Global Perspectives

Timothy S. Stuart makes the case

for PLCs in international schools.

Chip Kimball provides a

superintendent’s perspective on implementing the PLC process.

Vicki Rameker-Rogers expounds

the unique characteristics of international school students.

Joshua D. Curnett helps readers

understand the international school teacher.

Treena Casey discusses creating a

guaranteed and viable curriculum in an international school.

Jennifer L. Sparrow explains the

I

mplementing professional learning community (PLC) practices has transformed many underperforming and average U.S. schools into high-performing, student-centered learning institutions. Editor Timothy S. Stuart and the book’s contributors, all international school educators who have experienced their schools successfully reculturing into PLCs, contend PLCs can have the same transformative results in international schools, moving them from good to great.

“The educators featured in this book viewed obstacles as challenges to be overcome rather than reasons not to try.

I hope every reader of this excellent book will engage fully in the PLC process.”

—From the foreword by Richard DuFour “With examples, resources, recommendations, and data, the contributors provide a road map for already highperforming schools that want to ensure that every student grows and achieves.”

—Deborah Welch,

Chief Executive Officer, Academy for International School Heads; Former Director, American School of Doha; Former Deputy Head of Learning, International School Bangkok

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/PLCbooks to download the free reproducibles in this book.

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potential for standards-based assessments to improve students’ learning.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

P rofe P r os fsion e s sai ol n L ae a l rLnei ng a r nCi om n g mu C onmitm ieusnat i t iWork es ™ i ni nI nI nter t e r nnaat t iion o n aa l S chool c h o o lss

Darin L. Fahrney provides

direction on why inclusive international schools should take a PLC approach.

Tico Oms examines successful

team structures for singleton teachers in international schools.

Timothy S. Stuart maintains that

international schools need the PLC model to empower students and adapt to an ever-changing world.

Paul Buckley, Anthea Clifton, Daniel L. Machacek, and Peter Round chronicle Jakarta

Intercultural School’s PLC transformation.

Darin L. Fahrney, Timothy S. Stuart, Devin R. Pratt, and David A. Hoss share the steps

Singapore American School took to become a PLC.

T T II M MO OT TH HY Y S S .. S ST TU UA AR RT T Foreword by Richard DuFour

Paul Buckley, Treena Casey, Anthea Clifton, Joshua D. Curnett Paul Buckley, Treena Casey,Chip Anthea Clifton, Joshua D. Curnett Darin L. Fahrney, David A. Hoss, Kimball, Dan Machacek, Tico Oms Darin L. Fahrney, David A. Hoss, Chip Kimball, Daniel L. Machacek, Tico Oms Devin PeterRound, RoundJennifer JenniferL.L.Sparrow Sparrow DevinR.R.Pratt, Pratt,Vicki Vicki Rameker-Rogers, Rameker-Rogers, Peter

Copyright © 2016 by Solution Tree Press Materials appearing here are copyrighted. With one exception, all rights are reserved. Readers may reproduce only those pages marked “Reproducible.” Otherwise, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission of the publisher.

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Printed in the United States of America 20 19 18 17 16

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Stuart, Timothy S., editor.

Title: Global perspectives : Professional Learning Communities at Work in international schools / editor, Timothy S. Stuart ; contributors: Paul Buckley, Treena Casey, Anthea Clifton, Joshua Curnett, Darin L. Fahrney, David A. Hoss, Chip Kimball, Daniel L. Machacek, Tico Oms, Devin R. Pratt, Vicki Rameker-Rogers, Peter Round, Jennifer L. Sparrow, Timothy S. Stuart.

Description: Bloomington, IN : Solution Tree Press, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016020141 | ISBN 9781942496809 (perfect bound) Subjects: LCSH: International schools--Cross-cultural studies. | International education--Cross-cultural studies. | Professional learning communities--Cross-cultural studies. | School improvement programs--Cross-cultural studies. | Teachers--In-service training--Cross-cultural studies. | Teachers--Professional relationships--Cross-cultural studies.

Classification: LCC LC1090 .G558 2016 | DDC 371.04--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc .gov/2016020141

Solution Tree Jeffrey C. Jones, CEO Edmund M. Ackerman, President Solution Tree Press President: Douglas M. Rife Director of Production: Tonya Maddox Cupp Senior Acquisitions Editor: Amy Rubenstein Managing Production Editor: Caroline Weiss Senior Production Editor: Suzanne Kraszewski Copy Chief: Sarah Payne-Mills Copy Editor: Ashante K. Thomas Proofreader: Elisabeth Abrams Editorial Assistant: Jessi Finn Text and Cover Designer: Laura Kagemann

Table of Contents About the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

By Richard DuFour

Introduction: Making the Case for Professional Learning Communities in International Schools . . . . . . . 1

By Timothy S. Stuart

The International School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The PLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The Role of PLCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Time for Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 High Levels of Learning for All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 A Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Norms of Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Resource Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

1

Building a PLC Culture in International Schools: A Superintendent’s Perspective . . . . . . . . . . 15

By Chip Kimball

Building the Imperative for Improvement . . . . . . . . . . 17 Establishing Clear Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Finding Team Strengths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Providing Time for Teaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Providing Other Support Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Sticking With It and Avoiding PLC Scope Creep . . . . . 22 Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

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vi

2

Understanding the International School Student . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

By Vicki Rameker-Rogers

Once a TCK, Always a TCK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Family Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 TCK Strengths and Struggles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 TCKs, International Schools, and PLCs . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 References and Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

3

Understanding the International School Teacher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

By Joshua D. Curnett

Teaching in an International School . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Implementing PLCs in International Schools . . . . . . . 42 Collaborating in International Schools . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

4

Creating a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum in International Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

By Treena Casey

What Is a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum? . . . . . . 53 What Are Desired Student-Learning Outcomes? . . . . . 54 Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 References and Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

5

Creating a Learning-Focused International School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

By Jennifer L. Sparrow

Understanding the Power of Standards-Based Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Becoming Assessment Literate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Helping Teachers Be Assessment Literate and Standards Based . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Transforming From a Culture of Excellence for Some to Mastery for All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Table of Contents

6

Creating an Inclusive International School . . . . 93

By Darin L. Fahrney

What Does It Mean to Be Inclusive? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 How Do We Create an Inclusive Culture? . . . . . . . . . . 94 What Structures Support Student Learning in Inclusive International Schools? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 What Is RTI and Its Impact? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 When Should Interventions Start? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 What Is the Pyramid of Intervention? . . . . . . . . . . . .101 How Do PLCs Create an Accessible, But Never Modified, Curriculum? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 How Do PLCs Distinguish Skill Versus Will? . . . . . . . 105 How Do PLCs Treat Causes, Not Symptoms? . . . . . . 105 What Is the Pyramid of Acceleration? . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

7

Harnessing the Potential of Singleton Teachers in International Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

By Tico Oms

The Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 The Misfits: A Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115 Interdisciplinary Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Vertical Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Virtual Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121 Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

8

Building a Progressive International School Through the PLC Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

By Timothy S. Stuart

Professional Learning Communities as a Model for Progressive Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 From Traditional to Progressive Schools . . . . . . . . . 128 Students Owning the Learning Process . . . . . . . . . . 129 The Progressive PLC Process: A Model . . . . . . . . . . 132 Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

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viii

9

Learning From the Jakarta Intercultural School Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

By Paul Buckley, Anthea Clifton, Daniel L. Machacek, and Peter Round

The Elementary Story: Pattimura Campus . . . . . . . . 143 The Middle School Story: Cilandak Campus . . . . . . . 153 The High School Story: Cilandak Campus . . . . . . . . 160 Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

10

Transforming the Singapore American School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

By Darin L. Fahrney, Timothy S. Stuart, Devin R. Pratt, and David A. Hoss

The High School Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 The Middle School Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175 The Elementary School Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

About the Editor Timothy S. Stuart, EdD, is the executive director of strategic programs at the Singapore American School. In this role, Stuart serves as the chief architect for research and development and supports strategic school reform. He is the former high school principal of Singapore American School where he led his division through the professional learning community (PLC) implementation process, culminating in its recognition as a PLC exemplar school. Stuart also served as the high school principal of Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS) where he helped introduce the PLC process. JIS is now also recognized as a PLC exemplar school. Stuart has been an international and cross-cultural educator for twenty-five years, serving schools in Turkey, Switzerland, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Navajo Nation.

Stuart is a contributing author to It’s About Time: Planning Interventions and Extensions in Secondary School. He is the coauthor of Children at Promise: 9 Principles to Help Kids Thrive in an At-Risk World and Raising Children at Promise: How the Surprising Gifts of Adversity and Relationship Build Character in Kids. Stuart’s research and writing reflect his passion for creating optimal school environments so that all students can learn at high levels.

Stuart holds a doctor of education from Seattle Pacific University, a master’s degree from The College of New Jersey, and a bachelor of arts degree from Wheaton College. Stuart grew up and attended school in France, then graduated from the Black Forest Academy in Germany.

To learn more about Stuart’s work, follow @drtstuart on Twitter.

To book Timothy S. Stuart for professional development, contact pd@SolutionTree.com.

ix

Foreword

By Richard DuFour

I distinctly recall a question a teacher asked when I was giving a presentation on the benefits of the professional learning community (PLC) process. His question was, “Why should we have to improve? We’re no worse off than anybody else.” I was bemused. I thought, what a wonderfully inspiring motto for a school: “We’re no worse off than anybody else.” I asked if the school had a mission statement. He assured me it did: “We will ensure high levels of learning for all students.” I asked him whether his sentiment was reflected in that statement. I suggested that, in the interest of integrity, the school should make a change: either change its mission to reflect its commitment to the status quo or change its practices to reflect its commitment to helping all students learn.

But what if that school had already been recognized as among the highest-performing schools in the world? If a school is already an outlier in terms of student achievement, certainly there is no reason for its faculty members to consider how they might improve. After all, isn’t school improvement only intended for troubled schools, not high-performing ones? Furthermore, if there is no external accountability system, what would motivate an incredibly high-performing school to look for more effective ways of helping its students learn at high levels?

Global Perspectives: Professional Learning Communities at Work™ in International Schools answers these questions in an emphatically clear way and will serve as a valuable resource for international (and highperforming) schools around the world. The contributors to this anthology work in some of the highest-performing schools in the world, and yet they are absolutely committed to continuous improvement.

They recognize that if a student is consistently low performing or has a negative schooling experience, the school has failed—regardless of how many awards it has won or how many of its students are excelling.

They recognize that the real test of a school committed to continuous improvement isn’t benchmarking with others but benchmarking with xi

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one another and constantly trying to improve on the results they deem most important. They realize that the challenge they are called on to meet is not being as good as they are required to be but rather becoming the best they possibly can be.

Readers will be struck by the fact that the schools featured in this book focus on the same four critical questions that all high-performing PLC schools must consider.

1. What do we want our students to learn? What knowledge, skills, and dispositions should every student acquire as a result of this unit, course, or grade level?

2. How will we know when each student has acquired the essential knowledge and skills?

3. How will we respond when some students do not learn?

4. How will we extend and enrich the learning for students who are already proficient?

Furthermore, the way the educators in the featured schools approach the PLC process provides an excellent model for implementation for any school. For example: • The process began by building shared knowledge with the faculty about the rationale for and benefits of the PLC process to establish an imperative for improvement.

• Leadership spoke with one voice. Once leaders committed to engage in the PLC process, there was no hedging at the different levels of leadership.

• Leadership became more dispersed. Guiding coalitions and team leaders played an important role in implementing the process.

• The systems clarified what was tight, the nondiscretionary practices and processes that all educators were expected to honor.

• Not only did the systems support the collaborative team structure by providing time and support for collaboration, they took steps to ensure teams were clear on the right work that had the greatest opportunity for impacting adult and student learning.

• Schools were committed to providing students with access to a guaranteed and viable curriculum for each unit of instruction regardless of the teacher to whom the student had been assigned.

Foreword

• Common formative assessments served as a lynchpin of the PLC process. These assessments’ results helped the school better meet individual students’ needs and informed the collaborative team members—individually and collectively—about each instructional strategy’s effectiveness. Teachers became very conscious of aligning assessments with the knowledge and skills students were called on to demonstrate.

• The schools had systematic plans for providing struggling students with additional time and support for learning in a coordinated way.

• Leadership sustained the system’s focus on the PLC process over time and protected the faculty from competing initiatives so that the process could eventually become deeply embedded in the culture—“the way we do things here.”

• The schools honored the staff’s wisdom and professionalism and felt that the best way to provide ongoing, job-embedded professional development and deep adult learning was to ensure teachers had the time, structures, and resources to share their practices and insights.

The lessons learned in these international schools will benefit schools of all kinds.

Another striking feature of the schools featured is their commitment to equity as a driving force in the PLC process. The process raises the question of how fair is it to students if what they learn, how they are assessed, the criteria teachers use in determining the quality of their work, and what happens when they don’t learn are left to individual teachers’ vagaries. You will hear this concern regarding equity throughout the book, and I suggest it should be a driving question in your school as well.

It is not that these schools did not have challenges. The contributors’ candor in acknowledging that they serve students of many different nationalities with very different and sometimes clashing cultures is impressive. International schools confront a much higher than usual mobility rate for both students and teachers. They are able to attract accomplished teachers, but those teachers often prefer to bring their own “suitcase” curriculum with them and want to be left in isolation to teach it. The idea of collaboration did not immediately resonate with many of these global educators.

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As Chip Kimball explains in chapter 1, the schools certainly confronted the questions, “[Why] should we change? If we have good results and a good reputation, will the PLC process actually make a difference for our students? Will it make a difference for me?” (page 17).

Many of the schools’ teachers were singletons, and the issue of how to include them in the PLC process had to be addressed. The tension between doing everything humanly possible to help students succeed and teaching students to accept responsibility for their own learning is always present. Any one of these challenges may have led the educators in these schools to conclude that engaging in the PLC process could be problematic and not worthy of their collective effort. And yet, they didn’t just dabble in the process, they embedded it into their schools’ very identities.

As I worked with school systems around the world, I have discovered that if educators are firmly committed to the status quo, they can always discover a reason that the PLC process won’t work for them. A school is too big or too small. Its students are too low performing or are already too high performing. The district is too top down or too laissez-faire.

The timing isn’t right. Leadership is lacking.

But I have also found that when educators fully commit to the PLC process, they will work together to identify and overcome every obstacle to implementation because they know that in doing so they create greater opportunities for the success of all students. The educators featured in this book viewed obstacles as challenges to be overcome rather than reasons not to try. I hope every reader of this excellent book will come to the same conclusion and, like the educators in these schools, will engage fully in the PLC process as Darin L. Fahrney, Timothy S. Stuart, Devin R. Pratt, and David A. Hoss write in chapter 10: [Not] because it is required by law, or because it is at risk of being put on some type of failing school list. But because we are more and more convinced that creating an unapologetic PLC culture with high-functioning collaborative teams is the single best way to ensure that all students achieve at high levels. (p. 185)

Introduction

Making the Case for Professional Learning Communities in International Schools Timothy S. Stuart

The research is clear and compelling that the professional learning community (PLC) process is the single most effective way to maximize learning for all students. Michael Fullan (2011) articulates it this way in his article “Learning Is the Work”: The research has been clear and consistent for over 30 years—collaborative cultures in which teachers focus on improving their teaching practice, learn from each other, and are well led and supported by school principals result in better learning for students.

Time and time again, implementation of the PLC concept school- or districtwide has resulted in failing schools turning around to become high-performing schools. But what about schools that, at first glance, appear to have nowhere to go but down? What if they are outside of the United States? What if they are international schools? Can the PLC concept help a good school move to great, or is it simply a construct for failing U.S. schools? Is taking on the challenge of moving from a teaching focus to a focus on learning worth the effort in every school?

Transforming into a PLC is a challenging undertaking for any school; it is even more challenging if the teaching and learning that are going on in the school are already outstanding. The promise of increased scores is less compelling if student scores are already high. There is no sense of urgency, and the fear of disrupting—or even destroying—the magic that is already happening in these schools academically is a significant inhibitor of change.

For many international schools, a more compelling argument is in the quest for continuous improvement and professional excellence. The 1

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opportunity to learn from and with the master teacher next door is huge. For teachers in international schools, the single biggest benefit of PLCs is the unmatched professional growth that comes with becoming vulnerable enough with colleagues and being willing to challenge every teaching, assessment, and intervention method to better serve students.

The PLC ideals of clarity, consistency, and coherence create the infrastructure to deliver on the three promises international schools make to their community: (1) the guarantee that they will do everything humanly possible to ensure that every student learns the intended curriculum, (2) that each student will be assessed in a fair and consistent manner, and (3) that students will receive timely formative feedback and interventions when needed.

This book articulates a clear and compelling case for PLCs in international schools. The contributors explore some of the common themes and challenges international educators face, provide insight into the international school student and teacher, and describe how PLCs can help create a learning-focused culture so that schools can ensure that all students learn at high levels.

The International School There are many varieties of international schools around the world, ranging from schools that serve the children of the professional and diplomatic community living in countries other than their own to schools focused on bringing an international perspective to a selective student body in a particular country. In both cases and the variations in between, international schools share some commonalities that make them unique. International school students and teachers have traveled the world, often speak multiple languages, have taken some steps toward understanding globalization, have naturally obtained a certain level of cultural competence, and understand that education is a stepping stone to the global lives they wish to lead.

Generally, international school parents are accomplished leaders in their respective fields and have high expectations for their children.

As a result, top-tier international schools recruit highly qualified and experienced teachers from around the world who bring their worldview and diverse pedagogical approaches to the classroom. All of these factors create a beautifully diverse and high-performing culture that is unencumbered by national bureaucracies and standardized tests, unless tied firmly to a national curriculum. Many international schools have

Introduction

embraced frameworks like the International Baccalaureate (IB) and advanced placement (AP) to offer higher-level courses recognized by the world’s leading universities.

However, this lack of national or state accountability and the highly independent teacher population can lead to an inconsistency in instruction and assessment practices. The quality of instruction, feedback, and interventions can depend entirely on the particular teacher who happens to land on the school’s doorstep that year.

What follows is a brief overview of what PLCs are and how they can function effectively in an international school context. This is not intended to be a comprehensive treatise on PLCs as there are entire books that have been written on the topic, but rather to give international educators insight into how to contextualize PLCs for their environment. As I have travelled the globe looking at educational structures and programs, I am more convinced than ever that PLCs are the single most powerful way to maximize learning for all students. Nothing else even comes close.

The PLC Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Thomas Many, and Mike Mattos (2016) define PLC as “an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research in order to achieve better results for the students they serve” (p. 10). An entire school or district functions as a PLC with specific systems and structures in place to allow all teachers to collaborate with other professionals in order to give students the opportunity to achieve at high levels. Collaborative teacher teams meet regularly to engage in learning-focused conversations designed to improve instructional practice and impact student learning.

There are a variety of ways that schools can organize collaborative teams, the most common being teams of teachers who are teaching the same course or grade level. While some international schools are large and have several teachers instructing a common course or grade level, many international schools may only have one teacher per course or grade level.

In both cases, PLC transformation involves processes and parameters the staff commit to that ensure they stay focused on what matters most: learning. These processes and parameters prevent teams from becoming

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a gathering of teachers who work on a common task or study a book together, but never intentionally consider student learning.

The Three Big Ideas of a PLC The first big idea of the PLC model is that learning is the primary focus of schools (DuFour et al., 2016). This may sound obvious, but many schools are focused on teaching more than they are on learning.

International schools boast the ability to hire some of the best teachers in the world. While this is certainly a tremendous asset, it does come with a price. Great teachers often receive accolades because they are fun to work with, are the toughest teachers in the school, give the most homework, or are the hardest graders. As an international school administrator, I’ve noticed that teachers are rarely measured by how much their students learn. Moving a school from being teaching focused to being learning focused is one of the first steps necessary in creating a PLC culture.

The second big idea of a PLC is that collaboration is the key to looking at educational best practice and student results (DuFour et al., 2016).

In his book Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World, Tony Wagner (2012) suggests that there is no innovation without collaboration. In other words, it is very difficult to generate new ideas by working alone. It works the same way for teachers. When teachers work collaboratively to look at student results, they are better able to collectively identify the best approach to teaching. When teachers work together, they learn together, teacher practice improves, and student learning increases. It’s simple, but international teachers are often hired because of their independent, nonconformist spirit. They may be teachers who are considered experts in their fields and who do not require a whole lot of structure and supervision to get the job done. The question is, have these teachers, with their everyday magic, placed a ceiling on their growth and innovation at a certain point by going it alone?

The third big idea of a PLC is that we assess our effectiveness as teams based on student results, not intentions (DuFour et al., 2016). There are many roads paved with good intentions; the roads in international schools are no different. Because there are very few external measurements holding international schools accountable for learning outcomes, and one could argue that many students will do relatively well regardless of how they are taught, it is easy to believe that great teaching is synonymous with great learning. Many international schools fall into the trap of assuming that by hiring some of the most knowledgeable, experienced,

Introduction

engaging, and passionate teachers, students are learning at high levels.

But are they?

Collective Responsibility for Student Learning Another major tenet underpinning the PLC model is the idea that PLC members take collective responsibility for student learning (DuFour et al., 2016). Collective responsibility implies being mutually accountable for the work that staff members do. PLC members hold each other accountable to teach the agreed-on curriculum, to use the common formative assessments that team members have developed, and to reach the established learning goals.

In high-performing PLCs, my students become our students. Taking collective responsibility allows staff members to maximize individual strengths in the collaborative team to ensure high levels of learning for all students.

The Role of PLCs PLCs give time and structure for teachers to grow professionally by asking four critical questions of learning (DuFour et al., 2016). These questions may seem simple, and they are, but they have proven to have a significant impact on student learning when a course or grade-level teacher team asks and answers them regularly.

I have heard international school teachers talk about “doing� PLCs, but when asked to explain what they actually do in a PLC, their answers often refer to doing clerical work as a department, planning lessons, studying a book with other teachers, or identifying a personal and professional goal with colleagues and holding each other accountable to that goal. These are all wonderful activities and do certainly have a place in schools, but they are not enough. Members of PLCs must regularly and systematically examine the four critical questions of a PLC within their teacher team (DuFour et al., 2016).

1. What knowledge, skills, and dispositions should every student acquire as a result of this unit, this course, or this grade level?

2. How will we know when each student has acquired the essential knowledge and skills?

3. How will we respond when some students do not learn?

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GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

4. How will we extend and enrich the learning for students who are already proficient?

Let’s look at these questions one by one.

What Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions Should Every Student Acquire as a Result of This Unit, This Course, or This Grade Level?

What do we want students to learn, understand, and be able to do?

This question is about establishing clarity and focus. What is it that you really want students to know? Or, better yet, what is it that they really need to know and be able to do? This question requires teachers to clearly identify each essential learning target for the students they serve. It goes beyond taking a look at the school’s curriculum guide, or the previous year’s course syllabus (although those are great places to start), and requires teachers to really wrestle with the question with colleagues so that they come to a common and clear understanding of what they want students to know and be able to do.

Since international schools are often outside of a national or state educational system, curriculum can be left to the individual school to develop; in fact, it is not uncommon for the curriculum to be left in the hands of each individual teacher. Since international teachers come from a wide range of backgrounds and countries, this allows for huge discrepancies and inconsistencies between teachers who teach a common course. One of the significant impacts that PLCs can have on a school is developing a structure to ensure clarity when it comes to the identified and articulated learning targets. Teachers who know what they want their students to know and be able to do are significantly more likely to have their students reach those targets.

How Will We Know When Each Student Has Acquired the Essential Knowledge and Skills?

How will we know when our students have learned it? What artifacts will we accept as evidence that our students have learned what they were supposed to learn or can do what they are supposed to be able to do? Critical question two speaks to the development and use of common formative assessments. It also addresses the power of these assessments to inform students and teachers about their progress toward an intended learning target. As a direct result of international schools not being required to adopt a national or state curriculum, many schools

Introduction

have avoided the standards-based assessment and grading conversation altogether. This coupled with teacher and administrative mobility has resulted in a lack of consistency when it comes to assessment practice.

It is not uncommon for teachers to have their own grading policy and approach to assessing students. This disparity in practice makes it virtually impossible for teachers to look at common learning data to make informed decisions about teaching practice, interventions, and extensions.

How Will We Respond When Some Students Do Not Learn?

How will we respond when there is evidence that students are not learning? By asking critical question three, collaborative teams are forced to focus on each student who is not meeting the intended learning target. It is not enough to simply look at the grade average in the class, or to be satisfied with most students getting it. One tenet of PLCs is a belief that all students can learn at high levels. This means that teachers in a PLC will do everything in their power to ensure that all students meet or exceed the essential learnings.

International schools have a reputation of being very high-performing schools. Most students come from well-educated, successful families who are very supportive (sometimes overly supportive) of their child’s education. The question is not if their child is going to college—the question is which university is their child going to get into? The belief that these students can indeed succeed in spite of hit-and-miss educators is commonly held among teachers.

In this context, critical question three can seem unnecessary, or at least overkill: “Most of our students did well on the test, and we need to move to the next unit; if you need extra help, get a tutor.” It is by asking and answering critical question three that the school culture begins to shift dramatically. Rick DuFour often says in his keynote addresses at PLC institutes and summits that “when confronted with evidence that their students are not learning, teachers are compelled to act and do something about it.”

How Will We Extend and Enrich the Learning for Students Who Are Already Proficient?

How will we respond when students already know it? What systems and strategies do we have in place to allow students to accelerate or deepen their learning beyond the articulated curriculum? Much like students who struggle in school are often marginalized, students who

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have already mastered the desired skills are told to wait for the rest of the class to catch up.

Critical question four forces PLC members to look at the evidence of student learning for each and every student and come up with creative ways to challenge students to take the next step in their learning.

Question four is an area that international schools can lead on a global level. International school teachers often have students for whom critical question four is relevant. Schools should never be a place where students are wasting their time. If this is true, then teachers must get in the habit of asking and answering the fourth critical question.

Time for Collaboration In order for a PLC to function at the highest level, it is imperative that teachers have protected time to collaborate with their colleagues (DuFour et al., 2016). International school parents and school boards are, more often than not, reluctant to give up instructional time without fully understanding how this time will directly benefit student learning.

It has become increasingly clear to me that schools that dedicate as little as one hour per week for teachers to collaborate as members of a PLC can significantly improve student learning. The claim that “the schedule won’t allow it” is not a viable argument. School leaders control the schedule, and with a little bit of creativity and courage, they can find time in the schedule. From my experience, this is the first and possibly the most important step in creating a PLC culture. One indicator of success when implementing the PLC process in your school is the degree to which teachers become protective of this precious collaboration time.

Try to take it away for a student assembly or a faculty meeting, and teachers will speak up. The harder they push back for all the right reasons, the more successful you have been.

There are many resources available to help schools think through ways of creating time in the schedule to collaborate. A great place to start is AllThingsPLC (www.allthingsplc.info). This website serves as a hub for PLC resources, including a glossary of PLC terms, stories from educators describing their PLC journeys, and more, and has been an invaluable resource for those of us who are on the PLC journey.

Introduction

High Levels of Learning for All A belief that all students can learn at high levels is one of the prerequisites for building a learning-focused school (DuFour et al., 2016).

This growth mindset is essential for teachers and requires a “we will do everything in our power to help all students succeed” approach in order for PLCs to be successful. All too often, international schools can settle for less. Since most international students learn at high levels, it is easy to pat ourselves on the back and say, “That’s more than good enough.”

It is the role of the school to articulate what it means for students to succeed at high levels. For many schools, this is simply students meeting learning expectations. The PLC’s goal is to ensure that all students reach an articulated target—whatever it takes, and whatever the cost.

I have found that this fixed mindset about success is one of the most difficult culture shifts to make in international schools. This is not because we have hired fixed-mindset teachers, but because we have embraced a fixed mindset without even knowing it when it comes to students and their ability to learn.

According to researcher Carol Dweck (2006) and her work on mindsets, there are a few simple statements we can address to determine whether we have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. I suggest these are statements to consider on behalf of our schools as well. Give it a go.

How would you respond to the following four statements on behalf of your school?

1. Our students’ intelligence is something very basic about them that we can’t change very much.

2. Our students can learn new things but they can’t really change how intelligent they are.

3. No matter how intelligent our students are, they can always change it quite a bit.

4. Our students can always substantially change how intelligent they are.

Dweck (2006) suggests that if your school sounds more like the first two statements, then it has a fixed-mindset culture. If your school sounds more like the last two statements, it has a growth-mindset culture.

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Not convinced? How about this? Are statements such as the following often heard within your halls, classroom, administrative offices, and boardrooms?

• “That kid is a B student.”

• “That kid is a straight-A student.”

• “We need to exit this student from the school. She will never make it here.”

• “Only a certain number of students can get an A in my class.”

• “I always seem to get the learning support students in my class.”

• “If this student can’t keep up, he should drop my class.”

• “Unfortunately, your child did not pass the entrance exam.”

• “Your child has qualified for the gifted and talented program.”

• “This student will never learn.”

• “She will never change.”

Even as I write this, I am confronted with how many times I have thought and even said these things. But the reality is, for PLCs to be successful, we must believe that all students can learn, grow, and change.

Given the right amount of time and resources, all students can meet our learning expectations.

Here’s the thing: there is no teacher on the planet that has the time, skills, and resources to ensure that every student meets the expected learning target. This is the power of the PLC; a PLC spreads out the collective responsibility for the learning of all students. Together, we can harness the team’s strength to ensure that all students learn at high levels.

A Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum For teachers to have learning-focused conversations within their collaborative teams, it is essential that all teachers of a common course or grade level also have a common curriculum. This statement may seem so obvious that it doesn’t even belong in a book; however, one of the greatest strengths of international schools is their ability to hire the best teachers from around the world. It is not uncommon for teachers with different nationalities and educational backgrounds to teach a common course or grade level. This diversity is beautiful and contributes greatly to the students’ educational experience. For this reason, it is absolutely

Introduction

imperative that the school establishes a guaranteed and viable curriculum for its students. What will every student graduating from the school know and be able to do? This curriculum cannot be teacher dependent.

Additionally, international schools tend to have a high turnover rate of teachers. This turnover can unintentionally result in curricular gaps if schools aren’t careful. To ensure that students are not negatively impacted by the mobility of their teachers, schools must have an agreed-on curriculum that is articulated vertically and reflects the school’s desired student-learning outcomes.

Norms of Collaboration International schools bring together some of the most experienced, independent, confident, and, dare I say, opinionated teachers on the planet. One might think that simply putting all-stars on the same court or in the same room will naturally produce a winning formula. Not so!

If PLCs are to be where teachers can work interdependently with one another, be vulnerable enough to share what is traditionally very private student-learning data, and learn from each other, schools must establish some game rules: How do we intend to work together? How will we treat each other? How will we maximize our time together?

To this end, PLCs establish clear norms of collaboration, and members hold each other accountable to these norms (DuFour et al., 2016).

These can include norms such as the following: We will come to meetings on time. We will be prepared for meetings. We will be hard on ideas and soft on people. We will presume positive intent. Having these norms in place, reviewing them regularly, and being willing to challenge norm-breaking behavior will dramatically increase a team’s effectiveness.

Resource Overview The purpose of this book is to provide international school educators with a systematic guide to transforming their schools into PLCs. Every chapter provides recommendations, gives authentic examples from real international schools, and addresses some of the roadblocks to systemic change.

International educators who have helped successfully transform their international schools into PLCs have authored the chapters in this book.

Each chapter will highlight various aspects of international schools and

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the PLC process and how the process has been implemented in or benefits international schools.

In chapter 1, “Building a PLC Culture in International Schools: A Superintendent’s Perspective,” Chip Kimball describes the superintendent’s responsibility in creating a culture of continuous improvement.

He stresses the steps the team at Singapore American School took to shift its priorities to adopt the PLC process. Chapter 2, “Understanding the International School Student,” introduces third-culture kids (TCKs).

Vicki Rameker-Rogers articulates the unique characteristics of international school students and how to support their strengths and struggles in a PLC. In chapter 3, “Understanding the International School Teacher,” Joshua D. Curnett draws from his background as a PLC specialist in the United States to detail his experiences in an international setting. He soon realized, more than ever, that the school’s culture shapes the PLC. Chapter 4, “Creating a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum in International Schools” explores how Singapore American School sustains its mission and vision. Treena Casey describes important questions and answers to ensure the PLC remains successful in an international setting. Chapter 5, “Creating a Learning-Focused International School,” defines the importance of assessment literacy. Jennifer L. Sparrow details how standards-based assessments can improve international students’ learning. In chapter 6, “Creating an Inclusive International School,” Darin L. Fahrney stresses collaboration as a key element to ensuring all students learn. He explains how to create agreed-on methods and a common language to meet all students’ needs. Chapter 7, “Harnessing the Potential of Singleton Teachers in International Schools,” highlights singleton teachers, who are often overlooked during PLC implementation. Through a case study, Tico Oms introduces effective team structures and showcases how teachers at Singapore American School collaborated for success. To empower students to own their learning and embrace an ever-changing world, international schools must shift from traditional to progressive models of education. This is the theme for chapter 8, “Building a Progressive International School Through the PLC Process.” Timothy S. Stuart explains how international school teachers can engage students to take responsibility for their learning.

In chapter 9, “Learning From the Jakarta Intercultural School Story,” Paul Buckley, Anthea Clifton, Daniel L. Machacek, and Peter Round revisit the methods of monitoring, assessing, and intervening Jakarta Intercultural School took to establish a schoolwide PLC. Finally, chapter 10, “Transforming the Singapore American School,” reflects the steps

Introduction

Singapore American School took to transform school culture and the unique opportunities and challenges within an international school context. Darin L. Fahrney, Timothy S. Stuart, Devin R. Pratt, and David A. Hoss also compare Jakarta Intercultural School and Singapore American School to showcase how PLC implementation can unfold differently in international schools.

Our hope is that this book will be read in the spirit that it was written.

We wrote it with a desire to share our PLC journeys with our international school colleagues not because we believe that we have done it right but because we believe that there are lessons to learn from successes and failures. We offer this book in a spirit of humility, not arrogance, and with a spirit of collaboration, not isolation.

References DuFour, R., DuFour, R., & Eaker, R. (2008). Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work™: New insights for improving schools. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T., & Mattos, M. (2016).

Learning by doing: A handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (3rd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House.

Fullan, M. (2011). Learning is the work. Accessed at www.michaelfullan.ca /media/13435850710.html on April 7, 2016.

Wagner, T. (2012). Creating innovators: The making of young people who will change the world. New York: Scribner.

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Chip Kimball, EdD, serves as superintendent of Singapore American School (SAS). He has led SAS through a process of continuous improvement of this already high-performing school, resulting in the implementation of PLC collaborative teams at every grade level, more project-based learning and interdisciplinary courses, curriculum supporting 21st century learning outcomes, personalized learning, and language immersion programs. Kimball joined SAS after sixteen years in the Lake Washington School District in Washington State. As superintendent, he introduced the PLC structure as a primary reform tool to increase student learning. Kimball has also provided leadership to 144 California schools implementing education reform.

Kimball has received multiple awards and recognition for his work in Lake Washington, leading change in one of the most innovative school districts in the United States. In 2010, Kimball received a national award for technology leadership and the 2011 Superintendent of the Year award from the Washington Library Media Association. He received the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.

Kimball is cochair for the 21st Century Superintendent Initiative sponsored by CoSN and the Pearson Foundation and is a frequent speaker regarding the skills and aptitudes for 21st century schools and district leadership. He was an education strategist for the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, advising staff on education initiatives and directing giving in education focusing on teacher effectiveness, secondary school reform, and technology.

Kimball holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Whitworth University, a master’s degree in science education from Eastern Washington University, and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Southern California, and he is working on his LEAD certification in corporate innovation from Stanford University.

To book Chip Kimball for professional development, contact pd@ SolutionTree.com.

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Chapter 1

Chip Kimball

Being a superintendent at an international school is one of the most challenging and interesting professional roles in education today. Every day is a unique challenge. A superintendent may find him- or herself comforting a homesick family, leading a strategic discussion about the future, responding to a culturally nuanced situation in the community, reading to a group of students, raising private money, discussing instructional practice, consulting with corporate executives, coaching faculty, working with embassy officials, or meeting with an ambassador or head of state. Most superintendents are constantly learning something new about leadership, culture, teaching, and learning and how to best work in a complex and competitive international context.

After spending twenty-four years in U.S. public school systems, I joined Singapore American School as its twelfth superintendent in 2012. It is an honor to be part of a highly successful school while being challenged to continue improving a system that works. The SAS story is one of good to great up close and personal. Our mandate is to improve ourselves so that we can become truly exceptional, fulfilling our vision of being a world leader in education, cultivating exceptional thinkers, prepared for the future.

This is a daunting challenge. The SAS good-to-great transformation includes key strategies that have been found to work in schools and businesses interested in excellence and those that effectively manage change.

One of our most promising strategies is a deep commitment to PLCs. In my experience, high-functioning PLCs and their collaborative teams

Š 2016 by Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

Building a PLC Culture in International Schools: A Superintendent’s Perspective

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are the most promising and highly leveraged practices for improvement and high performance. At SAS, we are committed to the PLC model, and it has quickly become a deeply embedded part of our culture.

For generations, teaching has been an individual professional endeavor—both in domestic and international schools. While collaborative curriculum planning has become increasingly common, teacher collaboration around the growth and achievement of specific students is less common, other than for students identified with special needs (DuFour, 2015). We now understand that a team approach to the growth and achievement of individual students is most effective and more efficient. But we also know that creating the school culture, systems and structures, and professional practice around this kind of collaboration can be difficult.

International schools have unique challenges, including high student mobility, staff turnover, and cultural diversity. SAS, for example, admits eight hundred new students every year who join an enrollment of just under four thousand students. While SAS has one of the longest faculty longevity rates among international schools (7.3 years), we still welcome thirty to fifty new faculty members every year and experience a higher turnover than most domestic schools.

Mobility challenges exacerbate the tendency toward individual practice rather than a team approach to teaching and learning. International school teachers have been known to bring their “suitcase curriculum” to a teaching job. It is exactly for this reason that international schools need PLCs to perhaps an even greater extent than more stable schools found in the United States. PLCs protect the intellectual capital of a school and extend practices as staff members learn from those around them.

Establishing a PLC that is both systemic and high functioning is a challenge for any leadership team. It requires a deliberate strategy that, when executed well, can fundamentally reshape any school. But when

© 2016 by Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

Regardless of context, a superintendent’s most pressing concern is student growth and achievement. Every school context, both internationally and domestically, has unique obstacles. But the common theme among all schools is a desire and expectation that students will learn and grow. PLCs are specifically designed to guarantee the greatest possible opportunity for student growth. At SAS, PLC and collaborative team participation has become a non-negotiable, and it has profoundly changed our school to the benefit of both students and staff.

Building a PLC Culture in International Schools

Building the Imperative for Improvement Change is hard. When you are at a high-performing school, change is extraordinarily hard. As leaders introduce new strategies into the school, educators must find compelling, clear, and relevant reasons to implement the new strategies. Teachers are overwhelmed on a daily basis with new initiatives, mandates, practices, and research—on top of the responsibilities of teaching students every day. To garner support for even the most effective strategy, leaders must build an imperative for improvement that has a sense of urgency and is relevant to the specific school context.

In some cases, this imperative is poor achievement. In other cases, it may be competition from other schools (an emerging phenomenon in international schools) or to ensure that students are being prepared for the future. At SAS, we have high-achieving students and an outstanding reputation. So it is a fair question to ask, why should we change? If we have good results and a good reputation, will the PLC process actually make a difference for our students? Will it make a difference for me?

At SAS, this questioning has been one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome. We are good. In many cases, we’re really good. But are we good enough?

Great organizations that stand the test of time are those that understand what excellence looks like and create a culture of continuous improvement. The greatest enemy of excellence is complacency. At SAS, we knew that we had to create a new culture of continuous improvement, and the only way to create this culture was by opening up the doors of private practice so that our leadership team, faculty, and staff could see for themselves the school’s strengths and limitations and bring to the table ways to improve. Once leaders established this new imperative, an entirely new set of possibilities began to emerge.

© 2016 by Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

done poorly, even with good structures in place, it can end up with status quo results and may be considered a waste of time. While each school has unique needs and a unique context, at SAS, we have found a number of core strategies that have been effective. The leadership team within the school executes these strategies, but it is the superintendent’s responsibility to articulate, champion, and support these strategies in order to create a school culture of continuous improvement. The following strategies have been particularly effective for our team at SAS.

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Establishing Clear Expectations

At SAS, we developed collective institutional commitments in 2012 to ensure that our expectations were clear and to begin shifting the school’s expectations and priorities. These commitments capture what we expect of each faculty member and focus the institutional energy for hiring, professional learning, support, and performance appraisals.

The SAS institutional commitments are as follows.

• Great teaching every day, in every classroom, for every student • A common, guaranteed, viable curriculum • Data used as evidence of learning through formative and summative assessment • Integration of technology • Participation in a collaborative team as part of a professional learning community • Contribution to a healthy organizational culture Simply articulating the commitments is inadequate, of course. To fully institutionalize expectations and behavior, the formal and informal systems in the organization must align with these commitments, and, more important, positive and negative examples should be reinforced or discouraged accordingly. In the case of SAS, school leadership developed formal systems including institutional commitments in all employment contracts, hired specifically to the commitments, developed a new appraisal system, and delivered professional learning specific to the SAS institutional commitments.

© 2016 by Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

It has been my observation that the most effective organizations fully utilize the talents of their people, recognizing that an organization’s human capacity is their most valuable asset. But to capitalize on the talents of your staff, you must be clear on what people should focus on and what they will ultimately be held accountable for. Schools are often challenged in this area because there are so many soft targets, those that are difficult to measure like character, associated with student growth and development. Further complicating the work are so many diverse and demanding community and staff interests that schools attempt to serve. Too often we are not overtly clear about what we value the most, leading to unmet expectations, poor results, and a negative impact on morale and performance.

Building a PLC Culture in International Schools

In reality, participation in a collaborative team supersedes other institutional commitments, as a high-functioning collaborative team is the mechanism through which the other five commitments can be best implemented. With curriculum, assessment, technology, great teaching practices, and healthy organizational culture, in all cases, the collaborative team will improve and sharpen the competencies that are required to do each of these well. Further, the four critical questions central to the work of a PLC—(1) What knowledge and skills should every student acquire as a result of this unit of instruction? (2) How will we know when each student has acquired the essential knowledge and skills? (3) How will we respond when some students do not learn? and (4) How will we extend and enrich the learning for students who are already proficient?—can’t be addressed without attention to the other five commitments (DuFour et al., 2016). Thus, there is an important symbiotic relationship between the four critical questions of a PLC and SAS’s institutional commitments.

Finding Team Strengths The dynamics of individual teams are often underestimated when developing a PLC culture. Teams are often functionally organized and asked to collaborate without consideration of the individual team members’ personalities and strengths. Simply assigning members to a team and giving them an objective is rarely enough to reach optimal team performance.

The best PLCs are those in which collaborative teams are focused on individual students, where teachers have a collective responsibility for every student’s success, and where the environment fosters vulnerability and trust so that the best possible solutions can emerge for complicated student challenges. By deliberately focusing on each team member’s strengths, a deeper personal understanding of team members will surface, along with the specific competencies each member brings to the

© 2016 by Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

Informally, the leadership team and teacher leaders dramatically shifted our behavioral expectations and what was acceptable in the informal culture of the school. This had profound implications and reverberated throughout the organization. While at one time it was acceptable to be a great classroom teacher, but not actively participate in a collaborative team or integrate technology, this is no longer the case. This was a dramatic cultural shift at SAS, one that has reshaped our school.

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table. In this way, the collective skill of the team is more powerful than the skill of any individual, thus dramatically increasing the likelihood that educators can address student needs.

All SAS faculty and leaders have taken the assessment and participated in training and coaching to build institutional meaning around strengths and how we can use each other’s strengths to build a stronger collaborative team. When team members more deeply know each other and understand each other’s strengths, group chemistry is more likely to evolve in a productive way. This is especially true when conflict arises as team members can better understand others’ perspectives, making conflict productive rather than counterproductive. Most important, effective collaborative teams are those where team members can be truly vulnerable with one another, exposing not only where they are experiencing great success but also where they are struggling.

Providing Time for Teaming The structures put in place to support collaborative teams indicate leadership’s commitment to the PLC process, and, more practically, provide the opportunity for teachers to effectively work on instructional strategies for specific students. If leadership does not provide the time in the regular school day for collaborative teams to work, faculty will not believe collaboration is a priority. It is unlikely that teams will become functional, improvement oriented, and effective without protected time for members to work together.

The precise structures can take on a variety of forms. Teachers may get an early release each week, common planning time built into the academic schedule, or other creative uses of time. At SAS, leadership in each division (elementary, middle, and high school) developed a separate and different structural solution that best met their particular needs.

Common among each division’s structure are elements that leaders

© 2016 by Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

One of the strategies SAS uses to optimize team dynamics is the Clifton StrengthsFinder (www.strengthsfinder.com). The StrengthsFinder is a research-based psychometric based on over fifty years of positive psychology research. The StrengthsFinder identifies the top-five strengths from thirty-four identifiable themes (Rath & Clifton, 2009). For example, my top-five strengths are input, ideation, strategic, activator, and communication. Each of these strength themes brings value to the table and provides liabilities that my teammates need to be aware of as we do challenging work together.

Building a PLC Culture in International Schools

Providing Other Support Systems Teams’ ability to effectively answer the four critical PLC questions and to meet student needs is directly related to the level of support they receive. This includes professional learning opportunities, administrative leadership, and board and community support.

Professional learning is a coveted resource in a school. The effectiveness of professional learning has garnered the attention of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners and often receives mixed results in terms of effectiveness. For professional learning to be effective, it should be “just in time,” collaborative, needs based, tailored to the individual, and substantive. We also know that in order to see practice that translates into results, professional learning should link directly to the goals and objectives of the school. At SAS, all professional learning programs link directly to the institutional commitments. Just as important, leadership prioritizes professional learning requests according to each collaborative team’s needs and is aligned with individual teachers’ needs as they relate to the SAS institutional commitments.

Administrative leadership can catalyze collaborative teams’ effectiveness. From a superintendent’s perspective, this includes directing major institutional priorities to the PLC, giving overt public and internal support, providing resources over time, and taking every opportunity to emphasize the importance of collaborative teams.

For site-based administrators, support for the PLC process is as much about avoiding distractions as it is about overt support. The building principal will need to keep the PLC focused on school goals and evaluating student success. This sometimes means saying no and most certainly will require a system of prioritization. In all cases, administrative support for collaborative teams is an important component of the formula for success.

Managing the expectations of the board and the community is primarily the superintendent’s responsibility. There is often a battle over the use of instructional time for collaborative work, and the superintendent

© 2016 by Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

think are important, including protected time during the regular day at least once a week, required participation in collaboration for staff, and guidelines regarding the use of team time. Guidelines include priorities and focus so that teams maximize their time together on areas that are most urgent.

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At SAS, better outcomes for students became evident after the first two years of implementation. Students began reporting fewer differences in content between the same courses taught by different teachers. They also reported that teachers brought new strategies to their classrooms, and that the overall consistency in how they were being assessed was substantially improved. These student anecdotes are important in order to consider the real impact of the PLC process on classroom instruction and student results. It is also important that the community the school serves is well informed and the board fully engaged in the rationale for implementation of the PLC model.

Sticking With It and Avoiding PLC Scope Creep In schools, new practices are often challenging to implement and even more challenging to sustain over time. Too often, we may shift priorities, or more accurately, dilute our focus and try to do it all, leading to scope creep. Scope creep occurs when a process is not properly defined and uncontrolled changes occur. This will undermine the purpose of the PLC and will result in collaborative teams that lose energy and focus.

The implementation of the PLC process and collaborative teaming will likely be attacked for various reasons at different times, especially as faculty members find themselves with limited time to accomplish a number of priorities and parents become wary of early release and modified schedules designed for collaborative work. However, after sustaining the collaborative PLC work for a period of time, and when work is done well, faculty will actually look for more time to work together rather than less, and students will be able to articulate the difference it is making in their classroom.

It is tempting to relinquish collaborative team time, providing some form of a response for parents or even staff who are looking for more academic time. Unfortunately, the erosion of collaborative time for teams and disregard for other PLC practices will ultimately deplete the culture of the school and the promising results that can be achieved.

Š 2016 by Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

will often need to fight for the use of this time, as he or she is responsible for the elementary, middle, and high school. But this fight is worth it, as it is our responsibility to ensure that teacher skill is refined and highly leveraged through the use of collaborative teams, resulting in better outcomes for students.

Building a PLC Culture in International Schools

Final Thoughts A superintendent’s most important responsibility is to ensure that every student is provided with the opportunity and support to learn at high levels, preparing him or her for learning and life after leaving school. In international schools, we have a unique set of challenges.

But this should not compromise the most important priority: student learning.

There are few approaches available to international schools that can ensure quality across a large system while accommodating the diverse needs of students and the diverse talents of staff. The PLC model is at that top of the list of effective approaches.

I once asked my leadership team if its members would bet their career on the PLC model’s success for SAS. They unequivocally said, “Yes!” Now, years into this journey, I can confidently say that our team made the right bet. I honestly struggle to understand how a school could prioritize student learning without the use of the PLC model.

References DuFour, R. (2015). In praise of American educators: And how they can become even better. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T., & Mattos, M. (2016).

Learning by doing: A handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (3rd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Rath, T., & Clifton, D. (2009). How full is your bucket? New York: Gallup Press.

© 2016 by Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

It is the superintendent’s responsibility to protect the PLC structures and time, and to prevent scope creep whereby other activity becomes a collaborative team responsibility. Teams should be exclusively focused on student growth and achievement, using the strategies of the institutional commitments and exploring the four critical questions.

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Timothy S. Stuart makes the case

for PLCs in international schools.

Chip Kimball provides a

superintendent’s perspective on implementing the PLC process.

Vicki Rameker-Rogers expounds

the unique characteristics of international school students.

Joshua D. Curnett helps readers

understand the international school teacher.

Treena Casey discusses creating a

guaranteed and viable curriculum in an international school.

Jennifer L. Sparrow explains the

I

mplementing professional learning community (PLC) practices has transformed many underperforming and average U.S. schools into high-performing, student-centered learning institutions. Editor Timothy S. Stuart and the book’s contributors, all international school educators who have experienced their schools successfully reculturing into PLCs, contend PLCs can have the same transformative results in international schools, moving them from good to great.

“The educators featured in this book viewed obstacles as challenges to be overcome rather than reasons not to try.

I hope every reader of this excellent book will engage fully in the PLC process.”

—From the foreword by Richard DuFour “With examples, resources, recommendations, and data, the contributors provide a road map for already highperforming schools that want to ensure that every student grows and achieves.”

—Deborah Welch,

Chief Executive Officer, Academy for International School Heads; Former Director, American School of Doha; Former Deputy Head of Learning, International School Bangkok

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potential for standards-based assessments to improve students’ learning.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

P rofe P r os fsion e s sai ol n L ae a l rLnei ng a r nCi om n g mu C onmitm ieusnat i t iWork es ™ i ni nI nI nter t e r nnaat t iion o n aa l S chool c h o o lss

Darin L. Fahrney provides

direction on why inclusive international schools should take a PLC approach.

Tico Oms examines successful

team structures for singleton teachers in international schools.

Timothy S. Stuart maintains that

international schools need the PLC model to empower students and adapt to an ever-changing world.

Paul Buckley, Anthea Clifton, Daniel L. Machacek, and Peter Round chronicle Jakarta

Intercultural School’s PLC transformation.

Darin L. Fahrney, Timothy S. Stuart, Devin R. Pratt, and David A. Hoss share the steps

Singapore American School took to become a PLC.

T T II M MO OT TH HY Y S S .. S ST TU UA AR RT T Foreword by Richard DuFour

Paul Buckley, Treena Casey, Anthea Clifton, Joshua D. Curnett Paul Buckley, Treena Casey,Chip Anthea Clifton, Joshua D. Curnett Darin L. Fahrney, David A. Hoss, Kimball, Dan Machacek, Tico Oms Darin L. Fahrney, David A. Hoss, Chip Kimball, Daniel L. Machacek, Tico Oms Devin PeterRound, RoundJennifer JenniferL.L.Sparrow Sparrow DevinR.R.Pratt, Pratt,Vicki Vicki Rameker-Rogers, Rameker-Rogers, Peter