The School District Of Osceola County, Florida

Keeping The End In

Mind.
Adults without a high school diploma

are twice as likely to be unemployed.

Dropouts make up nearly 70% of US
inmates.
A dropouts life expectancy is 9.2 years
lower than that of high school
graduates.
The average 45-year-old dropout is in
worse health than the average 65year-old high school graduate.
Source: Henry Levin,

Columbia University

What Can We Do To
Change Those
Statistics?

Administrators And Teachers Working Together To

encoura
g
other t e each
give
o achie
s tu d
ve
mo r e
e n ts
t
he b
e
g
d
e
l
e
w
profess
s
kno
ionally
the t of
share
best
and
s
e
i
g
rate
t
s
g
n
i
teach

the
t
u
g o A LL
n
i
r
b
t in e n
s
e
b
dr
l
i
h
c

increas
e
graduat
ion
rates

look at the data

to make instructional
decisions

increas
e
studen
t
succes
ses

t h at
e
r
u
ens
dents
u
t
s
ALL
ssful
e
c
c
u
are s

maximize their
efforts
4

Professional Learning
Communities..
Have the support of their
administrators
Have clear and common goals
Have a regular agreed-upon meeting
time
Use data to drive instruction
5

Professional Learning Communitie

Ensure that students learn
Focus on results
Create a culture of collaboration
(and actually collaborate)

DuFour, Richard. 2004. What Is A Professional Learning Community?

6

A Professional Learning Community Is

NOT
just one more thing to add to our already-busy
schedule.
a book-of-the-month club or study program.

A Professional Learning Community

Is NOT
one more program from the district or state
that they want us to implement. Here we go
again!
a sure-fire system that worked at some other
school.
a bandwagon program that will go away.

The Traditional School

Structure
Teachers are dispersed into isolated classrooms
Room 412

Room 413

Room 414

Room 415

Room 416

Room 417

The Pseudo PLC Structure

Individual classrooms organized into isolated groups
on an infrequent basis.
Kindergarten
First Grade Team
Second Grade Team
Third Grade Team
Fourth Grade Team
Fifth Grade Team
pseu-do: adjective,
1.not actually but having the appearance of; pretend; false; sham.
2.almost, approaching, or trying to be.

10

The PLC
Structure
Dialogue

Horizontal
Dialogue
Horizontal
Dialogue
Horizontal
Dialogue
Horizontal
Dialogue

Second Grade Team

Third Grade Team
Fourth Grade Team

Vertical
Dialogue

A cohesive school organized into

Interdependent
Collaborative
Kindergarten
Horizontal
Dialogue
Teams.
First Grade Team
Horizontal

Fifth Grade Team

11

Its A Shift,

12

Which Champion Works Within A

PLC?

13

The Greats
Tiger Woods
He works in a foursome,
but he is truly
independent. No matter
which foursome he is with,
he does not
collaborate, help or
encourage them. Tiger
wants to get all the
glory.
Room 417

14

The Greats
Michael Jordan
In the pros, Michael earned
many individual accolades
including league MVP. But
of all those accolades, his
greatest desire was to win
the World Championship.
It wasnt until he began
to collaborate with his
teammates that the
ultimate goal was
attained.
15

Forming Collaborative Groups

(PLCs)

16

Step 1
Create Your Teams And
Choose Your Team
Facilitators
The fundamental question in organizing
teams is:
Do the people on this team have a
shared responsibility for responding to
the learning of their students?
Have your teams brought to the
17
forefront new Believers, Tweeners and

Possible Team Structures:

All teachers teaching the same grade level
All teachers teaching the same course
Vertical teams (K-2/3-5 or Spanish I-IV)
Similar Responsibility Teams (Guidance, Special
Area Job Alike)
(Vital components of PLCs are common assessments and the 4
critical questions. To maximize effectiveness, groupings of
teachers need to be teaching the same standards to create
common assessment and have focused discussion on standards. )
18

Facilitators
Administrators should be in constant
communication with facilitators to provide
the following in order to guide the
movement:
- suggested agenda items
- providing poignant research article for
teams to discuss
- supporting the people issues (Is your
team coming to consensus? Is everyone
arriving on time and coming prepared?
How can administration support you?)
19

Step 2
Develop Team Norms
The Standards Of Behavior by Which We Agree
To Operate While We Are In This Group
(Refer to reproducible
#211)

Effective teams
review the
norms as their
first agenda
item at each
meeting
(1 min.)

20

Step 3

21

SMART Goals
With one nine weeks
complete, PLC teams should
begin the next phase of
writing SMART Goals.
Teams should write at least
one SMART goal for each
subject area (i.e. On our
October Monthly Writes 63%
of our students scored 4 or
above. By the January
Writes, 88% will score a 4 or
more.)
Even more important than
setting the goalHow will
we accomplish this goal?
Small groups, focusedwriting groups

22

Team Timelines
Aug./Sept. - Develop Teams
Teams Develop Norms
Team Develop SMART Goal
Aug. 31-Sept. 4 -

First Formative Assessment

Sept. 15 -

Analysis of Student Data From First

Formative Assessment (Reflect on data,
Create a plan)
Every 2 Weeks -

Create Common Assessments

Following Week -

Meet to analyze data and form

strategies
23

Formative Assessments Round Two

Whats Next?

How can we ensure our teachers use the data

to make meaningful decisions???
Give teachers the

right questions!

Create a data question sheet to guide your PLCs on how to view

the data. Questions could include some of the items below:

Do you see specific strands that need to be re-taught? How will you adjust
your instructional calendars?
Look at the standards that have already been taught. Find the data where
students are excelling in mastery. What is happening in that classroom?
Could the teacher come and model a lesson in your classroom?
Look at the item analysis. Do you see a pattern of incorrect answers? Look
at the answer choices and identify any major misconceptions. Use tricky
questions/answers as a teaching tool with students.
Attach each question to a standard. Use the item analysis to identify small
groups of children who need specific skills. Provide remediation through
small group instruction and specific skill activities.
Growth? Identify students who made tremendous gains. What is different
about this childs instructional experience. How can we emulate that for
other children?

24

24

1.What is the instructional focus?

2.What are the instructional strategies?
3.How will we know when they have learned it?
4.How will we respond when they need
remediation or enrichment?

25

The Team Cycle

PLC Meets

Focus

PLC Meets

Strateg
ies

Assessm
ent

Using data,
Teacher instructs
The team
the team
using effective
conducts
creates a lesson strategies from
common
plan and a
the teams focus assessment
common
meeting
then meets
assessment
to analyze data
and discuss
strategies

Respon
se

Teacher
remediates
or enriches
based
on the
predetermined
proficiency
level

26

An Act Of Futility
If we continue to take in data as we have always taken in data,
Then we will continue to think as we have always thought.
If we continue to think as we have always thought,
Then we will continue to believe as we have always believed.
If we continue to believe as we have always believed,
Then we will continue to act as we have always acted,
Then we will continue to get what we have always gotten.

27

We All Play A Vital Role In Student Succ

Teamwork
Achievement
College-bound
students
Shared Knowledge

28

Contact Information

Art Tweedie
PLC District Coach
The Office Of Research, Evaluation & Ac
817 Bill Beck Boulevard
Kissimmee, FL 34744
407-870-4932
Internal x66159
tweediea@osceola.k12.fl.us
29