1–5–10 Assessment Tool: Culture

building a continuous improvement mindset where the journey to “good enough” never ends. Rather, it is about getting better at getting better. That’s where Sanger truly began understanding the work of PLCs and came to realize that the organization was in this for the long haul. This was, as Simon Sinek in his book The Infinite Game (2019) would term it, a “just cause.” PLCs became the “just cause” of what Sanger desired to become. Leadership set a course to become an organization that worked together interdependently and collaboratively to improve student results. Sanger’s leaders started by diving into Learning by Doing (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2006), discussing the meaning and setting the stage for idea sharing, potential implementation challenges, and goal setting. Stage 1 was all about building teacher and leader capacity and capability to understand, know, and do the work of PLCs. Stage 2 was connected to principle 2: PLCs and team efficacy are about both student and adult learning. Leaders had to embrace learning as adults. Learning how to behave and become a collaborative team is not the same as saying you are one, and this was difficult for leaders to wrap their heads around. As much as teams wanted to make PLCs about student learning, Sanger found that it is equally essential to think about adult learning within a PLC. Learning how to be a professional learning community is different than just being professional. Professional, honest relationships were key to behaving like a PLC and building the collective belief that the work could be done. Stage 3 was connected to principle 3: PLC and team efficacy is built through collective commitments, beliefs, willingness, and the capability to trust each other and enhance our professional relationships. Sanger’s leaders had to accept that they could not do this work alone. They needed a guiding coalition of professionals at the school site who would undoubtedly become the PLC “culture keepers” of the school and district efforts. They needed believers (or early adopters as school culture expert Anthony Muhammad refers to them)—people who have an early desire to move away from the negative noise to a more positive tune. As more and more staff members came to discover the impact of the change, they developed a belief in each other that eventually led to improved collective team efficacy and student outcomes. Ultimately, Sanger’s journey as a PLC resulted in noticeably improved collective efficacy that directly and positively impacted the lives of not just the students in the district but also its staff, leaders, and wider community.

About the Book

This book highlights, for K–12 teachers, school teams, team coaches, administrators, and practitioners, the efforts of the Sanger Unified School District, and the lessons we learned as the organization sought to transform our school site teams, schools, and district—an effort that eventually led to a district turnaround. As