grateful to work among dedicated faculty, staff, and administration who always keep thinking, creating, and looking forward.

From Eric: To Poppy and Grandma Joan, your unwavering support of and dedication to Twad Fam have been immeasurable.

©2025 Grift Education. All rights reserved.

From Anthony:

Although it is widely considered the birthplace of the Professional Learning Community at Work (PLC) movement, Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois, is not immune to the difficulties and challenges of creating and sustaining a culture of continuous improvement. In fact, after the U.S. Department of Education identified the school as “the most recognized and celebrated school in America,” we at Stevenson High School found ourselves stuck in our own version of PLC Lite by the early 2010s. While teachers were working tirelessly on behalf of our students in 2012, many of our instructional, assessment, and grading practices looked very similar to how they did in 2002. To move beyond PLC

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Lite, we knew we needed something more than incremental change. We needed to rethink the fundamental assumptions underlying much of our work. What began as an experiment with rethinking and retooling some of our more traditional grading and reporting practices turned into a significant leap into what we describe now as evidence-based teaching and learning. Since 2012, we have witnessed a massive shift in our curriculum, instruction, assessment, and grading practices. Most importantly, we have more students learning at high levels, with agency, efficacy, and a strong sense of self, than ever before. This book outlines our journey out of PLC Lite and into evidence-based teaching and learning.

The faculty and staff here at Stevenson are supported by an administrative team that represents the very best that American education has to offer; the shift to evidence-based teaching and learning could not have happened without their leadership. We are also grateful for the support of our current board of education members Amy Neault, Steve Frost, Terry Moons, Gary Gorson, Roni Ben-Yoseph, Don Tyer, and Grace Cao; and former board members Merv Roberts, Bruce Lubin, and Dave Weisberg. Our board of education has long been committed to our mission of success for every student, and our work toward this success is only possible with their visionary leadership and support.

We continue to be grateful to our friends at Solution Tree—Jeff Jones, Ed Ackerman, Douglas Rife, Claudia Wheatley, Todd Brakke, and everyone who was supportive and patient as we worked to clearly describe Stevenson High School’s journey to evidence-based teaching and learning practices.

Finally, we feel blessed to be able to serve the students of Adlai E. Stevenson High School.

The best part of our work is when we have the opportunity to spend time and collaborate with our students. Students bring us a sense of joy and fulfillment that only educators can appreciate and understand. As with all our previous books, the authors’ royalties from this project are being donated to the Stevenson High School Foundation, which provides financial support for students in need, scholarships, and mentoring for first-generation college students.

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The evidence-based practices you will find in this book were made possible with innovative thinking, hard work, and relentless dedication to the continuous improvement of Adlai E. Stevenson High School’s faculty and staff. Given the numerous accolades the school has received over the years, one would not be surprised if the faculty and staff lacked a sense of urgency. Fortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. The faculty and staff are constantly searching for and exploring new ideas. They are open and excited to engage in professional development to push their capacity for helping students learn at deeper and higher levels. The significant improvements and changes that we outline in this book would have been impossible without these amazing faculty and staff.

Acknowledgments

Solution Tree Press would like to thank the following reviewers: Doug Crowley Assistant Principal DeForest Area High School DeForest, Wisconsin

Kory Taylor Reading Interventionist Arkansas Virtual Academy Little Rock, Arkansas

Janet Nuzzie District Intervention Specialist, K–12 Mathematics Pasadena Independent School District Pasadena, Texas

Ringnolda Jofee’ Tremain Director of Professional Learning Texas Leadership Public Schools Arlington, Texas

Steven Weber Assistant Principal Rogers Heritage High School Rogers, Arkansas

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Christie Shealy Director of Testing and Accountability Anderson School District One Williamston, South Carolina

John Unger Principal West Fork Middle School West Fork, Arkansas

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Table of Contents Reproducibles are in italics.

Introduction : Moving Beyond the Futility of PLC Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A Persistent Knowing-Doing Gap in Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 A Relentless Commitment to the Status Quo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The Absence of a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 A Failure to Accurately Define Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 A Focus on “Coblaboration” Over Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 A Focus on Inputs More Than Outputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

How to Read This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1

Efficacy: The Tie That Binds the Three Big Ideas of a PLC at Work . 9 Key Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 A Focus on the Big Ideas of a PLC as Distinct Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 A Focus on the Intersections of the Big Ideas of a PLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Developing Student Efficacy at the Intersection of Results and Learning . . . . . . . . . . 12 Developing Teacher Efficacy at the Intersection of Collaboration and Results . . . . . . . 15 Developing Collective Efficacy at the Intersection of Learning and Collaboration . . . . . . 16

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About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

True North: If You Are Not Sure Where to Begin, Start Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Taking Theory to Practice 2 Focus: Key Learning

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

A Theory for Why Theory Often Doesn’t Become Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 The Ten Actions for Evidence-Based Teaching and Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Action 1: Defining Student Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Action 2: Creating an Enduring Skills-Focused Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Action 3: Creating Skills-Focused Proficiency Scales and Rubrics . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Action 4: Utilizing Evidence-Based Assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Action 5: Creating a Skills-Focused Scope and Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Action 6: Aiming for Evidence-Based Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Action 7: Implementing Evidence-Based Grading and Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Action 8: Restructuring the Gradebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Action 9: Stressing Feedback and Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Action 10: Responding to Students’ Learning Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alignment of the Actions and Action Steps With the Intersections of the Three Big Ideas . .

32 32 33 33

An Observable Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 An Improved Culture of Efficacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Positive Interdependence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Improved Third-Party Exam Scores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Increased Student Autonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Teacher as Innovator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Better Relationships With Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35 35 35 35 36 36

True North: If You Are Not Sure Where to Begin, Start Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

1: Defining Student Success 3 Action Key Learning

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Defining Student Success (Traditional Definitions) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Redefining Student Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Defining Core Tenets of Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Action Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Action Step 1.1: Perform a Student Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Action Step 1.2: Create Student-Centered Mission and Vision Statements . . . . . . . . . 46 Action Step 1.3: Create a Portrait of a Graduate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

True North: If You Are Not Sure Where to Begin, Start Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Most Salient Point: The Essence of This Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Most Salient Action: Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Progress Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Four-Quadrant Student Audit Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Portrait of a Graduate Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 2: Creating an Enduring Skills-Focused Curriculum 4 Action Key Learning

. . . . . . . 55

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

General Types of Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 How Types of Knowledge Inform Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 How Hybrid Curriculum Design Melds Experiential Knowledge (Enduring Skills) With Explicit Knowledge (Content) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 How a Hybrid Curriculum Differs From a Standards-Based Model and Why It’s Beneficial . . 59

Action Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Action Step 2.1: Identify Enduring Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Action Step 2.2: Identify Essential Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Action Step 2.3: Create Success Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

True North: If You Are Not Sure Where to Begin, Start Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Most Salient Point: The Essence of This Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

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Familiarize Yourself With the Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Start Small, Think Big. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Go Slow to Go Far . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Ta b l e o f C o n t e n t s

Most Salient Action: Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Progress Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Skill Consensus Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Making Sense of Skills Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 3: Creating Skills-Focused Proficiency Scales and Rubrics 5 Action Key Learning

. . 79

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Action Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Action Step 3.1: Create Competency-Based Rubrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Action Step 3.2: Teach With Competency-Based Rubrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

True North: If You Are Not Sure Where to Begin, Start Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Scales With Criteria: Rubrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 4: Utilizing Evidence-Based Assessments 6 Action Key Learning

. . . . . . . . . . . . 101

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Action Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Action Step 4.1: Audit Your Culture of Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Action Step 4.2: Establish Assessment Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Action Step 4.3: Design Assessments With a Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Action Step 4.4: Develop Questions and Align Them to the Assessment Purpose . . . . . . 122 Action Step 4.5: Provide Reperformance and Retakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Action Step 4.6: Consider Culminating Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

True North: If You Are Not Sure Where to Begin, Start Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Most Salient Point: The Essence of This Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Most Salient Action: Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Progress Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Culture of Assessment Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Assessment Inventory Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Assessment Inventory for Natures of Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Assessment Design Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 5: Creating a Skills-Focused Scope and Sequence 7 Action Key Learning

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Most Salient Point: The Essence of This Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Most Salient Action: Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Progress Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

. . . . . . . 141

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Action Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Action Step 5.1: Understand Performance Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Action Step 5.2: Create and Manage Performance Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Action Step 5.3: Be Mindful of Other Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

True North: If You Are Not Sure Where to Begin, Start Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Most Salient Point: The Essence of This Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Most Salient Action: Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Progress Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Creating a Skills-Focused Scope and Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

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6: Aiming for Evidence-Based Instruction 8 Action Key Leartning

. . . . . . . . . . . . 159

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Action Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Action Step 6.1: Design Instruction for Self-Generated Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Action Step 6.2: Consider the Purpose of Homework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

True North: If You Are Not Sure Where to Begin, Start Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Most Salient Point: The Essence of This Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Most Salient Action: Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Progress Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Student-Does-First Lesson Plan (Diamond Model) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Key Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Why Schools Continue to Use Conventional Grading Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 What Conventional Grading Practices Overlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 A New Approach: Evidence-Based Grading and Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Action Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Action Step 7.1: Understand the Principles of Evidence-Based Grading and Reporting . . . 181 Action Step 7.2: Mark and Score Assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Action Step 7.3: Determine a Grade From Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Action Step 8.1: Structure the Gradebook Around Stories of Learning . . . . . . . . . . . 193

True North: If You Are Not Sure Where to Begin, Start Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 Most Salient Point: The Essence of This Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 Progress Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Making Grading Commitments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Evidence-Based Gradebook Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 9: Stressing Feedback and Reflection 10 Action Key Learning

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Action Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Action Step 9.1: Activate Student Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Action Step 9.2: Refine Teacher Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

True North: If You Are Not Sure Where to Begin, Start Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Most Salient Point: The Essence of This Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Most Salient Action: Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Progress Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Template for Developing Objective, Prescriptive, and Inclusive Feedback . . . . . . . . . . 219 Humanizing Feedback Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 10: Responding to Students’ Learning Stories 11 Action Key Learning

. . . . . . . . . 223

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Action Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 Action Step 10.1: Ask Question 1—“What is the student’s learning story at this moment?” . . 224 Action Step 10.2: Ask Question 2—“How do you know their story?” . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

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7 and 8: Implementing Evidence-Based Grading and Reporting 9 Actions and Restructuring the Gradebook

Ta b l e o f C o n t e n t s

Action Step 10.3: Ask Question 3—“Have you exhausted differentiated instruction (Tier 1) relative to the student’s profile?” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 Action Step 10.4: Ask Question 4—“If so, what is the next logical and appropriate action?” 232

True North: If You Are Not Sure Where to Begin, Start Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Most Salient Point: The Essence of This Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Most Salient Action: Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Progress Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Learning Story Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 DRIP Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 Guiding Questions for Generating Differentiated Instruction Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 Readiness to Collaborate With Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Summary of Essential Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Look-Fors for Evidence-Based Teaching and Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 References and Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

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Epilogue : Build a New School, Build a New Future? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

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About the Authors

In 2010, Anthony received recognition from the state of Illinois, and in 2011, Illinois Computing Educators named him Technology Educator of the Year. He currently sponsors two clubs: (1) KIVA, which gives microloans to entrepreneurs living in areas lacking financial institutions, and (2) FIRE, which promotes equality and respect among Stevenson students and staff through conversation and advocacy in school and throughout the community.

Anthony is the author and coauthor of seven books on education. Some titles include Embracing Relational Teaching: How Strong Relationships Promote Student Self-Regulation and Efficacy; Small Changes, Big Impact: Ten Strategies to Promote Student Efficacy and Lifelong Learning; Proficiency-Based Assessment: Process, Not Product; and Pathways to Proficiency: Implementing Evidence-Based Grading. Each of these explores the relationship among student efficacy, pedagogy, and learning.

©2025 Grift Education. All rights reserved.

Anthony R. Reibel, EdD, is the director of research and evaluation at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. In 2006, he became a Spanish teacher at Stevenson, where he served as a curricular team leader, core team leader, coach, and club sponsor.

Anthony is also the publisher and chief editor of The Assessor (www.assessormag.com), a publication that features short articles written by teachers and administrators to support conversation about formative assessment.

Anthony completed his doctorate, which studied the effects of cognitive bias on teachers’ evaluation of student performance, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

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Troy Gobble is the principal of Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. He previously served as assistant principal for teaching and learning at Stevenson. Troy taught science for eighteen years and served as the science department chair at Riverside Brookfield High School in Riverside, Illinois, for eight years.

Troy holds a master of science in educational administration from Benedictine University, a master of science in natural sciences (physics) from Eastern Illinois University, and a bachelor of science in secondary science education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Mark Onuscheck is the director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. He is a former English teacher and director of communication arts. As director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, Mark works with academic divisions around professional learning, articulation, curricular and instructional revision, evaluation, assessment, social-emotional learning, technologies, and Common Core implementation. He is also an adjunct professor at DePaul University.

Mark was awarded the Quality Matters Star Rating for his work in online teaching. He helps build curriculum and instructional practices for TimeLine Theatre’s arts integration program for Chicago Public Schools. Additionally, he is a National Endowment for the Humanities’ grant recipient and a member of ASCD, the National Council of Teachers of English, the International Literacy Association, and Learning Forward.

Mark earned a bachelor’s degree in English and classical studies from Allegheny College and a master’s degree in teaching English from the University of Pittsburgh.

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The U.S. Department of Education has described Stevenson as “the most recognized and celebrated school in America”; it is one of only eight schools to have won the U.S. Department of Education’s National Blue Ribbon School Award on five occasions. Stevenson was one of the first comprehensive schools that the U.S. Department of Education designated a New American High School as a model of successful school reform. It is repeatedly cited as one of America’s top high schools and the birthplace of the Professional Learning Communities at Work process.

About the Authors

Eric Twadell, PhD, is the superintendent of Adlai E. Stevenson High School District 125 in Lincolnshire, Illinois. Prior to his role as superintendent, Eric served Stevenson as a social studies teacher, curriculum director, and assistant superintendent for leadership and organizational development.

Eric earned a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and a doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies from Loyola University Chicago.

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Stevenson High School has received five National Blue Ribbon School Awards from the U.S. Department of Education, and is one of only eight schools to have won this award on five different occasions. Stevenson was also one of the first comprehensive schools that the U.S. Department of Education designated a New American High School as a model of successful school reform. The U.S. Department of Education has described Stevenson as “the most recognized and celebrated school in America.” In the popular press, Stevenson High School has been repeatedly cited as one of America’s top high schools and the birthplace of Professional Learning Communities at Work.

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In addition to his work as a teacher and leader, Eric has been involved in coaching numerous athletic teams and facilitating outdoor education and adventure travel programs. He is a member of many professional organizations, including Learning Forward and ASCD.

INTRODUCTION

Moving Beyond the Futility of PLC Lite

Although Stevenson achieved significant success by the early 2000s, there were times when the cycle of continuous improvement did not produce the expected results. The period of 2005–2010 was one such time. By 2005, Stevenson had all the foundational practices and protocols of a Model PLC, but the improvement cycle seemed to have stalled. There was a level of comfort with the way things were—and keep in mind, things were good! Teachers met every week in their curricular teams, articulated and taught a common curriculum, gave common formative and summative assessments, made data-based decisions on reteaching, and identified students for interventions. In short, we functioned just as you would expect a Model PLC at Work to function. However, a few of us felt that we had become complacent with the way things were, rather than embraced the way things could be.

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dlai E. Stevenson High School District 125 in Lincolnshire, Illinois, is a school many educators view as the gold standard for operating as a Professional Learning Community at Work® (PLC at Work). At one time, Stevenson was not a desirable place for parents to send their children to, but by the late 1990s, this school was transformed into one of the most successful and celebrated high schools in America. Under the leadership of Rick DuFour, the school culture shifted from one focused on teaching to one focused on learning. Stevenson’s educators (whom we count ourselves among) stopped working in isolation and began working in collaboration. We stopped measuring effectiveness based on intentions and instead focused on results. As of 2023, Stevenson has received numerous awards, has repeatedly been designated the best school district in America, and is one of only a select few schools to have received the U.S. Department of Education’s National Blue Ribbon School Award on five occasions. Because Stevenson was the laboratory for many of the original ideas of the PLC at Work process, the school is also known as the birthplace of the PLC movement.

By 2010, we realized we had an opportunity and responsibility to assess the “current facts and brutal reality” (Collins, 2002) of the teaching and learning process and our PLC at Stevenson High School. While others were recognizing us as a Model PLC at Work school, we felt we needed to dig deeper to move beyond our version of PLC Lite. Our collaborative teams began to look closer at our teaching and learning cycles; our assessment, feedback,

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BEYOND PLC LITE

and grading practices; and our tiers of interventions. What we found was that although our practices were very, very good, there was significant room for improvement.

The single most important realization we had during this close examination was that our assessment and grading practices were outdated. To be honest, assessing and grading students at Stevenson in 2010 looked a lot like we imagine it did when the school opened in 1965. We needed to change. We needed to shift from our traditional assessment and grading practices, which focused on accountability, punishment, and measures of central tendency, to an assessment and grading framework focused on self-efficacy, improvement, and evidence of learning.

Our traditional practices emphasized teaching explicit knowledge, facilitating teachercentered instructional practices, and focusing on summative assessment results. These traditional practices were running up against a time when technology and information were more powerful and pervasive than ever. Students carried phones and tablets with more information available on them than they could find in all the textbooks in the school combined.

We realized we needed to be more effective in meeting the evolving needs of our students.

Our challenge as leaders was to strike a balance between the growing need for change and the desire to support and respect the experiences and expertise of our teaching staff.

This began Stevenson’s journey to move beyond PLC Lite and dig deep into evidence-based teaching and learning practices by first going back to the basics and doubling down on uniting the three big ideas of a PLC. We find these core principles to be the most significant levers for school change, and they continue to serve as the foundation for our school’s culture of continuous growth and improvement. However, this does not make us immune to the inherent challenges of bringing about change. Even with our strong foundation, the change process can be an emotional roller coaster, often requiring individuals to confront difficult situations, overcome potential stigmatization, and address feelings of helplessness or a lack of control (Zmuda, Kuklis, & Kline, 2004).

Against that backdrop, this book aims to help teachers and leaders interested in moving beyond PLC Lite and learning how the PLC at Work process can support meaningful change and a focus on evidence-based teaching and learning practices utilizing a ten-action framework. Throughout the rest of this introduction, we will prime you for the information and

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To make this shift, our school’s leadership had to create learning opportunities for our teachers to explore their practices and their students’ challenges and complexities, and we had to create policies and practices grounded in agency development (Bandura, 2023). To do that, we needed to renew our focus and dig much deeper into the three big ideas of the PLC at Work process: (1) a focus on learning, (2) a collaborative culture, and (3) a results orientation (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, Many, & Mattos, 2016). Although we recognized the need for innovation and a shift to more student-centered teaching, learning, assessing, and grading, we were met with a lot of questions about making this change, and some resistance too. Significant change can be demanding and challenging, but thoughtful collaboration, a commitment to learning, and a focus on results helped us unite our work and lead our efforts beyond what Michael Fullan and Joanne Quinn (2015) describe as outdated instructional assessment and grading practices.

Introduction

essential actions to come by exploring the persistent knowing-doing gap in schools and the challenges schools must overcome to avoid the trap of PLC Lite. From there, we will offer additional insights about how to approach this book.

A Persistent Knowing-Doing Gap in Schools In their groundbreaking book The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge Into Action, Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton (2000) state: One of the great mysteries in organizational management is the disconnect between what we know and what we do. We have more knowledge than ever before about how to create effective organizations, but we still struggle to put that knowledge into practice. (p. 74)

A Relentless Commitment to the Status Quo There are many reasons for a culture of complacency, where inaction becomes the norm and new ideas and changes are ignored to keep things the way they are. These reasons include ignorance, fear, anxiety, lethargy, and apathy (Johnson, 2014), and they can keep people, groups, and institutions unrelenting in their commitment to the status quo.

Many schools of this century operate based on policies and practices that were used in schools over a hundred years prior. Schools need to look, feel, and work very different from the schools of the last century. Moving beyond PLC Lite involves recognizing that the traditional glacier-like pace of change in schools needs to be replaced with a process of innovation and iteration that results in a culture of continuous improvement. While we are not advocating for a reckless and haphazard approach to school improvement, we are suggesting that the time is now to make changes that will result in high levels of learning for all students.

Moving away from the status quo in school is not easy; this effort requires patience and persistence. We should heed the advice of our tech industry friends, who seemingly live by the motto, “Fail early, fail often, fail cheap, and fail forward.” PLC Lite is safe. Becoming a fully functioning PLC takes dedication, commitment, and a relentless pursuit of better, as we will show throughout this book.

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In other words, when we know what to do, why don’t we do it? There are many reasons why schools cannot close the knowing-doing gap and move beyond the “futility of PLC Lite” (Reeves & DuFour, 2016). Through our work with schools across North America, we’ve identified five challenges that schools commonly encounter when trying to move beyond PLC Lite: (1) a relentless commitment to the status quo, (2) the absence of a guaranteed and viable curriculum, (3) a failure to accurately define success, (4) a focus on “coblaboration” over collaboration, and (5) a focus on inputs more than outputs.

The Absence of a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum The original sin in most failed PLC efforts is a failure to clearly articulate a guaranteed and viable curriculum. A guaranteed and viable curriculum serves as the foundation of the PLC at Work process (DuFour et al., 2016). In Leaders of Learning, Richard DuFour and Robert J. Marzano (2011) recognize the curriculum gap that exists in many schools and suggest practices to close it:

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One of the most powerful things a school can do to help enhance student achievement is to guarantee that specific content is taught in specific courses and grade levels. This might seem obvious, but in actual practice, few districts and schools can make this guarantee. (p. 89)

They continue: The only way the curriculum in a school can truly be guaranteed is if the teachers themselves, those who are called upon to deliver the curriculum, have worked collaboratively to do the following: • Study the intended curriculum.

• Agree on priorities within the curriculum.

• Clarify how the curriculum translates into student knowledge and skills.

• Commit to one another that they will, in fact, teach the agreed-upon curriculum.

(DuFour & Marzano, 2011, p. 91)

While it is true that many schools have failed to develop and implement a guaranteed and viable curriculum, we are equally concerned (if not more so) that many schools have developed and implemented a curriculum that is no longer relevant for students in the 21st century. We see many districts and schools prioritize the transmission of information and knowledge and neglect the development of students’ skills, abilities, and understanding (Caplan, 2018; hooks, 2014; Tyler, 2013; Walker, 1971). A focus on content, memorization of facts, or explicit knowledge often occurs at the expense of the development of skills and a focus on implicit and tacit knowledge.

In chapter 4, we outline a skills-based approach to curriculum design, one that uses agencyrelevant skills as its anchor instead of content standards. We show how content standards support the development of enduring, life-ready skills that a student can use to build a sense of competence and agency.

A Failure to Accurately Define Success When you are moving out of PLC Lite, it can be difficult to measure student success. How do you know and define student success and make that success visible? The idea of success is difficult to define, and the relevance and equity of success metrics are hotly debated. In a widely cited book, Clayton M. Christensen, Michael B. Horn, and Curtis W. Johnson (2011) contend that “the world of education is one in which there is little agreement on what the goals are, let alone the methods that are best-suited to achieve them” (p. 6).

Notably, the most common proxies for success are defined by standardized tests. According to Adrian Wooldridge (2021), however, standardized tests have historically perpetuated inequality. Therefore, it is important to recognize that relying solely on standardized tests to measure success can perpetuate and exacerbate existing disparities in educational outcomes (Wooldridge, 2021). Focusing only on student achievement scores can also have negative consequences for students’ overall growth and well-being (Emdin, 2021; Kohn, 1999, 2004, 2011, 2015; Robinson & Aronica, 2019).

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• Establish general pacing guidelines for delivering the curriculum.

Introduction

At our own school, we have often thought that if all our students graduated with perfect ACT and SAT scores, had the highest GPA possible, and scored 5s on all their Advanced Placement (AP) exams but we wouldn’t invite them over for Sunday dinner with our grandparents, then we probably hadn’t done our job well enough. In other words, success isn’t just about academic achievement. Christopher Emdin (2021) emphasizes, “Test scores matter, but they don’t matter more than joy. Curriculum matters, but not if it erases the student and kills their passion. This work is about recovering the authentic self that reaches the authentic student” (p. 10).

As a result, we reestablished our belief that schools can and should prioritize students’ skills and social and emotional competencies instead of just test scores (Rose, 2016).

We recognized that a comprehensive education prepares students for real-life situations, not just exams and assessments (Emdin, 2016). In this book, we share our approach to evidence-based practices that prioritize student agency, efficacy, and belonging as essential to achieving a student-centered, holistic, and inclusive school.

A Focus on “Coblaboration” Over Collaboration In our experience, a chief cause of PLC Lite is the failure of some schools to move beyond so-called coblaboration to meaningful collaboration. One reason for this is that many educators synonymously use four terms—(1) congeniality, (2) cooperation, (3) coordination, and (4) collaboration—which mean very, very different things. The failure to move toward meaningful collaboration most often results from spending too much time focusing on congeniality, cooperation, and coordination.

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In our efforts to reimagine our teaching and learning practices, we were focused on developing both smart and good students. Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith (2015) point out that schools and communities tend to be obsessed with standardized testing and metrics, which actually end up hindering students’ intellectual growth, critical-thinking skills, and creativity. This narrow interpretation of achievement that focuses exclusively on grades and test scores can also result in reduced drive, less involvement, and increased stress and anxiety for students (Kohn, 1999; Pink, 2009). That was not the direction in which we wanted to move our school culture. We recognized we didn’t want to be a school that viewed students as numbers instead of unique individuals with different needs and strengths (Zhao, 2018b). We wanted to be better, do better, and rethink how we could approach our educational goals more holistically and more thoughtfully.

In his wonderful book Strengthening the Heartbeat: Leading and Learning Together in Schools, Thomas J. Sergiovanni (2005) writes: The emphasis on human relations management has resulted in the value of congeniality becoming very strong in the way schools are managed and led. Congeniality has to do with the climate of interpersonal relationships within an enterprise. When this climate is friendly, agreeable, and sympathetic, congeniality is high. Though congeniality is pleasant and often desirable, it is not independently linked to better performance and quality schooling. (p. 12)

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While reading the last line, one might think Sergiovanni (2005) has buried the lead.

Yes, congeniality is important. We should be nice, kind, caring, and supportive of one another. And we know school leaders spend considerable time and energy creating a school climate in which congeniality is high. However, Sergiovanni (2005) makes it clear that just because we are nice, kind, caring, and supportive of one another, it doesn’t necessarily mean that students will learn as a result.

In addition to believing that congeniality is important, we also believe that educators must understand the differences among cooperation, coordination, and collaboration. At a simple level, if we were to identify synonyms for cooperation, coordination, and collaboration, we might consider the following.

• Cooperation Æ sharing • Collaboration Æ interdependence A school with high levels of cooperation might have teachers sharing lesson plans, sharing ideas and strategies, and even sharing students for intervention. There is a school culture of openness and sharing when cooperation is high. In a school with high levels of coordination, we see teachers working together to identify essential standards, develop units of study, write common assessments, and plan for interventions. Both these things are important—sharing ideas and strategies and planning together are vital in becoming a Model PLC. We like to think cooperation and coordination are necessary but not sufficient for true collaboration.

Collaboration is very different. Richard DuFour and colleagues (2016) define collaboration as “a systematic 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 their school” (p. 12). In a school where collaboration is running high, we don’t just share ideas and practices, and we don’t just identify essential standards and write common assessments; we actually interdependently analyze the impact and the results of our work. In other words, we focus more on the output than the input.

A Focus on Inputs More Than Outputs A pervasive symptom of PLC Lite is an aversion to focusing on the actual evidence of student learning. Schools spend far too much time focusing on cooperation and coordination—focusing on the sharing and planning parts of the work. Although this work is important, we know teams that focus more on the outputs (the actual results) of their work will see higher levels of student learning and achievement.

As we work with schools across North America, we see many teachers working in teams to identify essential standards, develop proficiency scales, create common assessments, and plan for interventions. While all these actions are essential components of the PLC process, they are very much on the input side of the work. We consider them necessary but insufficient to move beyond PLC Lite. We prefer our teams to spend more time on the outputs

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• Coordination Æ planning

Introduction

of our work, using evidence of student learning and data to improve individual practice, enhance the work of teams, and facilitate student-specific interventions and supports.

By focusing on the actual evidence of student learning, collaborative teams and teachers put themselves in a stronger position to support students and one another, affirm their best practices, and gain new strategies and tools to help students learn at higher levels.

How to Read This Book

This book serves two purposes. First, it provides teachers and leaders with clear and compelling ideas and strategies for moving beyond PLC Lite. Second, and just as important, it presents a new evidence-based structure for developing a student-centered approach to teaching and learning within a PLC. In this book, we share our experiences, policies, and practices that draw on the work of researchers, authors, and practitioners who have emphasized placing students’ agency, efficacy, and well-being at the center.

Chapters 1 and 2 highlight the significance of having a clear change plan and a learning map and breaking the implementation process into manageable stages (actions). The remaining chapters function as a detailed outline of how to develop and implement evidencebased teaching and learning using a ten-action framework.

Chapters 3–11 are each devoted to one essential action for collaborative teams to extend beyond PLC Lite. Chapter 3 explores how to strive for the success of every student by defining success through the lens of a PLC. Chapter 4 discusses how different types of knowledge inform curriculum, explores different curriculum structures, and addresses common obstacles to collaborative curriculum design. Chapter 5 guides readers in how to create scales and rubrics that focus on student skills, with a particular emphasis on competency-focused and conventional rubrics. Chapter 6 provides strategies for designing formative and summative assessments and countering assessment models that are unproductive. Chapter 7 discusses how to establish a skills-focused scope and sequence to assist in long-term knowledge retention. Chapter 8 explains the gradual release of responsibility model and why it encourages meaningful participation. Chapter 9 covers both evidence-based grading and reporting systems and the drawbacks to conventional grading practices. Chapter 10 explores how to incorporate a balanced feedback approach that equally considers the teacher’s and students’ perspectives and experiences. Finally, chapter 11 explains how to evaluate diverse student feedback and examines the four critical questions of intervention: (1) What is the student’s current learning story? (2) How can you substantiate their story? (3) Have you

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Closing the knowing-doing gap and moving beyond PLC Lite are demanding yet doable. Schools face a significant challenge in what Jim Collins (2002) describes as the “good to great” problem. To paraphrase Collins (2002), a big obstacle to creating great schools is there are already quite a few good schools. Many schools are comfortable with being good. When things are already good, or even just pretty good, schools often lack the incentive and drive to move beyond PLC Lite. This book is for those teachers and leaders who are interested in disrupting the status quo, busting out of PLC Lite, and persistently pursuing a culture of continuous improvement.

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