Real World Professional Learning Communities: Their Use and Effects

In a professional learning community (PLC), teachers are organized into teams, committed to meeting on a regular basis to study their teaching strategies and the effects of those strategies on the students in their classrooms. The teacher teams can be of varied form and composition. Whatever the organizational structure, the teams have one goal — that is to improve teaching so that student learning is improved. Policy developers, legislators, and educational leaders have encouraged the adoption of collaborative professional learning teams as a school reform model for improving schools. In this book we describe the results of studies of professional learning communities in real schools and the effects of the teams on student learning. Much of the time school innovations are not examined in depth. Instead authors and developers simply advocate that they be used. In this book, school principals and administrators describe how their teachers used the PLC teams to improve student learning in their schools. In other words, this book presents actual research on the effects of the use of PLCs rather than testimonials.

Table of Contents:
Foreword—Terri Croft Boman Part I —Overview of book Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: The Conceptual framework for Professional Learning Communities as Reform Initiatives Daisy Arredondo Rucinski (Example of use by Kyra L. Rhyne) Part II – Use of PLCs in Elementary Schools Chapter 3: Teacher reflection and teacher development in elementary schools using Alabama’s Instructional Partners Program (IPN) Bradley A. Scott, Principal, Chaffee Elementary School, Huntsville, AL Chapter 4: Elementary teacher reflection in professional learning communities and teacher learning Rachel Real Poovey – Supervisor of Elementary Education, Decatur, AL City Schools Chapter 5: Using PLC collaboration as a foundation for trust and teacher efficacy in elementary schools Datie I. Priest – Principal, West Decatur Elementary School, Decatur, AL Part III – Use of PLCs in middle and high schools Chapter 6: Relationships among professional learning communities, trust, and student achievement in elementary and middle school mathematics. Herbert A. Betts III – Madras Middle School, Assistant Principal, Coweta School System, Newnan, GA Chapter 7: School Culture, Professional Learning Community and Student Achievement in Middle and High Schools Amanda Hitson Cassity – District curriculum director, Northern Region, Tuscaloosa County Schools, Tuscaloosa, AL Chapter 8: Common Planning in High School Departments: A Structure for Implementing Professional Learning Communities Kyra L. Rhyne – District coordinator for virtual learning, Catoosa County Schools, Ringold, GA Part IV – School, District, and State contexts in using PLCs as a school reform and accountability strategy: Chapter 9: Using a professional learning community framework to support response to intervention (RTI) in middle and high schools Nicole Spiller – District Director of Student and Intervention Services, Atlanta School System, Atlanta, GA Chapter 10: Developing schools as professional learning communities: Does district level leadership matter? Terri Croft Boman – University – K-12 Professional Development Director Chapter 11: Professional development in the states: How statutes and regulations target teacher quality to improve student learning Helen M. Hazi, Professor, West Virginia University and Daisy Arredondo Rucinski – Professor, The University of Alabama Part V – What the research says about the effects of using PLCs in schools and student or teacher learning: Chapter 12: Meta analyses of the research Part 1: A meta-analytic review of dissertation research on Use of PLCs and student achievement Part 2: A Meta-analytic Review of the Published Research on Use of PLCs and Student and Teacher Learning. Susan McClendon Patrick, Secondary Curriculum Supervisor, Cullman County Schools, Cullman, AL; Daisy Arredondo Rucinski, Professor; and Sara Elizabeth Tomek, Associate Professor, UA. Chapter 13: Conclusions, limitations, and implications for future research Daisy Arredondo Rucinski Index

About the Author :
Daisy Arredondo Rucinski is professor of educational leadership and policy studies at The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL. She holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Washington. She has been a biology, Spanish, and algebra teacher, a high school assistant principal, an assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, a deputy superintendent, and a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Santiago, Chile. Her research interests are instructional leadership and supervision, professional development, school effectiveness, and reflective learning. She writes about these topics and related policy issues.

Review :
In this book scholar-practitioners provide reasons to be hopeful about educational practice in a current, dark era of accountability reform. Their research vividly portrays the professional learning community as a viable and meaningful strategy for studying and improving teaching and learning at all scholastic levels. Their collective voices demonstrate how, as educators work hard together, intelligent and productive insight can emerge in the spaces between people. The final chapter presents a synthesis of the major ideas and implications for both research and practice. The book will appeal to educators involved in public schooling and pre-service training, as well as parents and policy makers, those who recognize the significance of renewal and growth through collective wisdom as demonstrated by the authors themselves. In Real-World Professional Learning Communities, Arredondo Rucinski has provided a fresh and needed look at the phenomenon of professional learning communities. Starting with a healthy skepticism about the nature and effectiveness of PLCs, the author/editor and her colleagues not only implemented the process in a variety of “real world” situations, but also identified the critical components of successful executions of this ever-growing innovation. This book should help anyone wishing to understand what works and what does not work when designing and implementing an effective PLC. Arredondo Rucinski has invited key stakeholders to crucial conversation around Professional Learning Communities. In her approach we benefit from the perspectives of leading researchers, district leaders, classroom teachers, and school leaders. It is typical to consider the perspective of one or two of these constituencies but it is refreshing and exciting to benefit from a broad range of educators all of whom share in a commitment to thoughtful, practical, and impactful learning communities.