President’s
Perspective
PLCs at Work
September is upon us and fall is just around the corner! As we began the school year under so much uncertainty, one thing was certain in our district… Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) were at WORK! We have been blessed to have three of our six schools take part in the PLC Pilot Program through the ADE-DESE (Cohorts 2, 4, and 5). Main Street Visual & Performing Arts Magnet School (Cohort 2) was named a Model PLC in May. We have one additional school who has applied for Model PLC status and another school will be applying this year. These two schools were not part of the Pilot Program, I might add.
Dr. Stephanie Nehus AAEA Board President
As a District, we began our PLC journey during the 2016-2017 school year. I would be remiss if I did not say we were definitely operating ‘PLC Lite’ at that time. In 2017-2018, our district took the necessary steps through professional development to shift our focus to being a true PLC all across the district. That focus has not changed. All of our schools receive ongoing support from Solution Tree associates to implement the PLC process with fidelity. The investment is totally worth it as I truly believe PLCs are a game changer for our district, for our students, and for all of us as educators. What is a PLC? A PLC is an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve. Three big ideas drive the work of the PLC process: a focus on learning, a collaborative culture and collective responsibility, and a results orientation. Along with the three big ideas are four critical questions: What is it we want our students to know and be able to do? How will we know if each student has learned it? How will we respond when some students do not learn it? Finally, how will we extend the learning for students who have demonstrated proficiency? There are five books sitting on my desk as I type this article that I would recommend. • Learning by Doing (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, Many, Mattos) • Professional Learning Communities at Work: Coaching Academy (Solution Tree) • Professional Learning Communities at Work and High Reliability Schools: Cultures of Continuous Learning (Eaker, Marzano - Editors) • Community Connections and Your PLC at Work: A Guide to Engaging Families (Provencio) • Leading PLCs at Work: Districtwide Plan Book (Eaker, Hagadone, Keating, Rhoades) If you haven’t started the PLC process in your school/district, I highly encourage you to. I can honestly say ALL means ALL in our district and I am super proud of that statement!
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