THE JOHN THOMAS SCHOOL OF DISCOVERY PLC Story

John Thomas School of Discovery (JTSD) was recently designated a Model PLC school. JTSD is a public K–6 laboratory school with a STEAM focus and is one of 12 schools within the 6,700-student Nixa Public Schools system. Nixa is a growing community located in southwest Missouri.

John omas School of Discovery launched in 2012. e idea of a laboratory school stemmed from declining test scores and low enrollment and as a response to the need for choice in public schools. e school was developed by inviting all stakeholders to the table to craft an innovative vision for what our school could become. roughout the design year, 10 teams determined the critical features of our building, which include a STEAM focus, a nonevaluative lottery drawing from the entire district, an extended 20day calendar, a parent volunteer commitment, enhanced technology integration, and an enriched project-based learning environment. Our community rallied around us as we worked to create an innovative building focused on infusing the wonder of STEAM into everyday teaching and learning.

From the earliest days, we achieved growth and recognition as a highly collaborative building, focused on writing and teaching a quality curriculum for students and regularly sharing this progress with others through a range of training opportunities. We were recognized with various awards and continued to take risks and transform what school could look like for students. Despite this level of success, a review of our 2017 Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) scores provided impetus for change. Achievement levels were lower than what we were accustomed to, even with the state’s new assessment system causing scores to decline statewide. It was during this time our district also made the commitment to fully embrace Professional Learning Communities at Work. Looking back, the implementation of the PLC process was the key to our continued success at JTSD.

Our Plc Journey

e faculty at JTSD recognized change needed to take place, and we were ready to embrace a new opportunity. During a weekly schoolwide collaboration time, each sta member was asked to write down ideal characteristics of a JTSD student. is exercise led to many thought-provoking conversations and ultimately the revision of our mission, vision, and goals.

“Preparing STEAMazing Critical inkers for Life” became our driving mission. Each year, we collectively write three buildingwide goals focused on academic, social-emotional, and scienti c literacy.

At the same time, we realized that our two building leadership teams could be transformed into a guiding coalition. Our imPACT (curriculum) team continued to develop our guiding principles, while the STEAM (behavior) team developed our vision of how a JTSD student should behave, not only in the classroom but in all school settings.

Reinvigorated around a common purpose, we dove head rst into all things PLC. Our district provided numerous training sessions, while we worked as a team to understand how deepening our collaboration would lead us to greater success.

One thing to know about JTSD is that we are a building that does not do anything by a kit. Our curriculum is curated by educators with no script. So, honestly, there was some initial hesitation to fully embrace the PLC methodology. JTSD was given the charge to be innovative, to think outside the box, and now our district was requiring us to implement the PLC process. We were concerned this would sti e our creative spirit. Boy were we wrong! In fact, it did the opposite. Becoming a highly functioning PLC made us even better as a school family. It provided common language, common expectations, and the overall focus for what we were trying to accomplish. As a veteran administrator, I cannot imagine working in an environment that is not doing the PLC process right, as it provides the climate and learning environment that are best for students and educators.

Our commitment to the PLC process allowed us to better understand what e orts in our building were working and what should be abandoned. Over the course of our PLC implementation, test scores have steadily increased, helping make us one of the top-performing elementary schools in the state of Missouri, all while remaining an innovative building with a tight-knit culture.

Our Steps To Plc Right

• A revised mission and vision. rough collaboration, our team redeveloped and re ned our purpose, creating statements that are easy to remember and carry out with our families.

• Collective commitments and buildingwide goals. Our team de ned our collective beliefs so that we all understand our expectations of success at JTSD. We then set goals that allowed us to strive toward our mission and vision.

• JTSD strategic plan. All stakeholders came to one table to create a strategic plan that mirrored our district’s school improvement plan. is process created a ve-year action plan for our school’s goals.

• PADI (pacing, assessment, data, intervention). is document, along with ongoing training, provided clarity, objectives, and tasks to assist teams in answering the four critical questions of a PLC.

• PLT (professional learning team) agendas revised to include major elements of PLCs. Teams began collaborating with a purpose. Each team used a similar agenda format to ensure we comprehensively covered all necessary aspects of Tier 1 instruction. is agenda included a team goal, which outlined how each team in our building would contribute to our overall building goals for the year.

levels of performance. For example, our third-grade team collaborates to form groups of students to work on a variety of recently assessed priority standards. e groups are exible and can be changed at any time to meet the needs of students. Our third-grade team has met with our fth-grade team to share ideas and successes, exemplifying our culture of collaboration throughout the building.

JTSD developed an innovative approach to student intervention and extension during the school’s extended June session (Summer STEAM @ JTSD). Monthly benchmark testing was utilized to identify student learning needs in English language arts and mathematics based on priority standards. Students who needed social-emotional support were also identi ed by the school counselor. e master schedule was modi ed to allow all grade levels to have the same intervention time and provide more sta with opportunities to be involved. Weekly sta collaboration time allowed teachers to plan their projects and prepare. Teachers and sta utilized project-based learning to provide student learning interventions and extensions that made learning fun and engaging. For example, fourth-grade students who needed English language arts intervention were provided extra support by planning and performing a poetry slam for teachers and family members. To gauge the bene t of this endeavor, students took an assessment at the end of June to determine the success of the interventions and extensions.

Keys To Success

As a 26-year veteran in education, if I were to pinpoint one aspect that has had the greatest impact, I would honestly have to say it is the work done to become a professional learning community. When I asked our guiding coalition what they felt were the keys to our success at JTSD, they said rst and foremost was our true collaborative culture. Our team rallies together to create a learning culture focused on the right things. Being transparent and vulnerable are also essential to our mission. is transparency and vulnerability creates trust, and without trust among the teams, true excellence cannot occur. And lastly, our team felt that our re ective nature leads to success. We are constantly looking at the data to determine what is best for our students and for our teachers. I am forever grateful for our PLC journey. As I leave this amazing school after eight years as lead learner, I know that through the shared leadership created by our strong professional learning community, JTSD will continue to prepare STEAMazing critical thinkers for life.