PLC things all
Volume 9, Issue 3
Features
The Four Ds of Special Education
Tania Amerson
Data, design, delivery, demeanor.
8
Summer
Timothy D. Kanold
Finding JOY in a season of rest!
Shared Leadership Versus Shared Leadership Facade
Jasmine Kullar
The importance of training teacher leaders.
14
21
Platteville High School
Jacob Crase and Brad Brogley
A journey of growth and collaboration.
35
Tools & Resources
PLC things all MAGAZINE First Thing
2
SOLUTION TREE:
CEO
8
Cameron Rains
Leading a High-Impact Team in a Professional Learning Community
PRESIDENT & COO
Edmund M. Ackerman
12
SOLUTION TREE PRESS:
PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER
Michelle Marrillia
Kendra Slayton
18
ART DIRECTOR
Rian Anderson
PAGE DESIGNERS
Laura Cox
Abigail Bowen
Kelsey Hergül
Fabiana Cochran
Rian Anderson
AllThingsPLC (ISSN 2476-2571 [print], 2476-258X [Online]) is published four times a year by Solution Tree Press.
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As an educator in my veteran era, I’ve come to appreciate the critical role of team leaders in a professional learning community. I remember highlighting the sentence “Widely dispersed leadership is essential in building and sustaining PLCs” in an early edition of Learning by Doing and understanding how pivotal this would be for the success of our school. In 2010, we built our PLC from the ground up, setting up collaborative teams and assigning team leaders. However, we soon recognized that strong team leadership required more than teaching experience or content expertise. Team success hinges on three essential actions facilitated by the team leader: establish clarity, cultivate ownership, and sustain momentum. Let’s explore each in detail.
Action 1: Establish Clarity
To build high-impact teams in a PLC, team leaders must take steps to ensure the team collaborates meaningfully. Collaboration is a fundamental tenet of the PLC process and, when done correctly, leads to better student outcomes. So why is it so hard to get it right? Most commonly, teams lack clarity about why they collaborate and the expectations for learning together.
Key Move: Connect your team’s purpose to the mission and vision of the school. Create time with your team to discuss the following:
How does our collaboration align with the school’s mission?
How does our team’s work support the school’s vision?
What collective commitments will guide our work?
What speci c goals will de ne our success?
After re ecting on these questions, the team can create shared agreements for its role in advancing the school’s mission. In a PLC, we call these collective commitments. For example, if the school’s mission is “to ensure all students learn at grade level or higher,” then the collective commitment of the geometry team may be to “provide targeted interventions for all students not meeting pro ciency on the essential learning targets.” Team leaders will leverage the collective commitments to ground the team in
meaningful work to improve student learning.
Once teams establish their collective commitments, the next step is ensuring collaboration remains focused and productive. Team leaders must help their team set clear expectations for collaboration. I don’t know who rst said, “Hope is not a strategy,” but, oh, how true it is. High-impact teams need a process for setting these expectations, not just hope that collaboration will happen. You guessed it, we need norms. Without norms, we risk letting our valuable team time turn into another meeting or, even worse, a meeting lled with frustration and anxiety. As my colleague Bill Ferriter reminds us, “Norms are the actions we take to honor our peers.” An e ective team leader ensures norms aren’t just a one-time task but part of team culture.
Action 2: Cultivate Ownership
While action 1 gives teams clarity, action 2 aims to help teams move from participation to authentic engagement by fostering investment in the PLC process. Team leaders cultivate this ownership by clarifying team roles and facilitating the goal-setting process.
e rst step is explicitly clarifying team roles and responsibilities. Without role clarity, some team members will inevitably shoulder more work and others will become passive participants, creating a short path to resentment and exasperation.
Key Move: Determine team roles by asking the following questions:
What are the most important tasks to move our team forward?
Who is best suited to take the lead for this task at this time?
Which roles should be rotated versus consistent?
Are roles driving student improvement?
How will we hold one another accountable for the tasks?
When roles are clear, the next step is ensuring all members work toward the same goal. e shared goal keeps teams focused and creates accountability. Team leaders guide teams in developing a SMART goal (specific, measurable, attainable, results oriented, time-bound) to ensure the team is working toward the same e ort. SMART goals help teams move from compliance-driven tasks to actionable plans for student learning. Notice the di erence between these two goals:
1. We will meet weekly and review data.
2. By May 2026, the percentage of third-grade students meeting or exceeding grade-level pro ciency in reading will increase from 79 percent
to 89 percent through targeted small-group instruction, emphasizing phonemic awareness, uency, and comprehension strategies. We will monitor through formative assessments, district unit exams, and quarterly benchmark data.
e rst goal doesn’t encourage collaboration or focus on student learning. However, the second goal requires the full force of the team to own the plan, engage in the data, and collaborate around the best instructional strategies for student learning. A savvy team leader will facilitate the team conversations around this goal, using the four critical learning questions of a PLC to guide the team.
Action 3: Sustain Momentum
While clarity and ownership are essential, establishing structures and strengthening collaboration alone aren’t enough to sustain lasting success. Action 3 requires teacher leaders to facilitate continuous improvement and ensure the team uses data to drive decisions and inform the next steps.
A key hurdle for leaders is shifting data mindsets from a measure of failure to a tool for growth. When teachers feel judged, they resist the process, but meaningful data re ection will drive instructional improvement.
Key Move: Team leaders can create a healthy data culture by asking these questions:
Are we making decisions based on evidence or assumptions?
Do we use data to improve student learning or evaluate teacher performance?
Is our data leading to action?
As an instructional coach, I have seen this phase challenge even the most skilled team leaders. One leader I worked with felt defeated because not every student met their goals. But when we looked at her students’ incredible progress, she realized that her team’s targeted e orts were making a real difference. e lesson? Momentum comes from progress, not perfection. Let your data tell your story, celebrate the wins (even the small ones), and keep moving forward. After all, we aren’t running a sprint; we are in this for the marathon.
Final Thoughts
Team leadership is not about having all the answers but guiding teams to ask the right questions. In a PLC, intentional and collaborative leadership transforms team time from just another meeting to an opportunity for continuous improvement. When we empower teacher leaders, we don’t just create high-impact teams; we build stronger schools and transform student learning.
of Special Education Four Ds The
TANIA AMERSON
“I became a special education teacher because I love developing compliant individualized education programs,” said no special education teacher ever. Many of us entered this eld because we had an experience in either our own education or with someone dear to us that involved facing a challenge in learning or succeeding in school. We wanted to help these students overcome these challenges and succeed in life. However, as we entered special education, we quickly discovered that compliance is a driving force within the school systems in which we work. Lack of compliance can lead to litigation, which is costly for the school system in time, resources, and funding; erodes trust between the school and parents; and discourages teachers from remaining in the eld.
e Individuals with Disabilities Education Act sets forth procedures to be followed when developing and implementing individualized education programs (IEPs). ese procedures are designed to
ensure that each student with a disability receives a free and appropriate public education. When procedures are not followed, it can lead to litigation. e pressure to maintain compliance can lead us into the compliance trap: compliance for the sake of compliance. We write IEPs that contain all the necessary components. We meet the timelines. We check all the appropriate boxes. We provide services and measure progress but fail to make the connection between the IEP and what happens daily in our classrooms. We can lose sight of the target—student learning and improved student outcomes—as we focus on ensuring compliant IEPs. How can we move past compliance for the sake of compliance to compliance for the sake of outcomes? When PLCs focus on the four Ds of IEPs, we will be on our way toward reaching this goal.
"We can lose sight of the target—student learning and improved student outcomes—as we focus on ensuring compliant IEPs."
SUMMER Finding JOY in a Season
You made it. Another full school year has come and gone. Another year of teaching stacked onto your career. Having given your best throughout the year, the product (your masterpiece for the school year) is the result of your thousands of day-to-day interactions, decisions, connections, revisions, interventions, collaborations, discussions, creations, and more. And it has been your unique story.
SUMMER of Rest!
e school year that recently ended most likely feels like it was both fast and slow. It was a long nine to ten months. And yet, it is over, already. Where did the time go, you think. Your role as a steward of success for every student entrusted to you feels like a race well run. You made it to the finish line! You think, Now what? You let go. Your students have moved on. Summer awaits. After all, another school year, another starting line, is just around the calendar corner.
But first, you get to rest
Your sleep quality will be better, your energy will be increased, your daily aches and pains will diminish, your creativity will return, and your work productivity will be enhanced when you begin that next school year just waiting around the corner (Pang, 2018).
e summer sun and the warm embrace of June and July welcome you. e hours of extra daylight provide the time needed to unwind, explore, and spend quality time with others. Your brain and your body get a reset. You plot your path for the joy journey ahead.
What makes your life a story of joy? I asked this question every summer as my school years began to stack up. One summer season after another rolled by on the calendar. I learned a few things along the way. Life is hard. Life is messy for everyone in different ways. Yet, life can be incredibly joyful too.
e joy story of your professional and personal life unfolds one scene after another. One season after another. As those scenes and seasons cycle by—one school year after the next—the decisions you make about joy follow a career arc that leaves an impact on your students and colleagues—one way or the other.
Joy and happiness are often used interchangeably, yet joy is different from happiness. Happiness is experiential and, therefore, comes and goes throughout the days, weeks, months, and seasons. Happiness is based on what is happening around us. Joy, however, is based on what is happening within us.
Joy, then, should you choose to pursue it, is an internal decision to practice walking through life because of the good, and despite the difficult, circumstances you live within. Joy is a deliberate and intentional pursuit, season after season, school year after school year (Kanold, 2025). Joy endures hardships and trials and connects you to your meaning and purpose. Joy is more than a sensation. Joy is a pervasive and constant state of well-being that you cultivate and curate, should you so choose.
Timothy D. Kanold
Essential resources for every PLC
High-performing schools often have one thing in common: strong professional learning communities (PLCs). The PLC Toolkit offers educators a road map to achieve transformative results. From worldrenowned PLC experts, this package includes over 30 different self-guided educational books, action guides, and resources—including a subscription to AllThingsPLC Magazine. Take advantage of the kit’s practical strategies, tips, and learning essentials to find collaborative learning solutions.
› Explore school culture and climate and understand how PLCs improve student learning.
› Gain insights into instructional leadership and learn how to transition from a traditional school to a PLC.
› Discover proven practices for taking a collaborative approach—and explore how to build and sustain excitement and commitment to the PLC mission.
› Learn through real-life examples from leaders in education who have implemented the PLC process across a wide range of schools and districts
› Translate critical concepts from the PLC process into lesson plans that help teachers make a difference.
Learning Champion Roots, Resilience, & Rhythm
NATHANIEL PROVENCIO
Nathaniel Provencio is an author, podcaster, speaker, and PLC associate. Under his leadership as principal, Minnieville Elementary School, a Title 1 school with a culturally and linguistically diverse student population, was recognized as a Model Professional Learning Community and was the 2019 winner of the prestigious DuFour Award. In addition, Provencio led Minnieville’s e orts to become a Virginia Distinguished Title 1 school.
In recognition of his ongoing work to enhance e ective classroom instruction, promote collaboration among all stakeholders, and grow family and community engagement, he was honored as the 2017 Prince William County Principal of the
Year, the 2017 Washington Post Principal of the Year, and the 2019 Virginia Principal of the Year.
Provencio is also an award-winning leader in advocating for local community involvement and business engagement in economically and culturally diverse schools. He is a sought-after presenter and has presented at regional, state, and national conferences in the areas of professional learning communities, family engagement, and e ective literacy frameworks.
ough accustomed to spotlighting others and their ideas in his podcast, e Community Connection, Provencio was gracious enough to allow All ingsPLC Magazine to turn the spotlight on him.
ATPLC Magazine: All superheroes have an origin story. What’s yours?
Provencio: I wish I could say my origin story involved a freak lab accident, an alien abduction, or a top-secret government experiment, but no such luck. My story starts in a tiny town in Tennessee, Savannah to be exact. When I was growing up, the population hovered around 7,000 people, and even that’s probably generous. I was one of very few Hispanic kids in a deeply rural community. My parents were working-class. My mom was a seamstress, and my dad was a carpenter. Very blue collar. We didn’t have much, but we always had enough.
I always had this sense that there was more out there for me in the world, even if I didn’t know what “more” looked like. At the time, the future felt like a binary choice: military or factory work. And honestly, I wasn’t a fan of guns or assembly lines. So I gured I better nd a third option.
School was never really my thing, at least not in the traditional sense. I was hyper, imaginative, and just a little scattered. A terrible student on paper. But I loved getting involved. In high school, I joined every club I could, mostly just to get out of class. at’s how I stumbled into the Future Teachers of America. At rst,
it was a loophole. en I started reading to kids, leading practice lessons, and something clicked. I thought, “Hey, maybe this could be something.”
e idea of college, though? at felt light-years away. No one in my family had gone, and I didn’t even know where to begin. I remember asking my guidance counselor how to apply, and she basically said, “Well, you need a lot more than you’ve got right now, buddy.” Not exactly the pep talk I needed. Still, I scraped by, refocused, and somehow found my way into the University of North Alabama.
Being there was like stepping onto another planet. Everyone seemed so smart and so driven. I struggled hard, but I knew I wanted to teach. I stayed locked in on that goal. And when I nally got into my education courses, something shifted. I realized I was actually good at this. I loved the work, loved the energy, and nally knew I had found the right path.
ATPLC Magazine: Where did you go after graduation?
Provencio: When I graduated, there weren’t many teaching jobs in my area. I loved my hometown, but I knew there was more waiting for me somewhere else. So I cast a wide net, sent out applications all over the country, and made a promise to myself: wherever I got
the rst job o er, that’s where I’d go. at’s how I ended up in Northern Virginia, teaching third grade.
I absolutely loved it. e school was public but incredibly innovative. It embraced multiple modalities and Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. at whole philosophy really clicked with me. It just made sense. I taught there for six incredible years. Along the way, I started being asked to lead di erent teams, committees, and eventually a summer school program. at’s when the idea of school leadership really started to take root.
So I went for it. I enrolled at George Mason University and earned my master’s in educational leadership. I didn’t know exactly where that would lead, but I knew I wanted to make a broader impact.
ATPLC Magazine: How were you introduced to PLCs?
Provencio: Honestly, PLC work wasn’t even on my radar until I became a principal. I knew I wanted to lead a school, and let me tell you, I was persistent. I interviewed at twelve schools and kept hearing “no” until lucky number thirteen. at’s when I got the nod to become principal of Minnieville Elementary.
Minnieville had been a strong school once, but over time, economic shifts and demographic changes had taken a toll. By the time I got there, it was one of the lowest-performing Title I schools in Virginia. Nearly 80 percent of our students were English learners, and 80 percent were economically disadvantaged. We were in the bottom 80th percentile statewide. It was a big, complex challenge. And I was probably just the right mix of audacious and naive to take it on.
When I arrived, I could tell right away that the sta was full of hard workers. e e ort was there, no question. But there was a clear disconnect between the school’s vision, the work happening in classrooms, and the needs of the community we served. Everyone was pulling hard but not necessarily in the same direction.
at’s when I started digging into the PLC process. I needed a way to bring alignment, purpose, and collective e ort to the school. And once I saw what was possible with the PLC model, I was all in.
ATPLC Magazine: Minnieville Elementary became a Model PLC, right?
Provencio: Yes, and what an honor that was. We were also named a DuFour Award winner, which meant a lot to us. But it didn’t happen overnight. It was a nine-year journey of staying laser-focused on doing just a few things really, really well. We had to put blinders on and stay committed to the essentials.
Why do you believe in PLCs?
I believe in the power of professional learning communities because any person who has made the decision to go into education deserves to have the best experience possible with their vocation. It’s incredibly difficult for educators today to be all things to all kids. There’s this Hollywood myth of the lone teacher, working in isolation, beating the odds. But that’s not what real success in education looks like.
Our profession is a craft. There’s an art and an alchemy to being an educator. And far too often, teachers are set up for failure from the start. Most teachers teach how they were taught. Most leaders lead how they were led. The unfortunate truth is that the concepts and practices of PLCs still aren’t universally taught in our colleges and universities.
That’s why I don’t think I can stop doing this work. Not until the foundation of professional learning communities is embedded in our national educational system. That might mean one classroom at a time, one team, one school, one district. It’s a big job. But that’s exactly why I love it.
NO MATTER HOW GOOD anideamightsound, practitionerswanttoknow,“Yes,butdoesitwork? Canitpositivelyaffectmyclassroom,myinstructional practice?”Teachersandprincipalsoftencollect storiesfromotherschools,butscholarlyresearch alsocontributestounderstandingwhatmakesPLCs effective. Thiscolumnwillintroduceyoubrieflyto contemporaryresearchaboutPLCsinpractice.Share thissynopsiswithcolleaguesandpolicymakerswho wonder how to make PLCs work more effectively,and digdeepertolearnmoreonyourown.
AN ALL-OR-NOTHING IMPROVEMENT PLAN PLCS AT WORK
Heather K. Dillard and
The Study
Mydin, A.-A., Xia, Y., & Long, Y. (2024). Professional learning communities and their impact on teacher performance: Empirical evidence from public primary schools in Guiyang. Teaching and Teacher Education, 148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. tate.2024.104715
Research has shown teachers matter more to student achievement than any other aspect of schooling. ey play a crucial role in implementing educational policies and shape student experiences in the classroom. Given their impact on school achievement, principals should ask how they can improve teacher e ciency. Mydin, Xia, and Long’s research addresses this question.
In an attempt to analyze the relationship between teacher performance and key aspects of professional learning communities, researchers used two questionnaires to survey 396 public primary school teachers from 18 schools within six districts in Guiyang, China. Quantitative components
of the study focused on measuring the degree of agreement on positively worded sample items on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Sample items included: “We are committed to creating an environment that supports and encourages teacher learning and growth” (p. 4) and “I can e ectively plan courses and units that align with national standards” (p. 5).
The Findings
Data analysis indicated signi cant relationships between all PLC constructs surveyed and teacher performance. Teachers in schools with strong shared values and vision scored 23 percent higher in instructional planning compared to those without. Schools highlighting support and shared leadership had teachers who reported a 19 percent improvement in classroom engagement strategies. Regarding the alignment of instruction
Christina Oats
Research Report
with national standards, 21 percent of teachers who actively participated in cooperative learning were more likely to achieve alignment. Teachers who engaged in shared personal practice improved their delivery of content by 17 percent on average. A 25 percent increase in teachers’ con dence in lesson delivery was reported in schools with robust supportive conditions. Additionally, a 22 percent higher commitment to professional development was reported by teachers who felt supported by their leadership and colleagues. While all PLC elements tested were closely linked to teacher performance, some factors indicated a larger in uence than others. Findings suggest that support and shared leadership, supportive conditions, cooperative learning, and shared personal practice can serve as bridges between shared values and vision and teacher performance.
Interestingly, supportive conditions singly had a weaker impact on the relationship between shared values and vision and teacher performance, suggesting that simply having resources or policies in place is insu cient on its own in relationship to teacher performance. e authors note, “PLCs in uence teacher performance through processes that encourage active participation and address teacher motivation [o ering] a valuable space for constructive feedback, a cornerstone of continuous professional learning” (p. 7). For example, when teachers feel supported by their peers and school leadership within an environment that fosters productive collaboration, they are more likely to actively participate in the PLC process.
Implications for PLCs
is study serves as further proof to the main themes in Reeves and DuFour’s (2016) article “ e Futility of PLC Lite.” When schools attempt to pick and choose the PLC elements they are willing to protect while omitting others, they “fail to embrace the central tenets of the PLC process and won’t lead to higher levels of learning for students or adults” (Reeves & DuFour, 2016, p. 69). e PLC at Work process is an all-ornothing school improvement plan. If a school is not willing to embrace each component, they should not use the acronym to describe their work.
e White River School District in Buckley, Washington, has taken extensive measures to avoid PLC Lite in all their schools. Additionally, they open their doors to educators to view their work periodically throughout the school year and have written several articles and books explaining in detail how they have worked to implement the PLC process at all levels
from the classroom to the boardroom. One such article, titled “Stomping Out PLC Lite: Every School, Every Team,” was published by this magazine in fall 2019.
All of their work centers on ve tight elements that must be present in every team in the professional learning community (DuFour et al., 2024):
1. All educators must work together in collaborative teams rather than in isolation and take collective responsibility for student learning.
2. A guaranteed and viable curriculum must be established to specify the knowledge, skills, and dispositions students are expected to acquire unit by unit.
3. ere should be an assessment process used to include frequent, team-developed, common formative assessments based on the guaranteed and viable curriculum.
4. Results of the common formative assessment should identify student needs for additional time and support, enriched or extended learning, as well as teaching strategies that were more or less e ective.
5. A system of interventions should be established that guarantees students who struggled receive additional time and support without being removed from new direct instruction.
ese individual components make up the shared values and vision that leaders need to implement and protect in their schools so that teachers receive the support they need to meet the individual needs of the students they serve.
References
DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T., Mattos, M., & Muhammad, A. (2024). Learning by doing: A handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (4th ed.).
Solution Tree Press.
Keating, J., & Rhoades, M. (2019). Stomping out PLC Lite: Every school, every team. All ings PLC Magazine 3(4). Solution Tree Press.
Reeves, D., & DuFour, R. (2016, March). e futility of PLC Lite. Phi Delta Kappan 97(6), 69–71.
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.
Christina L. Oats, department chair, teaches English language arts at Oakland Middle School and reading learning support at Motlow State Community College.
Why I Love PLCs
A Driving Force for Success
JAMES RAWLS
Being an educator is much more than a job; it’s a purpose, a calling, and a mission that extends beyond the walls of a singular classroom. As a principal, I have dedicated my career to nding the best ways to support teachers and enhance student learning. I’ve seen countless programs, strategies, and initiatives come and go, some with promise, others fading into obscurity. However, one practice has remained steadfast and repeatedly proven that it can transform schools and elevate student success: Professional Learning Communities at Work. PLCs are more than structured meetings or professional development sessions—they are the backbone of a collaborative, student-centered school culture. They bring educators together, build teacher e cacy, and, most importantly, ensure that all students learn at the highest levels of academic achievement.
Teaching Is Too Difficult to Do Alone
In my experience, teaching is one of the most challenging professions imaginable. e expectation that a teacher must successfully meet each of their students’ diverse academic and social-emotional needs is idealistic in theory but impractical in practice. No singular educator has all the answers, but collectively, we can come very close. is is the power of PLCs and the work of their collaborative teams.
At my school, we embrace this philosophy through a practice called deployment. Instead of each teacher working in isolation to address student gaps, we use common formative and summative assessment data to group students based on their needs. We then redistribute the students among the collaborative team to ensure that every student receives targeted remediation or extension. I’ve seen rsthand how this approach shifts the responsibility from a single teacher to an entire team, ensuring that no student slips through the cracks. is adds a layer of security among teachers; they no longer feel isolated in their struggles or successes. Instead, they depend on each other and leverage their strengths for the betterment of all students.
Driven by Data as Opposed to Opinions
One of the most important aspects of a strong PLC is its reliance on data. The beauty of data is that it does not have an opinion, carry bias, or operate with assumptions. Instead, it is an indicator that shows us what students have learned and what they have not learned, allowing us to pivot from speculation to strategic and targeted interventions.
Another integral component of PLCs and the work of its collaborative teams is the focus on whether the material was learned and retained by the student instead of on the teacher’s instructional approach. PLCs allow teachers to maintain autonomy over their instructional strategies and delivery methods. e conversation among a collaborative team is not “Did we teach it?” but rather “Did they learn it?”
My Personal Experience with PLCs
Throughout my leadership journey, I have seen and experienced the transformative power of PLCs. In every school I have led, student achievement rose exponentially yearly. is was not by chance or coincidence. It was intentional and the direct outcome of a fully operational PLC. I am privileged to serve as the principal of the highest-performing Title I school in my school district, and I can con dently say that PLCs are the driving force for our success. For over a decade, our teachers have collaborated to create meaningful, focused, structured communities to analyze student data, adjust instruction, and provide targeted interventions. Learning in our building does not occur by happenstance—we plan, assess, and respond.
Success Requires Everyone
e true beauty of a PLC is that it is not centered on individual successes; instead, it focuses on collective success. A strong PLC requires engagement, participation, and dedication from everyone. PLCs require a
collective commitment to continuous improvement, a shared responsibility for student learning, and a mission-based approach that says, “We can achieve more together than we can alone.” e best schools do not thrive because of one great teacher or exceptional leader; they thrive because everyone moves in the same direction.
When PLCs function e ectively, collaboration becomes the norm, trust is built, and most importantly, student learning is maximized. PLCs create a culture where success is not left to chance but instead designed with intentionality. Teachers don’t just talk about the data; they act on it, ensuring every student receives what they speci cally need. I’ve watched teachers come together, share students, and tailor instruction with precision, transforming challenges into opportunities. I love PLCs because they represent what education should be—educators working, learning, and growing together to bene t all students.
JAMES RAWLS is a principal and a dedicated educational leader with over 20 years of experience fostering student achievement and building collaborative school cultures. Under his leadership, Cooper Middle School has become the district’s highest-performing Title I middle school, driven by a strong commitment to PLCs.
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:
4. What will we do if they already know it? 1
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
• 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.
3
• 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.
