PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

COMMUNITY
LAST UPDATED: 03.03.14
A professional learning community, or PLC, is a group of educators that
meets regularly, shares expertise, and works collaboratively to improve
teaching skills and the academic performance of students. The term is also
applied to schools or teaching faculties that use small-group collaboration as
a form of professional development. Shirley Hord, an expert on school
leadership, came up with perhaps the most efficient description of the
strategy: The three words explain the concept: Professionals coming
together in a groupa communityto learn.
It should be noted that professional learning communities may be called
many different things from school to school or place to place,
including professional learning groups, collaborative learning
communities, critical friends groups, or communities of practice, to name just
a few common terms (terms such as professional learning groupsand critical
friends groups are typically applied to smaller teams of teachersusually
between four and eight, although group sizes varyrather than to an entire
school that uses small-group collaboration as a form of professional
development). In Japan, the practice is called lesson study or lesson
research. In addition, professional learning communities can take a wide
variety of forms or be organized for different purposes. While some
educators define professional learning community in a very specific way,
others may use the term more loosely, even applying it to meetings or
groups that other educators would not consider to be a genuine professional
learning communities. In fact, Richard DuFour, considered one of the
foremost experts on the subject, wrote in 2004 that the term has been used
so ubiquitously that it is in danger of losing all meaning. For Dufour and
other experts and researchers, the term professional learning
community should only be applied to schools in which all teachers and school
leaders use specific, recommended strategies. The distinction here is subtle
and potentially confusing: When a school is considered a
professional learning community, educators meet in small groups, but in
some cases educators consider the small groups to be professional learning
communities.

Professional learning communities tend serve to two broad purposes: (1)

improving the skills and knowledge of educators through collaborative study,
expertise exchange, and professional dialogue, and (2) improving the
educational aspirations, achievement, and attainment of students through
stronger leadership and teaching. Professional learning communities often
function as a form of action researchi.e., as a way to continually
question, reevaluate, refine, and improve teaching strategies and
knowledge. Meetings are goal-driven exchanges facilitated by educators who
have been trained to lead professional learning communities. Participation in
meetings may be entirely voluntary, and in some schools only a small
percentage of the faculty will elect to participate, or it may be a school-wide
requirement that all faculty members participate.
In professional learning communities, teams are often built around shared
roles or responsibilities. For example, the teachers in a particular group may
all teach the same ninth-grade students or they may all teach science, and
these shared attributes allow participants to focus on specific problems and
strategiesHow do I teach this particular student better? How do I
teach this scientific theory more effectively?rather than on general
educational goals or theories. Teachers, for example, will discuss and reflect
on their instructional techniques, lesson designs, and assessment practices,
while administrators may address leadership questions, strategies, and
issues.
While the specific activities and goals of a professional learning community
may vary widely from school to school, the following are a few examples of
common activities that may take place in meetings:
Discussing teacher work: Participants collectively review lesson
plans or assessments that have been used in a class, and then offer
critical feedback and recommendations for improvement.
Discussing student work: Participants look at examples of student
workturned in for a class, and then offer recommendations on how
lessons or teaching approaches may be modified to improve the quality
of student work.
Discussing student data: Participants analyze student-performance
data from a class to identify trendssuch as which students are
consistently failing or underperformingand collaboratively develop
proactive teaching and supportstrategies to help students who may be
struggling academically.
 Discussing professional literature: Participants select a text to
read, such as a research study or an article about a specialized
instructional technique, and then engage in a structured conversation
about the text and how it can help inform or improve their teaching.

Reform
Professional learning communities are nearly always an intentional school-
improvement strategy designed to reduce professional isolation, foster
greater faculty collaboration, and spread the expertise and insights of
individual teachers throughout a school. Because teachers may work largely
independentlyi.e., they will create courses and lessons on their own and
teach behind the closed doors without much feedback from colleagues
teaching styles, educational philosophies, and learning expectations can vary
widely from class to class, as can the effectiveness of lessons and
instruction.
While professional learning communities may take a wide variety of forms
from school to school, they tend to share a variety of common features:
Teachers will likely meet regularlyevery other week or every month,
for exampleand work together to improve and diversify their
instructional techniques. For example, they may agree to identify and
monitor student learning needs in their classes,
conduct observations of their colleagues while they teach and give
them constructive feedback, collaboratively develop and refine lessons
and instructional techniques, and improve the support strategies they
use to help students.
Time for meetings is often scheduled during the school day, and
participation in a professional learning community may be an expected
teaching responsibility, not an optional activity that competes with out-
of-school personal time.
Groups generally work toward common goals and expectations that are
agreed upon in advance. Groups may even create mission and vision
statements or a set of shared beliefs and values.
Meeting procedures are commonly guided by norms, or a set of
conduct expectations that group members collaboratively develop and
agree on. A norm might address meeting logistics (e.g., start meetings
on time, stick to the agenda, and end on time) or interactions (listen
attentively to colleagues and make sure feedback is respectful and
constructive).
Meetings are often coordinated and run by teachers who have been
trained in group-facilitation strategies, often by an outside organization
or training professional.
 Meetings typically follow predetermined agendas that are developed
by facilitators in response to group requests or identified teacher or
student needs.
Facilitators typically use protocolsa set of parameters and
guidelines developed by educatorsto structure group conversations and
help keep the discussions focused and productive.
Facilitators will make sure that conversations remain respectful,
constructive, objective, and goal-oriented, and they may step in and
guide the conversation in a more productive direction if it becomes
digressive or negative.
Facilitators will also ensure that conversations remain objective and
factual, rather than subjective and speculative. For example, group
members may be asked to cite student-performance data, specific
examples, research findings, or other concrete evidence to support their
points, and facilitators may point out assumptions or generalizations.

Advocates of professional learning communities argue that the practice can

foster and promote a wide variety of positive professional interactions and
practices among teachers in a school. For example:
Teachers may assume more leadership responsibility or feel a greater
sense of ownership over a school-improvement process.
Teachers may feel more professionally confident and better equipped
to address the learning needs of their students, and they may become
more willing to engage in the kind of self-reflection that leads to
professional growth and improvement.
The faculty culture may improve, and professional relationships can
become stronger and more trusting because the faculty is interacting and
communicating more productively.
Teachers may participate in professional collaborations more
frequently, such as co-developing and co-teaching interdisciplinary
courses.
More instructional innovation may take hold in classrooms and
academic programs, and teachers may begin incorporating effective
instructional techniques being used by colleagues.
Teachers may begin using more evidence-based approaches to
designing lessons and delivering instruction.

Debate
While the professional learning community concept is not typically an object
of criticism or debate, skeptics may question whether these groups can
actually have a positive impact on student learning, or whether the extent of
that impact justifies the time or expense required to make them successful.
Since it often extremely difficult, from a research perspective, to attribute
gains in student performance to any one influence in a school (because so
many potential factors can influence performance, including familial or
socioeconomic dynamics outside of a schools control), the benefits of
professional learning communities may be difficult to measure objectively
and reliably.
It is more likely, however, that professional learning communities will be
criticized or debated when they are poorly implemented or facilitated, if they
become disorganized and unfocused, if they are perceived as a burdensome
or time-consuming obligation, or when teachers have negative experiences
within their groups. Like any school-improvement strategy or program, the
quality of the design and execution will typically determine the results
achieved. If meetings are poorly facilitated and conversations lapse into
complaints about policies or personalities, or if educators fail to turn group
learning into actual changes in instructional techniques, professional learning
communities are less likely to be successful.
In addition, administrators and teachers may encounter any number of
potential challenges when implementing professional learning communities.
For example:
A lack of support from the superintendent, principal, or other school
leaders could lead to an inadequate investment of time, attention, and
resources.
Inadequate training for group facilitators could produce ineffective
facilitation, disorganized meetings, and an erosion of confidence in the
process.
A lack of clear, explicit goals for group work can lead to unfocused
conversations, misspent time, and general confusion about the purpose
of the groups.
A dysfunctional school or faculty culture could contribute to tensions,
conflicts, factions, and other issues that undermine the potential benefits
of professional learning communities.
A lack of observable, measurable faculty progress or student-
achievement gains can erode support, motivation, and enthusiasm for
the process.
Highly divergent educational philosophies, belief systems, or learning
styles can lead to disagreements that undermine the collegiality and
 sense of shared purpose typically required to make professional learning
communities successful.

Best Practices for Professional Learning Communities

Youve no doubt heard the term professional learning community (PLC) used in educator circles.

Every school serious about improvement should have one, say

experts.

So what is a PLC? And how can schools get the most bang for the buck from this proven approach
to school improvement?

A professional learning community (PLC) involves much more than a staff meeting or group of
teachers getting together to discuss a book theyve read. Instead, a PLC represents the
institutionalization of a focus on continuous improvement in staff performance as well as student
learning. Called the most powerful professional development and change strategy available, PLCs,
when done well, lead to reliable growth in student learning.

In a nutshell, PLCs entail whole-staff involvement in a process of intensive reflection upon

instructional practices and desired student benchmarks, as well as monitoring of outcomes to ensure
success. PLCs enable teachers to continually learn from one another via shared visioning and
planning, as well as in-depth critical examination of what doesand doesnt work to enhance student
achievement.

Read More: AMLE Research Summary - Professional Learning Communities (2012). Association for
Middle Level Education.

The focus of PLCs is ongoing job-embedded learning, rather than one-shot professional
development sessions facilitated by outsiders, who have little accountability regarding whether staff
learning is successfully applied. In addition, PLCs emphasize teacher leadership, along with their
active involvement and deep commitment to school improvement efforts. PLCs therefore benefit
teachers just as much as they do students.
Read More: Professional Learning Communities (2009). The Center for Comprehensive School
Reform and Improvement.

How does this process of intensive reflection and job-embedded learning unfold? Typically it
includes six stepsstudy, select, plan, implement, analyze, and adjust. Prior to beginning the
process, teachers review student achievement data to identify a specific standard or standards on
which many students are not meeting goal.

Teachers work in collaborative planning teams to examine critically and discuss standards-
based learning expectations for students.
These teams select evidence-based instructional strategies for meeting the standards.

Teams develop a common lesson plan incorporating the selected strategies and identify the
type of student work each teacher will use to demonstrate learning.
Teachers implement the planned lesson, record successes and challenges, and gather
evidence of student learning.
Teams review student work and discuss student understanding of the standards.

Teams reflect on the implications of the analysis of student work and discuss potential
modifications to instructional strategies.

The PLC approach is a long-term proposition, taking three to six years to fully incorporate into a
schools routine practices. Staff teams need to have time to meet during the workday throughout the
year. They also need to focus their efforts on essential questions about learning and generate
products such as lists of key student outcomes, methods of assessment and strategies for meeting
goals.

During the first year of implementation, staff teams usually need to complete several cycles of the six
steps in order to master the process. For the next few years, most schools and districts also benefit
from the support of an external facilitator.

Read More: The Professional Teaching and Learning Cycle: Introduction (2008). Southwest
Educational Development Laboratory.

The process sounds straightforward enough. Yet without paying attention to best practices, schools
may fail to reap the benefits of PLCs. Consider the following best practicesPLCs work best when
schools have:

1. A culture that supports collaboration;

2. The ability to take an objective/macro view of school efforts; and

 3. Shared beliefs and behaviors.

Read More: Professional Learning Communities (retrieved 2012). Public Schools of North Carolina
State Board of Education, Department of Public Instruction.

Let's explore each of these best practices in more detail.

A Collaboration-Friendly Culture

Collaboration cannot be forced. Instead, school leaders should help all members of the school
community feel attached and committed to the work. Some ways to do this including articulating a
clear, specific and compelling vision; matching tasks and roles to staff members who are personally
invested in them; expanding leadership roles; and making coordination easy.

Consider facilitating coordination through online tools such as Basecamp (a project-coordination

platform) and Blackboard (an online learning platform).

Read More: 5 Ways to Build a Culture of Collaboration With Staff, Teachers and Parents(retrieved
2012). Kruse, Sharon D., for American Association of School Administrators.

Viewed a different way, several things must stop happening in order to enable meaningful
collaboration. Schools must stop pretending that merely presenting teachers with standards is
sufficient for ensuring that all students receive a common curriculum. Districts also need to make
sure that the intended curriculum matches what teachers are actually teaching.

In addition, educators must stop making excuses for failing to collaborate. For example, is it true that
staff really cant find the time, or is it that they find operating in isolation preferable to the hard work
of collaboration?

Read More: What Is a Professional Learning Community? (2004). DuFour, Richard, for Educational
Leadership.

An Objective View of School Efforts

An external facilitators work with a school PLC involves getting familiar with staff and assessing their
way of operating as it relates to school improvement goals. Facilitators also can help bring a schools
fragmented efforts into alignment, especially at the beginning of the process.
Change facilitators are able to take a balcony or macro-centric view of the situations and contexts
facing school staff. Recognizing the leadership qualities of the principal and the extent to which
leadership is dispersed in the school, facilitators can provide appropriate support to staff in meeting
their goals.

Read More: Professional Learning Communities - An Ongoing Exploration (2000). Morrissey,

Melanie S., for Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.

Shared Beliefs and Behaviors

Staff-wide beliefs and behaviors that support successful PLCs include:

Failure, mistakes and uncertainty in work are openly shared and discussed;

Colleagues agree on broad educational values, but accept disagreements that foster new
dialogue;
Teachers receive respect and consideration as people; and

Administrators support dispersed leadership, where teachers develop the confidence to

select and adapt strategies that drive improvement.

Read More: NCREL Monograph: Building Collaborative Cultures - Seeking Ways to Reshape Urban
Schools (1994). Peterson, Kent, for North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.

Additional key beliefs and practices include:

A relentless commitment to improvement;

A view of improvement as a team effort for which everyone is responsible;

An acknowledgement that teacher behavior is key to enhancing student learning;

A belief that knowledge is constructed from day-to-day experiences, along with the ability to
share those experiences; and
A value placed on ongoing learning (continuous inquiry).

Read More: Professional Learning Communities (2009). The Center for Comprehensive School
Reform and Improvement.

Another core belief of effective PLCs is that all students can learn. Schools embracing this belief
motivate teachers to share a vision for promoting student learning.
Further, in successful PLCs, high expectations of teachers and students emerge within a set of
priorities that benefits the whole school as well as teachers personal ambitions.

Finally, effective PLCs address the interpersonal skills of trust, collaboration and communication.

Read More: Professional Learning Communities - Characteristics, Principals, and Teachers(2009).

Cormier, Ron and Olivier, Dianne, for the Annual Meeting of the Louisiana Education Research
Association.

Related resources
Building Trust in Collaborative Learning Communities
Co-Teaching Tips
Better Book Study Groups

What Are Professional Learning Communities?

It has been interesting to observe the growing popularity of the term professional
learning community. In fact, the term has become so commonplace and has been
used so ambiguously to describe virtually any loose coupling of individuals who share a
common interest in education that it is in danger of losing all meaning. This lack of
precision is an obstacle to implementing PLC processes because, as Mike Schmoker
observes, clarity precedes competence (2004a, p. 85). Thus, we begin with an
attempt to clarify our meaning of the term. To those familiar with our past work, this
step may seem redundant, but we are convinced that redundancy can be a powerful
tool in effective communication, and we prefer redundancy to ambiguity.

We have seen many instances in which educators assume that a PLC is a program. For
example, one faculty told us that each year they implemented a new program in their
school. In the previous year it had been PLC, the year prior to that it had been
understanding by design, and the current year it was differentiated instruction.
They had converted the names of the various programs into verbs, and the joke on
the faculty was that they had been UBDed, PLCed, and DIed. The PLC process is not
a program. It cannot be purchased, nor can it be implemented by anyone other than
the staff itself. Most importantly, it is ongoinga continuous, never-ending process of
conducting schooling that has a profound impact on the structure and culture of the
school and the assumptions and practices of the professionals within it.
We have seen other instances in which educators assume that a PLC is a meetingan
occasional event when they meet with colleagues to complete a task. It is not
uncommon for us to hear, My PLC meets Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
This perception of a PLC is wrong on two counts. First, the PLC is the larger
organization and not the individual teams that comprise it. While collaborative teams
are an essential part of the PLC process, the sum is greater than the individual parts.
Much of the work of a PLC cannot be done by a team but instead requires a
schoolwide or districtwide effort. So we believe it is helpful to think of the school or
district as the PLC and the various collaborative teams as the building blocks of the
PLC. Second, once again, the PLC process has a pervasive and ongoing impact on the
structure and culture of the school. If educators meet with peers on a regular basis
only to return to business as usual, they are not functioning as a PLC. So the PLC
process is much more than a meeting.

So, what is a PLC? We argue that it 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. PLCs operate under the
assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous job-
embedded learning for educators. The following section examines the elements of the
PLC process more closely.

A Focus on Learning

The very essence of a learning community is a focus on and a commitment to the

learning of each student. When a school or district functions as a PLC, educators
within the organization embrace high levels of learning for all students as both the
reason the organization exists and the fundamental responsibility of those who work
within it. In order to achieve this purpose, the members of a PLC create and are
guided by a clear and compelling vision of what the organization must become in
order to help all students learn. They make collective commitments clarifying what
each member will do to create such an organization, and they use results-oriented
goals to mark their progress. Members work together to clarify exactly what each
student must learn, monitor each students learning on a timely basis, provide
systematic interventions that ensure students receive additional time and support for
learning when they struggle, and extend and enrich learning when students have
already mastered the intended outcomes.
A corollary assumption is that if the organization is to become more effective in
helping all students learn, the adults in the organization must also be continually
learning. Therefore, structures are created to ensure staff members engage in job-
embedded learning as part of their routine work practices.

There is no ambiguity or hedging regarding this commitment to learning. Whereas

many schools operate as if their primary purpose is to ensure that children are taught,
PLCs are dedicated to the idea that their organization exists to ensure that all
students learn essential knowledge, skills, and dispositions. All the other
characteristics of a PLC flow directly from this epic shift in assumptions about the
purpose of the school.

A Collaborative Culture With a Focus on Learning for All

Collaboration is a means to an end, not the end itself. In many schools, staff members
are willing to collaborate on a variety of topics as long as the focus of the
conversation stops at their classroom door. In a PLC, collaboration represents a
systematic process in which teachers work together interdependently in order to
impact their classroom practice in ways that will lead to better results for their
students, for their team, and for their school.

Collective Inquiry Into Best Practice and Current Reality

The teams in a PLC engage in collective inquiry into both best practices in teaching
and best practices in learning. They also inquire about their current reality including
their present practices and the levels of achievement of their students. They attempt
to arrive at consensus on vital questions by building shared knowledge rather than
pooling opinions. They have an acute sense of curiosity and openness to new
possibilities.

Collective inquiry enables team members to develop new skills and capabilities that in
turn lead to new experiences and awareness. Gradually, this heightened awareness
transforms into fundamental shifts in attitudes, beliefs, and habits which, over time,
transform the culture of the school.

Working together to build shared knowledge on the best way to achieve goals and
meet the needs of clients is exactly what professionals in any field are expected to
do, whether it is curing the patient, winning the lawsuit, or helping all students learn.
Members of a professional learning community are expected to work and learn
together.

Action Orientation: Learning by Doing

Members of PLCs are action oriented: they move quickly to turn aspirations into
action and visions into reality. They understand that the most powerful learning
always occurs in a context of taking action, and they value engagement and
experience as the most effective teachers. Henry Mintzbergs (2005) observation
about training leaders applies here: deep learning requires experience, which requires
taking action. It is as much about doing in order to think as thinking in order to do
(p. 10). In fact, the very reason that teachers work together in teams and engage in
collective inquiry is to serve as catalysts for action.

A Commitment to Continuous Improvement

Inherent to a PLC are a persistent disquiet with the status quo and a constant search
for a better way to achieve goals and accomplish the purpose of the organization.
Systematic processes engage each member of the organization in an ongoing cycle of:

Gathering evidence of current levels of student learning

Developing strategies and ideas to build on strengths and address weaknesses in that
learning
Implementing those strategies and ideas
Analyzing the impact of the changes to discover what was effective and what was not
Applying new knowledge in the next cycle of continuous improvement

The goal is not simply to learn a new strategy, but instead to create conditions for a
perpetual learning environment in which innovation and experimentation are viewed
not as tasks to be accomplished or projects to be completed but as ways of
conducting day-to-day businessforever. Furthermore, participation in this process is
not reserved for those designated as leaders; rather, it is a responsibility of every
member of the organization.
Results Orientation

Finally, members of a PLC realize that all of their efforts in these areas (a focus on
learning, collaborative teams, collective inquiry, action orientation, and continuous
improvement) must be assessed on the basis of results rather than intentions. Unless
initiatives are subjected to ongoing assessment on the basis of tangible results, they
represent random groping in the dark rather than purposeful improvement. As Peter
Senge and colleagues conclude, "The rationale for any strategy for building a learning
organization revolves around the premise that such organizations will produce
dramatically improved results."

This focus on results leads each team to develop and pursue measurable improvement
goals that are aligned to school and district goals for learning. It also drives teams to
create a series of common formative assessments that are administered to students
multiple times throughout the year to gather ongoing evidence of student learning.
Team members review the results from these assessments in an effort to identify and
address program concerns (areas of learning where many students are experiencing
difficulty). They also examine the results to discover strengths and weaknesses in
their individual teaching in order to learn from one another. Most importantly, the
assessments are used to identify students who need additional time and support for
learning. Frequent common formative assessments represent one of the most
powerful tools in the PLC arsenal.

Please also see What Is a Professional Learning Community?

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Many, T. (2006). Learning by Doing: A Handbook for
Professional Learning Communities at Work, pp. 24.

What Is a Professional Learning Community?

Richard DuFour

The idea of improving schools by developing professional learning communities is currently in vogue. People use
this term to describe every imaginable combination of individuals with an interest in educationa grade-level
teaching team, a school committee, a high school department, an entire school district, a state department of
 education, a national professional organization, and so on. In fact, the term has been used so ubiquitously that it is in
danger of losing all meaning.

The professional learning community model has now reached a critical juncture, one well known to those who have
witnessed the fate of other well-intentioned school reform efforts. In this all-too-familiar cycle, initial enthusiasm
gives way to confusion about the fundamental concepts driving the initiative, followed by inevitable implementation
problems, the conclusion that the reform has failed to bring about the desired results, abandonment of the reform,
and the launch of a new search for the next promising initiative. Another reform movement has come and gone,
reinforcing the conventional education wisdom that promises, This too shall pass.

The movement to develop professional learning communities can avoid this cycle, but only if educators reflect
critically on the concept's merits. What are the big ideas that represent the core principles of professional learning
communities? How do these principles guide schools' efforts to sustain the professional learning community model
until it becomes deeply embedded in the culture of the school?

Big Idea #1: Ensuring That Students Learn

The professional learning community model flows from the assumption that the core mission of formal education is
not simply to ensure that students are taught but to ensure that they learn. This simple shiftfrom a focus on
teaching to a focus on learninghas profound implications for schools.

School mission statements that promise learning for all have become a clich. But when a school staff takes that
statement literallywhen teachers view it as a pledge to ensure the success of each student rather than as politically
correct hyperboleprofound changes begin to take place. The school staff finds itself asking, What school
characteristics and practices have been most successful in helping all students achieve at high levels? How could we
adopt those characteristics and practices in our own school? What commitments would we have to make to one
another to create such a school? What indicators could we monitor to assess our progress? When the staff has built
shared knowledge and found common ground on these questions, the school has a solid foundation for moving
forward with its improvement initiative.

As the school moves forward, every professional in the building must engage with colleagues in the ongoing
exploration of three crucial questions that drive the work of those within a professional learning community:

What do we want each student to learn?

How will we know when each student has learned it?
How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning?

The answer to the third question separates learning communities from traditional schools.
 Here is a scenario that plays out daily in traditional schools. A teacher teaches a unit to the best of his or her ability,
but at the conclusion of the unit some students have not mastered the essential outcomes. On the one hand, the
teacher would like to take the time to help those students. On the other hand, the teacher feels compelled to move
forward to cover the course content. If the teacher uses instructional time to assist students who have not learned,
the progress of students who have mastered the content will suffer; if the teacher pushes on with new concepts, the
struggling students will fall farther behind.

What typically happens in this situation? Almost invariably, the school leaves the solution to the discretion of
individual teachers, who vary widely in the ways they respond. Some teachers conclude that the struggling students
should transfer to a less rigorous course or should be considered for special education. Some lower their
expectations by adopting less challenging standards for subgroups of students within their classrooms. Some look
for ways to assist the students before and after school. Some allow struggling students to fail.

When a school begins to function as a professional learning community, however, teachers become aware of the
incongruity between their commitment to ensure learning for all students and their lack of a coordinated strategy to
respond when some students do not learn. The staff addresses this discrepancy by designing strategies to ensure that
struggling students receive additional time and support, no matter who their teacher is. In addition to being
systematic and schoolwide, the professional learning community's response to students who experience difficulty is

Timely. The school quickly identifies students who need additional time and support.
Based on intervention rather than remediation. The plan provides students with help
as soon as they experience difficulty rather than relying on summer school, retention, and
remedial courses.
Directive. Instead of inviting students to seek additional help, the systematic
plan requiresstudents to devote extra time and receive additional assistance until they have
mastered the necessary concepts.

The systematic, timely, and directive intervention program operating at Adlai Stevenson High School in
Lincolnshire, Illinois, provides an excellent example. Every three weeks, every student receives a progress report.
Within the first month of school, new students discover that if they are not doing well in a class, they will receive a
wide array of immediate interventions. First, the teacher, counselor, and faculty advisor each talk with the student
individually to help resolve the problem. The school also notifies the student's parents about the concern. In
addition, the school offers the struggling student a pass from study hall to a school tutoring center to get additional
help in the course. An older student mentor, in conjunction with the struggling student's advisor, helps the student
with homework during the student's daily advisory period.

Any student who continues to fall short of expectations at the end of six weeks despite these interventions is
required, rather than invited, to attend tutoring sessions during the study hall period. Counselors begin to make
weekly checks on the struggling student's progress. If tutoring fails to bring about improvement within the next six
weeks, the student is assigned to a daily guided study hall with 10 or fewer students. The guided study hall
supervisor communicates with classroom teachers to learn exactly what homework each student needs to complete
and monitors the completion of that homework. Parents attend a meeting at the school at which the student, parents,
counselor, and classroom teacher must sign a contract clarifying what each party will do to help the student meet the
standards for the course.

Stevenson High School serves more than 4,000 students. Yet this school has found a way to monitor each student's
learning on a timely basis and to ensure that every student who experiences academic difficulty will receive extra
time and support for learning.

Like Stevenson, schools that are truly committed to the concept of learning for each student will stop subjecting
struggling students to a haphazard education lottery. These schools will guarantee that each student receives
whatever additional support he or she needs.

Big Idea #2: A Culture of Collaboration

Educators who are building a professional learning community recognize that they must work together to achieve
their collective purpose of learning for all. Therefore, they create structures to promote a collaborative culture.

Despite compelling evidence indicating that working collaboratively represents best practice, teachers in many
schools continue to work in isolation. Even in schools that endorse the idea of collaboration, the staff's willingness
to collaborate often stops at the classroom door. Some school staffs equate the term collaboration with
congeniality and focus on building group camaraderie. Other staffs join forces to develop consensus on operational
procedures, such as how they will respond to tardiness or supervise recess. Still others organize themselves into
committees to oversee different facets of the school's operation, such as discipline, technology, and social climate.
Although each of these activities can serve a useful purpose, none represents the kind of professional dialogue that
can transform a school into a professional learning community.

The powerful collaboration that characterizes professional learning communities is a systematic process in which
teachers work together to analyze and improve their classroom practice. Teachers work in teams, engaging in an
ongoing cycle of questions that promote deep team learning. This process, in turn, leads to higher levels of student
achievement.

Collaborating for School Improvement

At Boones Mill Elementary School, a K-5 school serving 400 students in rural Franklin County, Virginia, the
powerful collaboration of grade-level teams drives the school improvement process. The following scenario
describes what Boones Mill staff members refer to as their teaching-learning process.
The school's five 3rd grade teachers study state and national standards, the district curriculum guide, and student
achievement data to identify the essential knowledge and skills that all students should learn in an upcoming
language arts unit. They also ask the 4th grade teachers what they hope students will have mastered by the time they
leave 3rd grade. On the basis of the shared knowledge generated by this joint study, the 3rd grade team agrees on the
critical outcomes that they will make sure each student achieves during the unit.

Next, the team turns its attention to developing common formative assessments to monitor each student's mastery of
the essential outcomes. Team members discuss the most authentic and valid ways to assess student mastery. They set
the standard for each skill or concept that each student must achieve to be deemed proficient. They agree on the
criteria by which they will judge the quality of student work, and they practice applying those criteria until they can
do so consistently. Finally, they decide when they will administer the assessments.

After each teacher has examined the results of the common formative assessment for his or her students, the team
analyzes how all 3rd graders performed. Team members identify strengths and weaknesses in student learning and
begin to discuss how they can build on the strengths and address the weaknesses. The entire team gains new insights
into what is working and what is not, and members discuss new strategies that they can implement in their
classrooms to raise student achievement.

At Boones Mill, collaborative conversations happen routinely throughout the year. Teachers use frequent formative
assessments to investigate the questions Are students learning what they need to learn? and Who needs additional
time and support to learn? rather than relying solely on summative assessments that ask Which students learned
what was intended and which students did not?

Collaborative conversations call on team members to make public what has traditionally been privategoals,
strategies, materials, pacing, questions, concerns, and results. These discussions give every teacher someone to turn
to and talk to, and they are explicitly structured to improve the classroom practice of teachersindividually and
collectively.

For teachers to participate in such a powerful process, the school must ensure that everyone belongs to a team that
focuses on student learning. Each team must have time to meet during the workday and throughout the school year.
Teams must focus their efforts on crucial questions related to learning and generate products that reflect that focus,
such as lists of essential outcomes, different kinds of assessment, analyses of student achievement, and strategies for
improving results. Teams must develop norms or protocols to clarify expectations regarding roles, responsibilities,
and relationships among team members. Teams must adopt student achievement goals linked with school and district
goals.

Removing Barriers to Success

For meaningful collaboration to occur, a number of things must also stop happening. Schools must stop pretending
that merely presenting teachers with state standards or district curriculum guides will guarantee that all students
have access to a common curriculum. Even school districts that devote tremendous time and energy to designing
the intended curriculum often pay little attention to the implemented curriculum (what teachers actually teach) and
even less to the attainedcurriculum (what students learn) (Marzano, 2003). Schools must also give teachers time to
analyze and discuss state and district curriculum documents. More important, teacher conversations must quickly
move beyond What are we expected to teach? to How will we know when each student has learned?

In addition, faculties must stop making excuses for failing to collaborate. Few educators publicly assert that working
in isolation is the best strategy for improving schools. Instead, they give reasons why it is impossible for them to
work together: We just can't find the time. Not everyone on the staff has endorsed the idea. We need more
training in collaboration. But the number of schools that have created truly collaborative cultures proves that such
barriers are not insurmountable. As Roland Barth (1991) wrote,

Are teachers and administrators willing to accept the fact that they are part of the
problem? . . . God didn't create self-contained classrooms, 50-minute periods, and subjects
taught in isolation. We didbecause we find working alone safer than and preferable to
working together. (pp. 126127)

In the final analysis, building the collaborative culture of a professional learning community is a question of will. A
group of staff members who are determined to work together will find a way.

Big Idea #3: A Focus on Results

Professional learning communities judge their effectiveness on the basis of results. Working together to improve
student achievement becomes the routine work of everyone in the school. Every teacher team participates in an
ongoing process of identifying the current level of student achievement, establishing a goal to improve the current
level, working together to achieve that goal, and providing periodic evidence of progress. The focus of team goals
shifts. Such goals as We will adopt the Junior Great Books program or We will create three new labs for our
science course give way to We will increase the percentage of students who meet the state standard in language
arts from 83 percent to 90 percent or We will reduce the failure rate in our course by 50 percent.

Schools and teachers typically suffer from the DRIP syndromeData Rich/Information Poor. The results-oriented
professional learning community not only welcomes data but also turns data into useful and relevant information for
staff. Teachers have never suffered from a lack of data. Even a teacher who works in isolation can easily establish
the mean, mode, median, standard deviation, and percentage of students who demonstrated proficiency every time
he or she administers a test. However, data will become a catalyst for improved teacher practice only if the teacher
has a basis of comparison.
When teacher teams develop common formative assessments throughout the school year, each teacher can identify
how his or her students performed on each skill compared with other students. Individual teachers can call on their
team colleagues to help them reflect on areas of concern. Each teacher has access to the ideas, materials, strategies,
and talents of the entire team.

Freeport Intermediate School, located 50 miles south of Houston, Texas, attributes its success to an unrelenting
focus on results. Teachers work in collaborative teams for 90 minutes daily to clarify the essential outcomes of their
grade levels and courses and to align those outcomes with state standards. They develop consistent instructional
calendars and administer the same brief assessment to all students at the same grade level at the conclusion of each
instructional unit, roughly once a week.

Each quarter, the teams administer a common cumulative exam. Each spring, the teams develop and administer
practice tests for the state exam. Each year, the teams pore over the results of the state test, which are broken down
to show every teacher how his or her students performed on every skill and on every test item. The teachers share
their results from all of these assessments with their colleagues, and they quickly learn when a teammate has been
particularly effective in teaching a certain skill. Team members consciously look for successful practice and attempt
to replicate it in their own practice; they also identify areas of the curriculum that need more attention.

Freeport Intermediate has been transformed from one of the lowest-performing schools in the state to a national
model for academic achievement. Principal Clara Sale-Davis believes that the crucial first step in that transformation
came when the staff began to honestly confront data on student achievement and to work together to improve results
rather than make excuses for them.

Of course, this focus on continual improvement and results requires educators to change traditional practices and
revise prevalent assumptions. Educators must begin to embrace data as a useful indicator of progress. They must
stop disregarding or excusing unfavorable data and honestly confront the sometimes-brutal facts. They must stop
using averages to analyze student performance and begin to focus on the success of each student.

Educators who focus on results must also stop limiting improvement goals to factors outside the classroom, such as
student discipline and staff morale, and shift their attention to goals that focus on student learning. They must stop
assessing their own effectiveness on the basis of how busy they are or how many new initiatives they have launched
and begin instead to ask, Have we made progress on the goals that are most important to us? Educators must stop
working in isolation and hoarding their ideas, materials, and strategies and begin to work together to meet the needs
of all students.
Hard Work and Commitment

Even the grandest design eventually translates into hard work. The professional learning community model is a
grand designa powerful new way of working together that profoundly affects the practices of schooling. But
initiating and sustaining the concept requires hard work. It requires the school staff to focus on learning rather than
teaching, work collaboratively on matters related to learning, and hold itself accountable for the kind of results that
fuel continual improvement.

When educators do the hard work necessary to implement these principles, their collective ability to help all students
learn will rise. If they fail to demonstrate the discipline to initiate and sustain this work, then their school is unlikely
to become more effective, even if those within it claim to be a professional learning community. The rise or fall of
the professional learning community concept depends not on the merits of the concept itself, but on the most
important element in the improvement of any schoolthe commitment and persistence of the educators within it.

References

Barth, R. (1991). Restructuring schools: Some questions for teachers and principals. Phi Delta Kappan, 73(2), 123
128.

Marzano, R. (2003). What works in schools: Translating research into action. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Richard DuFour recently retired as Superintendent of Adlai Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire,
Illinois. He currently resides in Moneta, Virginia, and may be reached at (540) 721-
4662;rdufour@district125.k12.il.us. His forthcoming book is Whatever It Takes: How a Professional
Learning Community Responds When Kids Don't Learn (National Educational Service, in press).