Professional Learning Communities: Exploring the power of teamwork

Professional learning communities are all the rage in California schools. If you haven't heard of them, chances are strong that your administration is either studying the concept of planning to implement them in the near future.

Ideally, PLCs change the way teaching and learning take place: Educators strive to create an environment that fosters mutual cooperation, emotional support and personal growth by working together to accomplish as a team what cannot be accomplished alone. In schools where PLCs are successful, teachers embrace a "we, not me" philosophy to focus - as a team - on student learning.

PLCs are all about collaboration. In some schools, this has happened exactly as it’s laid out. In others, PLCs have failed miserably — often because they were imposed on teachers and micromanaged by administrators.

Among the language arts teachers engaging in an intense discussion about the best method to teach narrative writing to students in grades 6-8 at Yorba Linda Middle School in Orange County are are Cathy Hinson and Dion Beckwith (above) and Kristen Thompson, Cameron Paula, Melanie Carmona and Keith Carmona (below).

Even though PLCs have mostly come into vogue in recent years, the concept originated nearly a decade ago. Dr. Richard (Rick) DuFour, co-author of nine books on professional learning communities, is widely considered to be the guru of the movement. He was a public school educator for 34 years, serving as a teacher, principal and superintendent in Illinois, and is now a Virginia-based consultant on strategies for improving schools.

While DuFour is pleased that the PLC concept is now widely embraced, he says not every­thing sold under that label is actually a true PLC. “The term has certainly become sort of a buzzword,” says DuFour, interviewed by telephone between speaking engagements. “But there is some confusion as to what it really means.”

Melanie Carmona

“Lots of folks call any loose coupling of edu­ca­tors a PLC. However, there are certain things people need to do — and certain underlying con­­­­cepts — that drive the work of a PLC. And those are not nearly as widespread as the term.”

“We need to break down the laws of isolation and give people collaborative support in teams, so they have someone to turn to and talk to,” maintains DuFour. “Unless there is a collective effort, there is a sense of ‘I’m alone in my classroom and no one cares what happens to me.’ This makes it difficult for teaching to be rewarding. We need a new model, where it’s not ‘one teacher, one classroom’ but a team of teachers who are responsible for the success of students.”

PLCs change the traditional view of teaching because teachers must shift their focus from what they are teaching to what students are learning. Thus, the reasoning goes, it is not a teacher’s job simply to make sure that kids are taught, but to see that they actually learn.

There are three questions at the heart of a PLC, says DuFour.

What it is that students need to learn? The answer is mostly defined by state standards. “We have to make sure we know course by course, grade level by grade level and unit by unit the knowledge and skills each kid is supposed to learn. If I’m teaching U.S. history, I’d be working with other U.S. history teachers in my school, making sure we’re clear on the knowledge kids should acquire.”

How will we know if they’re learning? Teammates will have to decide how to assess whether students are acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge. Most schools rely on benchmarks and assessments to gauge student learning, but DuFour believes, “Teachers need multiple and varied indicators, and should be gathering evidence on an ongoing basis. This means asking questions and engaging students in activities to demonstrate learning,” as well as conducting tests.

What will happen when students don’t learn? “If we have just taught a unit the best way we know how and kids have not acquired the intended skills, what do we do then?” says DuFour. “How will we intervene and create additional support for learning?”

Kristen Thompson, Cameron Paulin, and Melanie Carmona

To be successful, says DuFour, teachers must buy into PLCs, and they can’t be sidetracked by “administrivia” during their meetings. That means focusing on important issues related to student learning rather than dress codes, field trip forms or who’s going to edit the parent newsletter. Those topics can be dealt with by e-mail or other means.

For those about to embark on the PLC journey, DuFour recommends preparation with a combination of training or in-service, reading books on PLCs like two he co-authored — Professional Learning Communities at Work and Getting Started: Reculturing Schools to Become Professional Learning Communities — plus visiting and observing school sites where PLCs are operating successfully. The best method of all, he says, is “learning by doing.”

Keith Carmona

“The most important thing for people to know is that this is not a program,” he emphasizes. “It’s not something that you go out and purchase or install in a year, like having new curriculum and then moving on to something else. It’s a process that is designed to change the culture of your school. It’s not an easy process; it’s hard to change old patterns and assumptions. But this is a way for teachers to work smarter, not harder.” PLCs are endorsed by many professional organizations, have been proven in practice, and are supported by research, he adds.

Research, indeed, supports the effectiveness of PLCs. “These professional learning communities provide opportunities for adults across a school system to learn and think together about how to improve their practice in ways that lead to improved student achievement,” says a report titled “Professional Learning Communities: Professional Development Strategies That Improve Instruction,” published by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. “This kind of collaboration is rarely found in more traditional types of professional development or in common staff meeting time.”

Among the benefits noted in the report are:

The top-down PCL system in New Haven involved no real decision-making for teachers, yet performance evaluations were based on it, says language arts and history teacher Patsy Lockhart, shown here with Nancy Ramirez at Barnard-White Middle School.

• Increased content knowledge for teachers.
• Higher morale, greater job satisfaction, more enthusiasm and higher retention rates among teaching staff.
• Cultural changes that may result in im­proved academic gains for students along with decreased dropout and absenteeism rates.

For PLCs to be effective, says CTA President David A. Sanchez, certain conditions must be
in place, including substantial time for teachers to meet and talk, and policies that support site-based decision-making and self-directed professional development planning.

One of the chief reasons PLCs fail is that teachers are not provided the time and support they need to make them work, says Anne Jolly, director of Professional Learning Teams at the Southeastern Education Research and Development Laboratory, and author of A Fa­­cil­­­­itator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams. Minimally, says Jolly, PLCs should meet weekly.

“Oftentimes teachers are not given adequate preparation,” says Jolly. “Teachers need training to have these kinds of team meetings, which are very different from regular meetings. Just putting teachers together and saying ‘Do it’ is not going to work well. They need some understanding of why they are doing it and what they want to accomplish. They need to know what PLC meetings look like. They need to know how to get started. They need initial training, follow-up and the opportunity to observe other school sites.”

Richard DuFour

PLCs tend to work best when teachers see the value of what they are doing — as well as when they see student progress as a result of what they are doing, she adds. In a recent issue of Teacher magazine, Jolly advises teachers in PLCs to:

• Get a firm handle on your team’s purpose and revisit it frequently.
• Build in opportunities for success with short-term “doable” benchmarks.
• Keep negative energy at bay.
• Relax and experiment — “Give yourselves permission to try new teaching strategies and be unsuccessful.”
• Develop a concrete product that demonstrates what your team is accomplishing — including a rubric, matrix, lesson plan, etc. — and share it schoolwide.
• Take time to reflect.
• Always make a decision as a team before leaving the meeting.
• Rotate responsibilities to avoid member burnout.

She also suggests that administrators provide teachers with necessary support and resources. If asked, they should participate and observe in PLCs, but should not micromanage them.

Joan Richardson, communications director for the National Staff Development Council, agrees that PLCs cannot be a top-down edict from administrators. “I think it’s most successful when principals introduce ideas to teachers and allow them to do their own exploration and discovery. Teachers recognize a good idea when they see it and if they have the time to work with it, they’ll make it their own.”

And just like classroom instruction, there is no one-size-fits-all version when it comes to PLC structure. “A lot of people think they can borrow ideas that were successful in someone else’s school and, voila, it will be just like that in their school,” she says. “But that’s not at all the case. In schools where it works best, teachers raise their own questions about curriculum. They ask whether they are teaching the best they can, how they can improve and what they need to know to do better. When teachers bring that kind of expertise to the table, I can’t say enough good things about the process.”