I’ve gone to many conference, read books, articles and been involved with Professional Learning Communities in its official form for about 5 years. Assessment For Learning which is so tightly tied to effective PLC’s is also something I’m very comfortable with. Today as I listened to many qualified, knowledgeable and engaging speakers and presentations, I kept thinking something’s missing.
The focus of most of these presentations were around improving student achievement. Terms like “pyramid of intervention”, “common assessments”, “standards”, “accountability” and “collaboration” were used frequently. All good stuff. It was hard to disagree with much but my focus on the changing classroom and all that relevant and engaging learning looks like, forced me to question where the ideas of this conference take us. While improved student achievement is great, I”m still questioning what their achieving.
If they’re just achieving better grades, better study habits and better test taking skills, it doesn’t seem all that important to me. Now I realize that none of these speakers would say that’s what this does and they even reference rigorous standards and I think I heard the term 21st century learning (whatever that really is), I’m still fearful that the zeal to improve scores and test results leads to the perpetuation of school as we knew it and still know it. The strategies of PLC’s and assessment, if not combined with a real understanding of what kids ought to be doing in school leave use just doing a better job of the schools of the 1950’s.
While the stories were told of improved schools, homework programs, reteaching of material, I kept thinking envisioning schools where iron-handed principals and teachers lovingly force kids to do the work, the work of outdated curricula and outdated teaching methods.
Again, I know that’s not the vision they intend to create but those in the audience I fear do not have an understanding of how to become a learner first and lead kids to understandings and experiences that will matter. Can you have a discussion about improving schools and not mention things like connecting learners, consumers not producers, digital citizens? Are we putting the cart before the horse? Does it matter what we consider first? I think it matters.
Maybe it’s just me.
(I won’t even mention the brutal PPT’s by all the speakers! No kidding one slide had 12 bullet points! Oy!)
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Now that members of the edubloggosphere have experienced interactive presentations with new tools, it is so difficult to sit through a traditional conference, presentation, or even meeting. We yearn to respond and share our thoughts and ideas simultaneously. Isn’t it weird to think of a ppt as old fashioned? Aye-aye-aye—12 bullet points? Had to be microscopic on the screen! …and pointless.
Keep these discussions going Dean. I value your opinion and support it. The terms you acknowledged such as “accoutability” and “assessment for learning” are catch phrases that are emerging across our education landscape here in Saskatchewan. I don’t know if it is a good thing or not. I’m still building my knowledge base on the matter. I am also concerned about how our landscape is adopting the standardized assessment way of things. I thought of our province as better.
The most important thought in your post (among many, really) for me was “just doing a better job of the schools of the 1950’s.” That’s exactly it. The problem, I think, is about boundaries, and the inability of most educators to extend themselves past the traditional boundaries of what education is considered to be. It sounds like many of the topics fit nicely into a “comfort zone” of what education is, without really challenging those to think of what education can be, should be, and needs to be. As people tapped into blogging and the divergent thoughts of a world of tremendously intelligent people, we are fortunate that we have our boundaries pushed every day. I believe this to be the most significant impact of participating in the discussion that takes place in places such as this. Thanks for the post.
David wrote “many of the topics fit nicely into a “comfort zone” of what education is, without really challenging those to think of what education can be, should be, and needs to be.” I agree. Some administrators know, what to push the envelope but the system keeps getting in the way.
From “On Common Ground”, Dufour writes about how “the PLC concept represents more than just a series of practices–it rests upon a set of beliefs, assumptions, and expectations regarding school.” How do you change these beliefs (comfort zone) and transform the school culture when everyone is treading water and barely keeping from drowning in bureacracy, paperwork, testing, and accountability?
Other Questions:
How can assessment be more authentic and still meet the guidelines of the tests?
How do you create new roles for teachers to lead, share expertise, and learn from one another?
How can you incorporate shared resources such as teaching time, ideas, and materials?
Blogs and wikis engage all stakeholders and encourage collaboration. However, to do something like lesson study or action research, I found that there has to be a place online for confidential discussions and a private area for sharing proprietary materials, videos of students working, and even teachers teaching the lesson. They are not ready to share their classroom with the world yet. I am working with LAUSD Arts Branch where we are uploading all of the curriculum for the Arts discipline and will be designing example lessons for the teachers. The coaches are spending this year creating materials as examples. Then the teachers will use the lessons and share as part of lesson study what worked and what they would do different next time. I also work with BTSA (Beginning Teachers) in the SF Bay area where we have private spaces for mentoring. The BTSA Support Providers created an online BTSA Toolkit where all of the materials are available for the new teachers and mentors. They also created a private space for confidential discussions.
I believe that comfort and trust is important to consider when asking teachers to open their classroom doors to the world. Especially in the U.S. with where we are in this testing frenzy. Dean, I appreciate you sharing this post.
I see the analogy from my life on the farm. When it was muddy and the road was in a state of flux, we would all drive in the same spot and we’d make ruts. Then, when the hot sun came, the ruts were there and driving out of them is almost as difficult as driving in them. The only way to get rid of ruts like this is for the tremendously huge road scrapers to come in and totally redo the road.
I even find myself using buzzwords sometimes at the urging of those who say that these words “legitimize” the work that I do. A rut can be called a rut or it can also be called… comfort zones or boundaries. It is just a rut, plain and simple.
Although it is so important to remember that excellence should always be the goal… we can have students excellent learn how to sew a straight seam in a dress when indeed it is unlikely that in today’s society that they will have to or that is necessary.
I got frustrated the other day as I was looking over a course offering by our local RESA — it was on differentiated instruction… it held no mention of anything computer related… Nothing! It had ways to cut paper, make manipulatives, etc. and yet the greatest manipulative invented in the history of mankind was left out.
The person who attended the course said, “Well, they just didn’t have time for that. This was for real teachers.”
And that, Dean, is the rut!
Phenomenal post — I’m going to simulpost it on my blog. Keep blogging the hard questions.
Great post Dean!
My district has adopted “PLCs” as the new buzzword/reform movement and we are in the second year of this “model” being officially adopted across the district.
HOWEVER — I was on a campus that started trying to use this model several years ago and our focus was on improving what happened in the classroom so that it improved student learning. We attempted to combine it with Smaller Learning Communities in the form of career academies to make real-world connections for the kids. We hoped that in time our program would result in a high school that had Juniors and Seniors involved in the community — doing real work, producing real things for real audiences, while also learning more about themselves and the intended state-adopted curriculum. Our goal was to create a real community of learners that included everyone from the students, to the parents, to the teachers and the adminsitrators — Everyone would be a learner. We were also a new campus with state of the art technology in every classroom and a staff that included many tech savvy people who used a variety of tech in the classroom.
Now for the reality of what I see happening in my district… everyone says “PLC this… PLC that…” — but in most instances, the PLCs are really just traditional department meetings where no professional learning is occurring — just data analysis and lesson planning all focused on the state tests. NCLB, AYP, and state accountability ratings are all that matter on most campuses and the PLCs, for the most part, are focused around that. I don’t consider this to be true PLC work.
I’ve had people argue with me that a PLC that plans lessons, common assessments, and develops common assessments together is a PLC that is learning together through the work. I argue that learning is not occurring if the community does not take time to reflect on their work individually and collaboratively, and if the work/learning does not result in changed behavior or changed practice.
PLCs are — or should be — about professional learning. What we do on our blogs and in Twitter and in our other online networking/communications tools is professional learning. In my opinion, the “mob” that collaborated on exploring Google Presentations on Wednesday was closer to a PLC than many of the so-called PLCs that I see operating in our district.
And “Assessment FOR Learning” — a term used frequently in our district and in association with PLCs IS NOT the same as just giving a bunch of common assessments that are really just mini-versions of the state test. Assessment FOR Learning encompasses a wide variety of assessment methods that include everything from quizzes and exams to portfolios, presentations, journals, “exit tickets”, and projects. Assessment FOR Learning can very, VERY easily be done through student created blogs, wikis, podcasts, websites, and even the use of tools like Twitter. I assess FOR learning everyday that I meet with my class through our classroom discussions and the journal entries and other assignments that the students submit through our class Moodle site.
Stephanie has it right. True PLCs are rooted in ongoing progress monitoring of student data and then use those date to inform practice and change instruction for the benefit of students who are still struggling on essential learning outcomes. As someone who works with schools a lot on data-driven stuff, I have yet to see many true PLCs. I see lots of “not quites,” “confused,” and “no thanks” teacher teams, but few true PLCs.
Dean, what I think you’re struggling with is the outcomes on which the PLCs are focused. PLCs, assessment for learning, and data-driven practices are all processes. In this case they’re focused on standardized test results. You want them focused on 21st century skills. Once students get past some basic traditional literacies, I’m with you.
It’s “not just you”, Dean. I am really struggling with the realities of what are the expected “outcomes” from our PLC vs. what the PLC and true learning really should be. Why do our PLC goals need to be from “school” data. I am not teaching “the school”, I am not teaching a subject, I am teaching the children.
But maybe that is just me.
Angus,
I’ve always believed in the power of the PLC as most do. Where I struggle is an over emphasis on data that as you say may not be relevant to your kids. Grant it, things like Math and ElA have fairly universal appeal but still.
In our case, the issue is that many of the PLC’s needed so much direction as they were floundering. That said, it’s my bias that we allow those with clear understanding to focus on student learning in whatever way makes sense for them and benefits learning. It just seems to me that data can get in the way. It doesn’t have to but in some cases thwarts the process.
If the basic questions remain:
1. What do they need to know?
2. How will I know they’ve learned?
3.What will I do if they don’t?
We should all be able to find meaning and purpose in that.
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We are currently a year three PLC school and still have no idea what we are doing. For the past three years we have ran in circles trying to implement a sense of community, create a mission and vision and have gotten nowhere. Each year is like starting over. We have had major staff turnover which puts us back in a Year 1 school. Sometimes I feel we create fluff and never really get to teaching our students.
We are currently doing PLCs in secondary schools, and I see the same questions being asked. When we did another type of Professional Learning Communities called Critical Friends Group, we asked those questions differently.
1. What is it students should know?
2. What will it look like if they know it?
3. What is keeping them from learning it?
4. Why not learn it? And now that they do know it, now what?
Students should all be able to find meaning and purpose in that.