Blog
Doing the Right Things Right: Building Capacity, Quality Control, Fidelity, and Accountability
“What drives your school improvement efforts—evidence of best practice or the pursuit of universal buy-in?” This question is posed by Dr. Richard DuFour in his article, . . . Read more
Learning in a PLC: Student by Student, Target by Target
Collaborative teams in PLC schools use the four critical questions of learning to drive their collective inquiry and action research: What do we want students to learn? (essential . . . Read more
Sustaining and Maintaining: No One Answer
Dear School Administrators, A question often asked during professional development workshops on professional learning communities is: “How do we sustain the PLC process from one year to . . . Read more
To Ability Group or Not to Ability Group? That Is the Question
From Richard DuFour and Rebecca DuFour: At a recent PLC at WorkTM Institute that included over 1,500 educators representing 14 states, it became evident that ability grouping for homeroom . . . Read more
An Open Letter to My First-Grade Teacher
I am a failure. Many define failure as lack of success and omission of required action. I would say that in my past, I qualified as a failure on both counts. Today, as a principal in a school, . . . Read more
Avoiding the “PLC Lite” Scenario
Despite the overwhelming evidence supporting the full implementation of professional learning communities, some schools and districts are still settling for a superficial level of application. In a . . . Read more
What’s the Plan?
The ability of leadership teams to effectively answer this very simple question has either kicked off a great initiative or served as the catalyst for many difficult or frustrating conversations. . . . Read more
Let the Debate Begin
Robert J. Marzano in What Works in Schools: Translating Research Into Action (2000) wrote that a “guaranteed and viable curriculum” (p. 22) is the school-level factor that most impacts . . . Read more
Assessment: The Game Changer
At Moriarty Elementary School in Moriarty, New Mexico, our process of collaborating professionally has changed dramatically over the past 18 months. When we began the journey, the idea of gathering . . . Read more
Revisit, Reflect, and Renew
After 45 years of teaching, I made the decision last summer to retire. After a couple of months of not setting the alarm, drinking coffee into the late morning, and staying up late, I began to . . . Read more
Give Your Teaching a Jump-Start
Part of teaching in a professional learning community is having to confront not only our individual strengths, but also our weaknesses as teachers. By being accountable for common formative and . . . Read more
Singletons and Small Schools
If you are thinking “How does all of this PLC stuff work when I’m the only one who does what I do?” you are most likely a singleton teacher! Examples often include teachers of . . . Read more
Why Your PLC Should Be Planning Backward
Okay, be honest. Have any of your professional development decisions been made at the last possible minute, or in some cases, the last possible second? How many times have you primarily based your . . . Read more
Ain’t Nothing Wrong With the Kids
This blog title represents the response of teachers regarding their achievement of what some believe is a seemingly insurmountable feat—closing the achievement gap. During their recognition . . . Read more
Everyone WINs!
As schools work to answer the question “How will we respond when some students do not learn?” they often start by looking for ways within their daily schedules to allocate time for . . . Read more