Purpose of the Professional Learning Community (PLC)

“The most promising strategy for sustained, substantive school improvement is developing the ability of school personnel to function as professional learning communities” (DuFour & Eaker, 1998). PLCs provide educators an avenue to collaborate regarding student learning and effective instructional strategies. The three concepts of the PLC include clarifying what each student will learn and how educators will ensure the learning, building a collaborative culture because the work cannot be completed in isolation, and using various forms of data to monitor student learning and respond to the learning in effective methods. Collaboration is the key of the PLC, “the power of teachers is enhanced when teacher work collaboratively in highly effective teams” (Eaker, 2016).

PLC discussions are guided by the four critical questions:

• • Clarifying and adding meaning to standards
  • What the benchmark, if met, would look like in student work
  • Common scoring, learning targets, pacing 

• • Collaborative development and the use of common formative assessments
  • Quick checks for understanding

• • Differentiated instruction,
  • MTSS/TST Problem-Solving

• • Enrichment

Problem Solving (MTSS) Teams