InveHsting in teacher leaders When teachers are
trained to be instructional leaders with responsibility for Professional Learning Communities, the results can be powerful.
ave your efforts to implement effective Professional Learn- ing Communities in your school or district been less
successful than you had hoped? You are not alone. All across California, educators are finding that creating strong and effective PLCs at every grade level or in every subject area is not easy. “It may be tempting to conclude that
PLCs are one more idea that didn’t work,” notes Pivot Learning Partners Executive Di- rector Merrill Vargo. “But there is solid re- search to support the core concepts of PLCs: a focus on learning, collaborative culture, continuous inquiry, de-privatizing practice. Rather than give up, let’s figure out how to get there.” This article reports on the effort of one
district, Palmdale Elementary, to explore the possibility that the key to strengthening PLCs is teacher leaders. Palmdale Superin- tendent Roger Gallizzi offered this assess- ment of the teacher leader work in his dis- trict: “Very powerful.” We know what PLCs are not. They are
24 Leadership
not loose collections of teachers or adminis- trators who come together to share tips and strategies or to discuss issues of mutual con- cern. While such groups can be a first step, true PLCs – sometimes also called commu- nities of practice – are far more deliberate in both what they do and how they do it. Teacher PLCs provide both the structure
and the process for teachers to come to- gether as professionals to identify and work on what Richard Elmore of Harvard calls “problems of practice.” Rather than having such problems being left to individual teach- ers, every teacher becomes part of a broader community that learns to address challenges together by examining systems and practices both inside and outside the classroom. This is a tall order, and it makes sense
that for these groups to thrive, they need ef- fective leaders. And if PLCs are to operate in every subject matter department or every grade level, then PLCs cannot be led by the principal: there are not enough hours in the
By Judy Kingsley
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40