2021 Summer AllThingsPLC Magazine

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PLC M A G A Z I N E Summer 2021

re·cov·er·y /r ’k v( )rē/

1. a return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength.

2. the action of regaining possession or control of something stolen or lost.

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PLC M A G A Z I N E

Summer 2021

Features Compassionate Communication Versus Compassion Fatigue Jeff Sefcik and Erica Barraza

How to approach parents and guardians as we collectivly walk

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through the trauma left by the pandemic.

Reigniting Teaching & Learning Erica Barraza and Amanda Lorenz

After COVID-19’s impact on education, how do you reignite conversations grounded in the four critical questions of PLC?

Working With Students, Not On Students Nana Ito and Chris Weber

Practical steps to help students foster a postive mindset.

The Westmont High School Story Jack Baldermann

One of the most improved and top-performing schools in the country.

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To o l s & R e s o u rc e s fo r I n s p i ra t i o n a n d E xce l l e n ce

First Thing

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Now what?

Learning Champion

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Aspasia Angelou and her passion for learning.

PLC Clinic

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Are PLCs just an exercise in semantics?

Skill Shop

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Unit planning.

The Recommender

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Student engagement.

Research Report

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Which comes first, strong teams or teacher collective efficacy?

Why I Love PLCs Dedication to collective commitments.

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PLC M A G A Z I N E

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First Thing

Now What?

Troy Gobble

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SOLUTION TREE: CEO Jeffrey C. Jones

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PRESIDENT Edmund M. Ackerman SOLUTION TREE PRESS:

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PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER Douglas M. Rife ART DIRECTOR Rian Anderson PAGE DESIGNERS Laura Cox, Abigail Bowen, Kelsey Hergül, Rian Anderson

AllThingsPLC (ISSN 2476-2571 [print], 2476-258X [Online]) is published four times a year by Solution Tree Press.

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AllThingsPLC Magazine/Summer 2021

T

he last year has changed education in ways we would never have imagined. School and home became one and the same for both teachers and students. Many teachers had to learn how to develop lessons for in-person students and remote students at the same time. Nearly every teacher had to learn how to build interactive lessons when students had to stay six feet apart. Learning seemed to slow down for many of our students. The entire education system was turned on its head for much of the last year. How do we move forward after this experience?

As I began planning for the 2021–22 school year, I realized the answer was literally two feet in front of me, my laptop. Have you ever been working on your computer and the system slowed down and started acting wonky? The simplest solution is often a reboot or a return to the factory settings.

There is no doubt in my mind that a reboot is required in many of our school cultures. What if we use this opportunity to return to our professional learning community factory settings? When schools are just starting out on their PLC journey, I often share with them the basic outcomes of effective collaborative meetings. Curricular teams should be focused on these four outcomes: common learning expectations, common assessments, critical analysis of student data,

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and taking action to improve student learning. A return to these fundamental PLC principles will help ease our transition back to regular school.

Common Learning Expectations Each course and grade level has made challenging decisions over the past year about what is truly essential. Changing modes of instruction from remote to hybrid to in-person slowed down the instructional process in many cases and forced teams to make difficult decisions about what to teach.

This presents a great opportunity to reboot our learning expectations for the upcoming year. Each grade level or course team will need to meet with the previous grade level or course team to determine which essential learnings were covered and what will have to be supplemented going forward. Vertical articulation of course content and skills has never been more important as we transition back to a sense of normality.

Common Assessments Remote and hybrid learning was a struggle for some of our students, with many checking out for at least a portion of the past year’s learning. We cannot begin next year without knowing what learning gaps exist for each student. Teams should begin next year with a solid plan for implementing frequent, team-developed common formative assessments (CFAs) to help teachers and teams better understand where each student is in their learning.

What should these CFAs look like? We don’t have a lot of instructional time to spare, so these assessments should be a quick and short cycle. They might be a bell-ringer activity to start class or an exit slip for the last 10 minutes of class. These assessments should be low stakes for students, having minimal impact on their grade.

The CFA should be focused only on the essential learnings from the previous class and should provide specific feedback to the team, the teacher, and the student. This baseline information will be critical as the teams meet to determine how to move forward.

Critical Analysis of Student Data Once teachers have collected the baseline assessment data from their students, they will need to meet together to discuss the current state of learning in their classes. Teams will need to be ready to take an honest look at what the data say.

• What patterns exist across all students in the class?

• Are the students ready to engage with the course as you have always taught it?

• What gaps exist in their learning that will directly impact their future success in this class?

• Identify students who are in serious need of remediation.

• Identify students who have mastered the material and are ready to be pushed at an accelerated pace.

The most successful teams and teachers will use a data protocol to guide these conversations and support one another in making decisions on how to improve both their instructional practice and student learning.

Taking Action After we understand where students are in their learning, it is up to our teachers and curriculum teams to determine how we will reboot our teaching and learning efforts for these students.

Which standards and learning targets do we need to reteach? Are there patterns in evidence that will inform our individual and collective work? How will we provide more time and support for students who need it? Are there practices that we found to be effective during remote learning and hybrid learning?

Rebooting our PLC cultures will require us to revisit the three big ideas of learning, collaboration, and results and force us to bring a newfound focus to the four fundamental questions: What do we want students to know and be able to do? How will we know when they have learned it? How will we respond if students have not learned yet? How will we respond when students have already learned it? While the past year has put tremendous stress on our educational systems, schools that are working to implement a professional learning community culture will be in the best position to support curriculum teams, teachers, and students as we navigate the return back to normality.

Summer 2021/AllThingsPLC Magazine

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Working With Students,

Not On Students

By Nana Ito and Chris Weber We are educators in Irvine, California—a classroom teacher leader and a curriculum and instruction director—who have passionately recommitted to eliminating inequities in access and achievement in education, in our district, and in our classrooms. Our research and practice have convinced us that shifting teacher and student mindsets is vital to ensuring equity for all. In this article, we share what we’re doing, where we are, and how we got there.

We believe that the greatest challenge facing schools is the inequities of achievement among ethnic, socioeconomic, and linguistic subgroups. We can predict the achievement of a student at the beginning of school years with unfortunate certainty based on the subgroup of the student. While neither teachers nor administrators intended for this to occur, the disparities in access and achievement are nonetheless the tragic reality.

Thus, the most critical goal for schools is ensuring the equities of achievement among ethnic, socioeconomic, and linguistic subgroups. This is the overwhelmingly urgent responsibility of teachers and administrators today.

In our classrooms and schools, we recognize that eliminating these inequities will require that we refine our courses, instruction, assessment and grading practices, and systems of supports. And increasingly, we have evidence that a primary cause of inequities is the absence of positive mindsets among students who are not yet experiencing success. Like it or not, our practices, policies, actions, and words contribute to students’ mindsets, self-efficacies, and the possession or absence of non-cognitive skills, particularly among students who are not yet experiencing success.

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By mindsets, we embrace the definition of Farrington and colleagues (2012).

Students with a positive mindset believe that: 1.

Their ability and competence grow with effort—commonly known as a growth mindset.

2.

They belong in the academic community. They “see” themselves in the school, the classroom, and the course.

3.

They can succeed. They believe that their success is possible, even inevitable; they possess high levels of self-efficacy.

4.

The work has value for them. They see value, purpose, and relevance in the curriculum, assignments, instructional practices, assessments, and grading; they have high levels of agency.

We will share specific examples of efforts we have made in our schools and classrooms to positively impact student mindsets. It starts with examining and shifting our own mindsets.

Luckily, there are psychologists and thought leaders, past and present, who provide guidance that can inform and inspire our efforts. We’ll start with contemporary experts before referencing two of the most influential schools of psychology in American history.

Teaching as a Cultural Transaction In our opinion, nurturing positive mindsets in students— and practicing positive mindsets as adults—is only possible if we embrace culturally responsive practices. Luckily, there are several thought leaders—including Lisa Delpit (2006), Muhammad Khalifa (2018), Pedro Noguera (2008), and Beverly Daniel Tatum (2017)—who have researched, written, and put into action practices that have the potential to eliminate inequities.

Random efforts to create more inclusive environments are not enough. Consistent and intentionally designed schoolwide and classroom environments that systematically disrupt existing structures are necessary. The guidance from thought leaders suggests several practices, each of which promote positive student mindsets, while also requiring positive adult mindsets.

These thought leaders emphasize the importance of honoring student identities and ensuring that all students and identities are fully included and represented within the curriculum, the instruction, every classroom, the staff, and all aspects of the school. These inclusive, humanizing practices are important for all and will benefit all. And, they are critically important for historically marginalized and minoritized students, whether they have been marginalized on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, immigration status, home language, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

In addition to ensuring that learning communities are welcoming, there is consensus on the need to disrupt power hierarchies. This includes within the classroom (elevating student voice, choice, and agency) and within the broader school community, ensuring that students, parents, communities, and staff are empowered to fully contribute to the school ecosystem.

We recognize the work of Paulo Freire (1972) in these recommendations, ensuring that we teach the way that students learn and fully committing to the essential importance of establishing powerful and positive relationships between students and students, students and staff, staff and parents, and among all staff members. This includes staff learning about the lives, needs, and wants of the students, families, and communities they serve. Students won’t care to know until they know we care.

In addition to relational factors, there is a recognized need to examine and transform curriculum and instructional practices so that they are more relevant and meaningful to students, students’ learning needs, and students’ lives—a recognition of teaching as a cultural transaction.

The goal is complete and total equity in access. The goal is complete and total equity in achievement.

Our current practices, both good and perhaps not so good, were informed to a significant extent by behaviorism and humanism. They have served, and continue to serve, as a foundation for teacher education programs. We believe that there is quite a lot to learn from a review of and reflection on these schools of thought. While aspects of behaviorism and humanism are out of step with contemporary needs and realities, it’s possible that we perhaps have not fully understood or correctly applied these -isms.

Behaviorism The theoretical and practical foundations that most educators received within teacher education programs were grounded in behaviorism and the work of B. F. Skinner (1971). While behaviorism promotes practices that work on students instead of working with students (to elevate identities, increase agency, and nurture positive mindsets), in some ways this philosophy of teaching and learning might have been misunderstood and misapplied. There are elements of behaviorism that are in alignment with our more contemporary understandings of empowering students.

Behaviorism considers that human action depends on consequences of previous actions. If the consequences are bad, there is a high probability that the action will not be repeated; if the consequences are good, the probability of the action being repeated becomes stronger. Behaviorism believes that effective teaching must be based on positive reinforcement, deemed to be more effective at changing and establishing behavior than punishments. Without full knowledge of behaviorism, teachers often rely on practices for which there is little evidence of success:

• • •

Using aversive techniques.

•

Forgetting to provide positive reinforcement frequently enough.

Relying on telling and explaining.

Neglecting to adapt learning tasks to the student’s current readiness levels.

In other words, there is a lack of effective differentiation, a reliance on lecturing as a content-delivery system, a focus on control and negative reinforcers, and teacher-centered learning environments.

Behaviorism offers these steps for effective teaching and learning:

1.

Clearly specify the action or performance the student is to learn.

2.

Break down tasks into small achievable steps, going from simple to complex.

3.

Let the student perform each step, reinforcing correct actions.

4.

Adjust so that the student is successful until finally the goal is reached.

5.

Shift to intermittent reinforcement to maintain the student’s performance.

The teaching and learning of academic skills and management of student behaviors that are often attributed to behaviorism may be misapplications of this -ism. And yet, even when viewed in its best light, behaviorism tends to work on students and not with students. There is another school of thought that may be more closely aligned to contemporary thinking.

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Humanism Humanism, like behaviorism, has served as a framework for teacher education and what we do in schools. Humanism, and the works of Carl Rogers (1969), rests on the belief that all students naturally strive to actualize and enhance their learning experiences. Therefore, the most productive perspective for understanding students is from the internal frame of reference of the student. Behaviors are the goal-directed attempts of students to satisfy their needs in any given situation.

A student’s emotions inform all behaviors. Behavior is communication. As students experience life, they either (a) organize the experience in relation to self, (b) ignore the experience because there is no perceived relationship to self, or (c) reject the experience because it is inconsistent with the self. The way that a student behaves is directly connected to their concept of self.

Humanism presumes the positive in students, accepting students without negative judgment about their life conditions and background. Educators who put humanism into practice:

• •

Inspire students to adopt an openness to experience.

•

Allow personality and self-concept to be shaped by experience.

•

Trust students, so that students trust their own judgment and their ability.

Encourage an increasingly existential lifestyle—living each moment fully.

Are PLCs Just an Exercise in Semantics?

I recently had a conversation with an administrator who used the term semantics a couple of times in our discussion of the implementation of PLCs and collaborative groups. Another concept I found concerning was that the adoption of high-functioning PLCs in a district will always involve a blending of the top-down structure and the PLC groups. So I thought I would intentionally ask a rather loaded question and see what kind of responses I get from anyone who is interested in sharing their understanding.

Here is my question: When the concept of forming PLCs came on the scene, was it offered as an alternative to the more traditional top-down organizational structure, or was it offered as a new way to organize small, collaborative groups more effectively, within the existing organizational structure? In other words, would it be more effective if the whole building was recognized as one PLC, or are PLCs simply a more clearly defined and better organized form of small collaborative groups within the building?

Or better yet, does it matter?

A

In a school, the PLC is the entire staff. This organization is choosing to learn together about what steps they can take to ensure learning for all of their students. Each collaborative team has a role in that process. So, for example, the PLC (school) sets a goal of increasing student learning in the area of reading.

Then, each team develops a goal and an action plan to make sure that the students they serve are being taught and assessed on the standards we know will make them better readers. In a middle school, that might look like each of the content areas exploring disciplinary literacy and making sure they are teaching students to read text in their content area.

Rick DuFour (one of the original architects of the process) always emphasized that it was important we not refer to collaborative teams as PLCs so that educators understood that in a true PLC the totality of their work is intended to improve student learning—rather than the hour a week a collaborative team meets.

A

Just to add on to what was shared, Rick used to always say that “collaborative teams are the engines that drive a PLC.” That phrase has always resonated with me and helped me make sense of the question you asked.

I also wanted to let you know that the PLC at Work process as we know it today was not created in order to be an alternative to top-down structures. The PLC process was born as an approach to maximize student learning in the school setting—based not only on research, but also on tangible evidence. Every aspect of the process is not based on what someone likes or thinks might be a good idea; rather, it is based on a body of research of what supports student learning best and evidence from schools that have done the right work.

Lastly, and I am not sure if I have this right, but if the conversation you had was a “it’s all semantics anyway” sort of thing, I would beg to differ. That sort of thinking usually is a school or district that is primarily PLC-Lite, where we have collaborative time, but teams are not focused on the right work. Teams being on the same page with what this process is and what the teamwork entails is essential. That is why having the same understanding of the PLC vocabulary is so vital. The “it’s all semantics” comment can be a cop-out for not focusing on the right work and having high expectations for teams.

Adapted from an exchange in the AllThingsPLC Community Forum (www.allthingsplc.info/forums).

Visit the following exchange, and add your own questions or suggestions: https://www.allthingsplc.info /forums/topic/379/are-plc-s-just-an-exercize-in-semantics Summer 2021/AllThingsPLC Magazine

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, ound ight s m a ? e k r o n id s it w OD a nal t doe u W GO b O uctio , r H s t s e R Y in “ E , y T AT know om, m ollect NO M ant to lassro w c s y r ten c e m ect ition als of ff earch ip a c ly in pract e rly res d pr la n o ositiv a PLCs h p c s it r akes but s Can ache m , e t ls T a o ” to o wh ice? riefly er sch rstanding pract you b m oth e e o d r . c f n e u u s ic introd storie tes to pract ers n will ntribu Cs in o m L ymak c u P c l t li o o u o c o p als s b i d a h ively, ch s an tive. T effect ague esear e r e r ll effec y o o r c a m h mpor work is wit conte PLCs nops y e s wn. k a is th your o to m n w o o Share e h r r o onde arn m who w eeper to le ig d and d

WHICH COMES FIRST STRONG TEAMS OR TEACHER COLLECTIVE EFFICACY? The Study

Heather K. Dillard

Voelkel, R. H., & Chrispeels, J. H. (2017). Understanding the link between professional learning communities and teacher collective efficacy. School Effectiveness and School Improvement. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2017.1299015.

The link between professional learning communities and teacher collective efficacy (TCE) has been the focus of numerous studies.

Various researchers have tried to determine if being a member of a collaborative team within a PLC increased TCE or vice versa. Contradicting findings suggest the question is similar to the chicken-and-egg paradox, leaving many to assume that either could be argued as the cause of the other. Voelkel and Chrispeels’s 2017 article brings closure to the question and presents findings for their claim that increased TCE is an effect of participating in a high-functioning PLC. In an effort to analyze the relationship between TCE and specific PLC characteristics, researchers conducted a mixed-method study of one California school district 46

AllThingsPLC Magazine/Summer 2021

serving 10,200 diverse students. This district had experienced significant gains in both English language arts and mathematics in the California state assessments over the previous five years. During that time, the district had devoted both time and resources to the training of administration and teachers on the Professional Learning Communities at Work model. This training included workshops by Richard DuFour and other PLC at Work associates over the course of three years. Additionally, there were no other new reforms introduced in the first four years of implementing PLCs districtwide.

Research participants included 310 teachers and administrators from 16 of the 19 schools in the district. Quantitative data collection focused on the levels of implementation of PLC characteristics and the level of TCE. Qualitative components of the study measured the perception of teachers regarding their work as well as that of the school leadership between high- and low-functioning teams.

Research Report

The Findings Data analysis showed that both the PLC mean scores and TCE were high across all schools.

Findings indicated the existence of a strong positive correlation between highfunctioning PLCs and their level of perceived collective efficacy. The authors state, “These results demonstrate that the presence of PLC characteristics is a predictor of higher levels of perceived teacher collective efficacy.” For instance, a collaborative team with a strong agreement about collective goals showed greater group competence and task analysis. This was an indicator of increased TCE. Similar results were indicated when teams showed a focus on results to analyze and then use student data in their collaborative meetings.

The researchers propose one reason previous research findings indicated that TCE was predictive of stronger PLCs may have been because these PLCs were early adopters and therefore had not fully implemented professional learning community characteristics. For this reason, Voelkel and Chrispeels suggest the need for school leaders to measure the teachers’ ability to assess student data and draw inferences about their past and future instructional practices based on student work. Additionally, they suggest a need for school leaders to support their struggling teams by assisting them in proper goal setting, analyzing student work, understanding the connection between instruction and student outcomes, and determining next instructional steps.

Implications for PLCs PLC at Work literature repeatedly outlines the ways school leaders can ensure high levels of learning for their students by providing specific and appropriate adult learning for each teacher in their building. Just as teachers are instructed to consider the learning needs of their students on a skill-by-skill and kid-by-kid basis, school leaders should use the same approach team by team, teacher by teacher.

It is not sufficient for leaders to simply place teachers into collaborative teams. The act of collaborating has no virtue in and

of itself. Results occur when teachers collaborate on the right work. In so doing, student outcomes increase as does the efficacy of the teachers.

“Fostering Collective Efficacy” is the concluding chapter in the book The School Leader’s Guide to Professional Learning Communities at Work (DuFour & DuFour, 2012). This chapter explains that beliefs and emotions are contagious, including the leader’s belief in their own ability to make a difference in student learning. Leaders are instructed to ensure specific PLC components are in place in order to help teachers become “more likely to believe in their ability to make a difference” (DuFour & DuFour, 2012, p. 86). For teacher teams to be fully functioning and also increase their efficacy levels, leaders should ensure teachers are working collaboratively with a shared vision to address what students are to learn and what learning looks like, SMART goals are collaboratively created and pursued as student progress is tracked, a systematic process for interventions and remediations is utilized, and short-term wins are celebrated publicly (DuFour & DuFour, 2012). Systematically following the research-proven PLC at Work processes causes students to grow academically. Experiencing this growth will lead to greater confidence in the teachers’ abilities to have a positive impact.

Reference DuFour, R., & DuFour, R. (2012). The school leader’s guide to Professional Learning Communities at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

HEATHER K. DILLARD, associate professor at Middle Tennessee State University, teaches the Schools as Professional Learning Communities course in the Assessment, Learning, and School Improvement Doctoral Program.

Why I Love PLCs Dedication to Collective Commitments KRISTEN BORDONARO The PLC life has so many advantages, all leading toward greater achievement for the students entrusted into our care. This past pandemic year has been a challenge for sure, and more times than we would like to admit, many of us questioned “What next?” Each time a new curveball was thrown, we could feel the impact on staff.

During one particular virtual meeting, we shared news we believed would not be received well, and while there were hesitations, the piece that stood out was the number of positive comments, texts, and messages from our staff along the themes of “This is why we are here; this is what we do!” The final messages that solidified the moment for us were along the lines of “Thank you for doing what is best for students and working tirelessly to keep us safe.” You may ask, “What does this have to do with a PLC?” It’s not about assessments, curriculum, data, or even collaboration.

However, it is about the dedication our staff has to our collective commitments and our values as an organization.

Our necessary work toward providing a guaranteed and viable curriculum, data collection, and collaboration can’t happen at the highest levels if our four pillars of mission, vision, values, and goals are not solidified as our strongest foundation.

We can’t achieve great things for our students if we are not all insanely clear on who we are, why we are here, and how we behave. Each member of the organization must be able to answer the question “How do we behave to create the school that will achieve our purpose?” Each of us must be able to have the clarity and 48

AllThingsPLC Magazine/Summer 2021

understanding of our purpose so that we can make meaningful contributions in the daily life of schools.

As a special education collaborative consisting entirely of specialized staff members supporting multiple districts, it can be easy for us to become silos. However, the reliance on our collective commitments to support the whole child through a collaborative team-based approach is essential in closing the knowingdoing gap and ensuring high levels of learning for all students. We often find ourselves going back to our collective commitments and not only reviewing them but also evaluating whether there is a clear and consistent correlation between what we say and how we behave.

We could not say, “Yes, we want all students to learn at high levels” if we were not willing to do the hard work to provide the opportunities for all students to access learning, especially during a pandemic. We often found ourselves asking if we were looking out windows or in the mirror. It is our responsibility to continually be willing to accept the challenge and the reality that educating students during a pandemic is within our reach and we can take action and refuse to engage in the “if only” thought process. When we focus on what we do control and what we can control, we allow ourselves to embrace the magic of teaching and create meaningful learning opportunities that are designed to create high levels of learning, regardless of the situation.

Working within a high-functioning PLC allows us to work alongside others who share our collective commitments.

This allows everyone within the organization to have a crystal clear understanding of what we do, why we do it, and what it will look like when we are honoring these commitments. Many districts can adopt curriculum, collect data, and promote collaborative teams. However, when you have the strong pillars of a PLC as your foundation, it creates an atmosphere that lives and breathes the commitments. As we attempt to look into the future of what next school year could look like, we know that regardless of what will come, our collaborative commitments will be our rock in ensuring we are facilitating high levels of learning for all students.

This is why I love PLCs. When everyone is committed to our vision and wants to not only talk the talk but visibly walk the walk, you are surrounded by teammates who will stop at nothing to ensure success!

KRISTEN BORDONARO is a special education administrator working in Vernon Hills, Ill. She has spent her educational career working to improve instructional opportunities to help all students learn and grow at high levels.

AllThingsPLC Magazine | Summer 2021

Discussion Questions Use this convenient tear-out card to go over and reinforce the topics discussed in this issue with the members of your team.

Compassionate Communication Versus Compassion Fatigue (p. 6) 1. What did you learn from the principal’s perspective about compassionate

communication?

2. What did you learn from the instructional coach’s perspective about

compassion fatigue?

3. How can you reconcile the two perspectives to build relationships with

coworkers, students, and families?

Reigniting Teaching & Learning (p. 12) 1. What was the greatest challenge your school faced during the pandemic?

What steps did you take to meet that challenge?

2. In what ways can your team use the T&L Cycle to ensure the needs of

all students are being met? How will you ensure your team has a deep understanding of the T&L Cycle?

3. What is your team’s plan for utilizing the T&L Cycle on a regular basis?

Working With Students, Not On Students (p. 18) 1. How is teaching a cultural transaction?

2. In what ways do behaviorism and humanism promote working on

students? How do they promote working with students?

3. What are some of the negative mindsets you have seen in your students?

In what ways might you have unintentionally contributed to those negative mindsets?

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AllThingsPLC Magazine | Summer 2021

Refresher Course Because everyone needs a reminder now and again.

The 3 Big Ideas of a PLC 1. FOCUS ON LEARNING 2. BUILD A COLLABORATIVE CULTURE 3. FOCUS ON RESULTS

1

The fundamental purpose of the school is to ensure high levels of learning for all students. This focus on learning translates into four critical questions that drive the daily work of the school. In PLCs, educators demonstrate their commitment to helping all students learn by working collaboratively to address the following critical questions: 1. What do we want students to learn? What should each student know and be able to do as a result of each unit, grade level, and/or course?

2. How will we know if they have learned? Are we monitoring each student’s learning on a timely basis?

3. What will we do if they don’t learn? What systematic process is in place to provide additional time and support for students who are experiencing difficulty?

2 3

4. What will we do if they already know it?

• No school can help all students achieve at high levels if teachers work in isolation.

• Schools improve when teachers are given the time and support to work together to clarify essential student learning, develop common assessments for learning, analyze evidence of student learning, and use that evidence to learn from one another.

• PLCs measure their effectiveness on the basis of results rather than intentions.

• All programs, policies, and practices are continually assessed on the basis of their impact on student learning.

• All staff members receive relevant and timely information on their effectiveness in achieving intended results.

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