Module 2: Structures of PLC - Case Study
Case Study - A Window Into How One School Worked to Build PLC
Principal Rosario was about to meet with staff members she knew were going to be the key players in launching professional
learning communities. There was a district-wide push for collaborative planning time to be built into every school’s schedule
this fall, and her school had to get on board. She was excited about the opportunity this new push created. She had long been reading the research on and looked forward to working with her teachers on establishing time for teachers to meet and
work collaboratively. Every day the momentum of planning lessons, testing, state accountability, and the “regular” business
of running a school left too many teachers in isolation, she thought.
The teachers’ union representative, Mr. Mendes, along with the ELA department head Ms. Lewis and the Math department head Mr. Khan met with Principal Rosario in her office. While everyone was in support of teachers getting common planning
time, the nuts and bolts of who and when were the sticking points of the conversation. Mr. Mendes was concerned about
additional uncompensated time being forcibly added to the teachers’ already busy day. Ms. Lewis and Mr. Khan, while sharing
Mr. Mendes’ concern, were also worried about their students. No one wanted to be pulled out of classes for meetings in a way
that mean losing instructional time with them. Rosario shared all of those concerns and also worried about how much actual
cost would be incurred in trying to pull this together. After much brainstorming, they all agreed to four possible methods of
creating time to meet. Each method had a cost and a trade-off, but all were worth exploring as potential answers to the
problem.
Creating time for professional learning communities to meet:
After much discussion, they decided on a combination of options 1 and 2 – using paraprofessionals, and administrators and substitutes when needed, to free up one common planning period per week for each grade-level team. In creating the schedule, they would select periods in which the majority of team members already had duty time in order to avoid pulling them out of class and losing instructional time.
_________________
This module is interdependent with tools introduced in Modules 1 as well as those you will use from Modules 3, 4, and 5.
Many of the protocols are useful in a variety of situations. Read ahead!
>Return to Table of Contents
Principal Rosario was about to meet with staff members she knew were going to be the key players in launching professional
learning communities. There was a district-wide push for collaborative planning time to be built into every school’s schedule
this fall, and her school had to get on board. She was excited about the opportunity this new push created. She had long been reading the research on and looked forward to working with her teachers on establishing time for teachers to meet and
work collaboratively. Every day the momentum of planning lessons, testing, state accountability, and the “regular” business
of running a school left too many teachers in isolation, she thought.
The teachers’ union representative, Mr. Mendes, along with the ELA department head Ms. Lewis and the Math department head Mr. Khan met with Principal Rosario in her office. While everyone was in support of teachers getting common planning
time, the nuts and bolts of who and when were the sticking points of the conversation. Mr. Mendes was concerned about
additional uncompensated time being forcibly added to the teachers’ already busy day. Ms. Lewis and Mr. Khan, while sharing
Mr. Mendes’ concern, were also worried about their students. No one wanted to be pulled out of classes for meetings in a way
that mean losing instructional time with them. Rosario shared all of those concerns and also worried about how much actual
cost would be incurred in trying to pull this together. After much brainstorming, they all agreed to four possible methods of
creating time to meet. Each method had a cost and a trade-off, but all were worth exploring as potential answers to the
problem.
Creating time for professional learning communities to meet:
- Hire substitutes to allow teachers to have occasional collaborative planning time.
- Explore the use of paraprofessionals and administrators as substitutes for 1 period per week per team so that a group of teachers can get together.
- Offer stipends to teachers who are willing to meet during non-school hours.
- Explore community involvement options. If schools were to make one day or half day a week community involvement day and have every student involved in volunteering at a community agency or business in town, this would free up time for collaboration.
After much discussion, they decided on a combination of options 1 and 2 – using paraprofessionals, and administrators and substitutes when needed, to free up one common planning period per week for each grade-level team. In creating the schedule, they would select periods in which the majority of team members already had duty time in order to avoid pulling them out of class and losing instructional time.
_________________
This module is interdependent with tools introduced in Modules 1 as well as those you will use from Modules 3, 4, and 5.
Many of the protocols are useful in a variety of situations. Read ahead!
>Return to Table of Contents