Creating and Sustaining a

Structured Professional Learning

Community within a Catholic
Context
Diocese
of Yakima
establishes
PLCs to
ensure
ongoing
learningfor
staff and
students
as well as
improve
organizational
capacity
Chuck Salina and John Traynor

32

Momentum

April/ May 2009

Leadership teams developed collective purpose statements.

tion is the enemy of improvement," then the typical Catholic

school teacher and administrator
is uniquely hamstrung. In the
f, as Jamentz
says,
"Isolaschools,
Catholic
of many (2002)
case
and particularly those within a large,
spread-out diocese, isolation is a
pervasive occurrence for the personnel. In fact, this isolation is common
within the broader K-12 teaching and
administration professions.
One method of intervening and
overcoming this enemy is through the
process of developing and engaging
in the work of Professional Learning
Communities (PLCs). The mission
and disposition of Catholic schools
lends a particular head start toward
this powerful school improvement
process. While secular in much of its

delivery, the characteristics of and

necessary conditions for the successful execution of PLCs in schools are
powerfully congruent with Catholic
school identity and culture.

Characteristics of a HighQuality PLC

Covey (1996) states, "Only the
organizations that have a passion
for learning will have an enduring
influence" (p. 149). There is a consistent message in current research
that the establishment of a PLC helps
ensure ongoing learning for staff and
students as well as improves organizational capacity. A PLC is characterized by four cornerstones: a clear
mission, a sense of purpose, a shared
vision and intentional goals (Dufour
& Eaker, 1998). Through collegial

and collaborative activity, a collective

responsibility is formed among staff

that promotes and sustains continuous improvement and learning (Newman & Wehlage, 1995). This notion of
individuals coming together to work
interdependently toward the common good requires staff to be able to:
a. engage in public reflection where
they freely talk about their beliefs
and challenge each other relentlessly;
b. develop shared meaning where
the team establishes common
ground to work from;
c. engage in joint planning where
the team designs actions steps and
tests their insights; and
d. coordinate action to be carried out
by individuals and/or a group.
(Ross, Smith & Roberts, 1994, pp.
59-64).
Within a Professional Learning framework, a clear mission and
purpose for schools is focused on
student learning. A shared vision
becomes this framework for action
Dr. Chuck Salina is program director
of the master of arts in leadership and
administrationprogram in the School of
Education at Gonzaga University. He
also serves as a consultantfor Northwest
Association of Accredited Schools and
has given numerous workshops to school
districtsfocusing on the school improvement process that develops powerful
teaching and learning.He has 30 years
experience as a K-12 educator,with 24
of those years as a building principalat
both the elementary and secondary levels
(salina@gonzaga.edu).Dr. John Traynor
has 10 years experience as a K-12 educator as a history teacher and as a service
learningprogram director.Currently he is
program directorfor the master's of initial
teaching program at Gonzaga University.
He works in the areas of service learning
in K-12 classrooms and schools and in
the area of Catholic identity in schools
(traynor@gonzaga.edu).

and answers the question: What is it

we want to become (DuFour & Eaker,
1998)? Values guide actions (Kouzes
& Posner, 2002) so, consequently,
knowing what one values is critical to
the individual and the learning community.
A Professional Learning Community is intentional about identifying
what its members value. This clarification of values and team norms
serves as the driving force that leads
the group to its collective vision of
ensuring that each student learns
(Dufour and Eaker, 1998).
Finally, intentional goals help to
institutionalize a plan of action that
is focused on results and answers the
four fundamental questions of a Professional Learning Community:
1. What is it we want them to learn?
2. How will we know if they have
learned?
3. What will we do if they have not
learned?
4. What will we do if they have
learned? (Defour, 2004)

Intersection of Professional
Learning Communities and the
Catholic Mission

Catholic school identity is congruous and in fact supportive of

Professional Learning Communities
through a belief in both the communal emphasis regarding human and
Christian existence (Groome, 1996),
and an expectation that a "Community in Christ is experienced" (United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1990). Both of these ideas serve

"Catholicschool identity is
congruous and infact supportive of Professional
LearningCommunities
througha belief in both the
communal emphasis regarding human and Christian
existence and an expectation
that a "Communityin Christ
is experienced.'
Teams share ideas and develop
relationships.

Catholic schools do not have student academic performance as their

sole objective. The U.S. bishops have
reminded us that "Catholic elementary and secondary schools are of great
value to our church and our nation;
and that, in our role as chief teachers, we are each responsible for the
total educational ministry of the local
church" (United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops, 1990). This is a
heavy charge and one that underlines both the mission of the Catholic
school and the subsequent service to
the church and greater community
that is an outcome of this type of
education. Additionally, this notion
highlights the sense of community
and collaboration that accompanies
the Catholic school mission that is in
fact the ministry of the church.
Momentum

April/May 2009

33

as reminders of the importance that

community plays in Catholic Church
identity. These reminders also highlight the similarities between the PLC
process and the character of Catholic
school communities.
Our Catholic identity calls us to
function as a community of faith and
provides us with the messages and
traditions to do so. These messages
and traditions are important markers for Catholic school culture that
reinforce the potential for the Professional Learning Community to find
fertile ground to both impact student
learning and strengthen Catholic
school identity. The cornerstones of
PLCs (clear mission, sense of purpose,
shared vision and intentional goals)
were defined earlier by citing Dufour
& Eaker (1998). Groome (1996) talks
of certain characteristics of Catholic
schools with striking similarities to
those cornerstones.
"* Positive anthropology of the
person

"* Sacramentality of life

"* Communal emphasis regarding
human and Christian existence

"* Commitment to tradition

"* Rationality and learning
The connection between student learning and a school culture
rooted in community are two powerful points of intersection between
Catholic school identity and the
PLC process. In the Catholic context,
schools are challenged to help "Make
[peoplel's faith become living, conscious, and active, through the light
of instruction" (To Teach as Jesus Did,
1972 #28). This invocation of instruction, as it relates to faith becoming active, is at the core of Catholic
education and a powerful crossroads
between characteristics of Catholic
schools and characteristics of high
quality PLCs.
The mission and purpose of Catholic schools is grounded in the formation of our church's values. The vision
34

Momentum

April/ May 2009

of Catholic schools helps define true

north and clarifies direction (Covey,
1994) that is grounded in sustaining our Catholic traditions. What we
value as a Catholic school becomes
our code of conduct. Intentional
goals establish an action plan for us
to achieve our vision and answer the
question: Which steps will we take
first to ensure the suitability that
makes us uniquely Catholic?

Yakima Diocese and the PLC

Process
The leadership team in the Yakima diocese in Washington is using
these four cornerstones to establish
PLCs within a Catholic context in its
schools. This bold initiative began
with diocesan training for all its
teachers. This training provided the
rationale of how the PLC process
truly complements the Catholic belief
of community and the value and
worth of each person. This training
also established a firm foundation of
understanding of each of the teachers' roles and personal responsibilities within a community of learners.
These responsibilities include forms
of collegial dialogue, interactions
with students that promote learning
as well as healthy relationships with
the greater Catholic community.
Each school established its team's
purpose statement and related team
norms to ensure that Catholic values
were clearly identified and incorporated into the code of conduct. Each
school is aligning its purpose statement with the mission of the school
and the vision of the diocese. The
next step will be to identify clear
goals and an action plan to ensure
that continuous school improvement
occurs.
Yakima diocese Catholic schools
face the difficulty of distance and
isolation from each other. To ensure
sustainability in the leadership capacity of its staffs, school principals came
together, with the support of Super-

intendent Bob Glennon and in collaboration with Gonzaga University,

to initiate school-specific PLCs. Each
leadership team considers itself the
"guardian" of keeping the mission
and purpose of the Catholic schools
alive in the Yakima diocese.
The first step the leadership team
took was to develop a collective purpose statement:
The purpose of the Yakima diocese
leadership team is to foster a stronger
sense of a Catholic faith community
and spirituality by:
"* Sharing ideas and collaborating
"* Developing trusting relationships
"* Delivering academic excellence
that promotes Catholic identity
within our diocesan schools
The leadership team also established
team norms that state:
We will be:
Open to new ideas
0 Respectful
0 Focused
P Honest in sharing
0 Reflective
k Positive
0 Enthusiastic
k Listeners
According to Jon Lane, principal of
Saint Rose of Lima in Ephrata, Washington, "The focus of our monthly
meetings has been businesslike,
but they have not helped us grow
professionally or spiritually." However, the ensuing work provided a
powerful model for the leadership
team to come together to form a PLC.
"Our initial workshop with Gonzaga
helped us formulate a purpose statement that is moving us toward dealing with the authentic work that is
urgent and important," he said.
With this firm commitment to
ensure that their purpose statement
becomes a reality, the leadership team
committed to collaborate to examine
practices, to work together and to assess their effectiveness on the basis of

results-by seeking relevant information that promotes continuous improvement of student learning within
the Catholic context.
Members of the leadership team
are modeling the way for their staffs
through the PLC process, so that
everyone within the Catholic community of Yakima becomes reflective
and interdependent and continually
examines practices to improve teaching and learning (Downy et al., 2004).
It is the desire and goal of this leadership team that PLCs within a Catholic context operate effectively in each
of their schools so that every student
has a meaningful educational experience and so that each school operates
as a healthy apostolic community.
"This is challenge work that we want
and need to do but have had difficult
getting started," Lane said. "With
Gonzaga our work has been grounded in practical theory and practice."
Engagement in this process, by
both schools and the administrative
team, supports the school commu-

nity. As Lane put it: "We are working together to help and support
each other as we meet the challenges
of struggling Catholic elementary
schools." This is the living mission of
the Catholic school and one that we
believe can be powerfully supported
through the Professional Learning
Community process.
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TITLE: Creating and Sustaining a Structured Professional

Learning Community within a Catholic Context
SOURCE: Momentum 40 no2 Ap/My 2009
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