 | Professional Learning Communities: transforming school culture
 | | Tracy Reimer |
Professional Learning Communities:
Transforming the Culture of a School
Best Practices in Instructional Leadership
(December 2010)
Tracy Reimer, principal
Bendix Elementary, Annandale
Current
federal legislation, such as No Child Left Behind and The Race to the Top, have
elicited high levels of accountability for increasing
student reading achievement. Professional organizations and researchers
encourage educators to organize schools into professional learning communities
(PLCs) to improve student learning. Despite the increasing popularity of the
term PLC, actually transforming the culture of a school into a PLC continues to
be a complex and challenging task. Leadership has been identified in studies as
a critical element of change that leads to improvement; yet, research does not define
the daily principal practices that are successful in developing and sustaining
a school-wide professional learning community.
To learn more about the principal’s role in developing
professional learning communities, I conducted a qualitative study in spring
2009 in preparing my dissertation at the University of Minnesota. My study
addressed successful leadership practices of principals in four schools that
“beat the odds” in reading. The schools were at or above the district mean
proficiency on the MCAII, and had higher ELL and poverty levels than other
elementary schools in the district. Data was gathered through 34 one-on-one
interviews with principals, teachers (K-5 classroom, Title 1, and special
education), and instructional coaches, as well as principal observations and
artifact collection. Data collection was guided by five attributes of
professional learning communities: shared leadership, shared values and vision,
deprivatized practice, collective creativity, and supportive conditions.
The major findings of the study identified the
following principal actions as conducive to the establishment of professional
learning communities.
1.
Teachers had
input in curriculum, instruction, and assessment decisions.
2.
School building
level systems (committees, staff meeting norms) were involved in decision
making and information dispersion.
3.
Schools had a
reading instructional framework informed by research.
4.
Grade-level and
cross grade-level collaboration on reading instruction included reflecting on
practice, reviewing student work, common planning, studying research, and
analyzing student data.
5.
Teaching peers
provided instructional support to colleagues by mentoring, observing, and
co-teaching.
6.
A high commitment
to quality instruction and achievement elicited collective creativity via
seeking research, professional development and internet resources.
7.
Extrinsic
recognition of student reading achievement.
I’m eager to participate in continued professional
discussions with other principals to share and discuss how to successfully
implement the seven actions. Just as teachers learn from the best practices of
their peers, it is important principals do, too.
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