Professional Learning Communities

Teacher collaboration is hailed as one of the most effective ways to improve student learning. A recent article in EdWeek highlights Adlai E. Stevenson High School, which was one of the first in the nation to embrace what are known as professional learning communities (PLC'S). The school's focus on teacher teamwork has taken it from an ordinary good school to an extraordinary one. It has been a U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon school for four years-one of only three nationwide to achieve that honor.

Richard DuFour, a leading expert on professional learning communities, says educators can enhance the effectiveness of teacher teams by focusing on four essential points:

1. Build time for collaboration into the school day and school year.

2. Clarify the purpose and products of the collaboration: They include identifying common course- or grade-level objectives, developing common assessments of student learning, reviewing samples of student work, analyzing student performance, and identifying areas of concern as well as strategies for improving performance.

3. Ask teams to clarify their operating procedures and protocols that will guide their work together. Teams should consider and reach agreement on such questions as: What are the expectations for how our team will operate? How will we define consensus? What process will we use to resolve conflict?

4. Insist that teams identify specific, measurable performance goals, which should ultimately require a team to demonstrate that more students are learning at higher levels.

To read more about professional learning communities and their successes in schools such as Stevenson High School refer to the recent EdWeek article 'Working Smarter By Working Together' by Vaishali Honawar at http://lnk.edweek.org/edweek/index.html?url=/ew/articles/2008/04/02/31plc_ep.h27.html&tkn=S6qJ3tnVwU8UNpmE5cvBwWsm4JBjXeQY