A Journey in Fostering Authentic Professional Learning Communities

Steve Frazier, Principal of Silver Trail Middle School; Past-President of Florida Association of Secondary School Principals (FASSP); South Region Director of Florida Association of School Administrators (FASA); Executive Director of Florida League of Middle Schools (FLMS)

Daniela Fatout, Administrative Support at Silver Trail Middle School

“A Professional Learning Community is a collaboration of teachers, administrators, parents, and students, who work together to seek out best practices, test them in the classroom, continuously improve processes, and focus on results.” (Rick DuFour, 2002)

The Vision
Silver Trail Middle School’s mission is to provide a safe, progressive, stimulating learning environment that enables students to reach their fullest potential as responsible, productive citizens in a diverse society.  Silver Trail Middle School is an integral part of its community and focuses on developing and implementing programs that will fit the diverse needs of its students. 
 

In order to accomplish this, the school strives to implement programs that will afford their students exploration and project-based learning opportunities. It is their objective to recognize the diverse stages that an emerging pre-adolescent child goes through and offer innovative and flexible initiatives to meet their needs. As educators, they need to continuously reform their educational practices with self-reflection and reevaluation. 

Professional Learning Communities are a way to assist in bridging this gap.  Improving and developing strategies to create a more effective and efficient school environment has been a foundational key to the school’s academic success.

“Creating a shared sense of purpose in the school, including clear goals focused on student learning is important when building a framework that will support student growth.” (Hallinger, 2005)

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) 

provide the faculty and staff a school-wide adult learning opportunity creating a supportive school environment to increase student achievement. There are a few main areas of focus when developing and designing PLCs.  

First, the school must build a culture where lifelong learning is important.  Providing regular scheduled time without interruption for professional learning sends a clear message that adult learning is a priority. Regular participation by the school’s administration and support staff is also an important ingredient to building an environment where PLCs are respected. 

Giving teachers the time to share best practices, model lessons, and discuss research- based strategies allows them to be immersed in their learning while in a safe, comfortable environment. Teachers need to know they can converse openly and honestly with one another without judgment. 

The creation of teacher-initiated, authentic professional development is only successful when the faculty is empowered. The faculty’s role in building an adult learning program is critical for success.

 

Building a Positive School Culture

To nurture a positive culture for adult learning, teachers focused on continuous improvement by expecting high standards for PLCs. It is essential for teachers to critically reflect on academic and instructional practices to ensure improvement. For example, even before the new Florida Standards were introduced, it was important for the teachers to get ‘in front’ of this significant curriculum shift.

Teachers are motivated to work together as a team to focus on the goal of improving overall student achievement through meaningful instructional practices that encourage student engagement.This aligns with the school’s mission to provide challenging & rigorous teaching and learning. Teachers proactively focused on remediation and enrichment as they collaborated to build lessons that met the new standards. The staff has always felt it important to be ‘ahead of the curve’ and to implement appropriate changes in order for the school to succeed.

Implementation

Planning and collaborating with teacher leaders was key in making the school’s PLC model a success. This collaborative process afforded teacher leaders the opportunity to discuss and develop a school-wide PLC model that meets the needs of the faculty and still supports the school-wide vision. The time set aside for this planning of future learning communities was essential in building a teacher-centered PLC model.  

Success in its implementation was a result of empowering teachers to design individualized professional learning opportunities for themselves and their colleagues. This led to immediate buy-in from teachers because they were provided with the resources and time needed to digest and adjust the material according to their needs.  The teacher leaders who developed the sessions had a deep connection and understanding of what support and resources needed to be set aside in order to effectively develop this PLC model.   

"Research related to effective instructional practice emphasizes the need for greater personalization and individualization of instruction because learning is an individual experience." (Rule, 2006)

  
Silver Trail Middle School’s PLCs create an arena in which teachers can focus on shared goals in a team setting.  Teachers are able to set clear goals aligned with improving student performance through meaningful instructional practices that encourage student engagement.  

Data disaggregation plays an important role in the creation of curricular goals in the school.  Analyzing various data sources such as standardized test scores, benchmark assessment scores, Common Formative Assessments, District/State assessment comparison data, school demographics data, and enrollment data gives the teachers deeper insight into the learning needs of the students.  Looking at each data source separately gives alternative viewpoints, and allows teachers to include other data sources that may have affected the student results.  In order to best align the needs of the students, all-available data sources are analyzed for trends and utilized to drive course changes.


Moreover, the data allows for specific learning goals to be translated into instructional objectives.  These instructional objectives describe the process and product of what the student is expected to learn and do by the end of the lesson.  It is important for these objectives to be attainable and measureable to indicate student performance and progress.  

These objectives give teachers and students a path to follow towards the greater goal of overall student achievement.  This method allows leaders to reflect and improve upon instructional practices by analyzing trends found in assessment, demographic, and enrollment data.  Initially, assessment data was used to drive decision-making in the school.  However, looking strictly at assessment data and drawing final conclusions from those results do not always take into account the overall needs of the students and school.  The PLCs continue to work to diminish this obstacle by creating a platform where teachers can discuss the whole child.

“Without instructional objectives teaching is comparable to a fallen leaf whose destination is dependent on the will of the wind. Without instructional objectives, teachers will have nothing to follow in order to achieve what it should achieve” (Subong, 2010)

Working Towards Success

The ultimate goal is to make certain that students are receiving an education that will give them the opportunity to be globally competitive. Currently Silver Trail Middle School continues to focus on the needs of the community and students on an individual level; while at the same time, keeping in mind the shift towards implementation of the Florida Standards. 

It is the school’s mission to give students the opportunity to explore their interests and develop their talents in a safe and productive learning environment. PLCs are a great way to accomplish this mission. This will be the vehicle where new information is introduced and applied.  The school will be sharing their journey through this process from year one to the present and beyond. Leaders will be discussing the implementation plan and resources used to achieve authentic learning communities at Silver Trail Middle. 

Join us for our breakout session at the FASA Discover ’16 Conference on Tuesday, June 14th and start planning your own school’s Professional Learning Community. 

Register Here!