A Road Map of the PLC Process

psychological effects. School systems’ ability to overcome the negative behaviors to manage pandemic stressors reduces the adverse psychological effects for both students and faculty.

Schools need to develop plans to address the social and emotional impact on students and faculty as well. Recognizing and reducing quarantine effects, providing as much information as possible, providing adequate supplies, and reducing boredom are essential focus areas for consideration, in addition to schools’ academic concerns. Table I.2 (page 8) suggests schoolwide resources and responses for meeting social and emotional needs that result from a quarantine.

Attending to the five stressors in table I.2 will both promote a sound school-improvement process and address faculty’s and students’ social and emotional needs. Collaborative teams in PLCs provide an opportunity for colleagues to support and address individuals’ challenges. In addition, weekly or at least monthly individual meetings with school leaders where leaders listen to teachers and staff members is one method to provide emotional support. The agility of the leader to adjust his or her skills with virtual connections including staff meetings, team meetings, and individual one-to-one meetings with faculty via video technology such as Zoom, Microsoft Team Meetings, and Google Meet, enhances not only communication but also reduces the compilation of fear and distrust that is caused when staff feel left out of the communication loop. Increased frequency of staff interactions eliminates the unknown stressors which impact the schools’ culture and faculty members’ well-being. Teachers can use a similar meeting process as they work with students. They can utilize one class period a quarter to meet with students individually to discuss academic needs and challenges the students face. Utilizing a technology such as Zoom or Facetime allows for video conferences to occur during class or on an individual basis. Teachers can have a class meeting in a main virtual classroom and set up a breakout room for private discussions with individual students or a small group of students while the class is still in session in the other main meeting room. If teachers have access to two computers, they can be in both rooms at once allowing for supervision in one room while holding private conversations in another.

The demands of virtual learning are now the new normal for education. In a virtual environment, educators should employ the same effective practice strategies that they have employed face-to-face as they learn new strategies, relearn strategies they employed on a daily basis, and unlearn practices that fail to produce increased achievement results for students and faculty.

As career educators, we have led Model PLC schools and a Model PLC school district as principals and district-office administrators, and we have supported thousands of schools as PLC, assessment, and response to intervention (RTI) consultants since 2003. We’ve found school improvement and student learning cannot take a back seat when schools or school systems are faced with societal changes or systemic roadblocks. Students still need to learn. And to ensure learning at high levels, teachers and schools still need to function at their

Table I.2: Schoolwide Compliance Guidelines for Meeting Social-Emotional Needs

Have We Experienced This Stressor?

Duration of quarantine:

The length of the quarantine makes a difference, as an extended duration tends to produce anger and avoidance behaviors. • Sacred collaboration time for faculty • Clear, attainable goals for teams • Opportunities to learn together • Celebrations for attaining team goals • Create weekly collaboration time in the virtual schedule. • Communicate team expectations, and post team products in a virtual library. • Conduct virtual faculty meetings for team sharing and learning.

Fear of infections:

The fear is of not only being infected but also infecting others.

Frustration and boredom:

Individuals do not take part in the usual dayto-day activities or networking.

Inadequate supplies:

Individuals lack the availability of basic supplies, such as water and food, as well as masks, medical supplies, and supplies that allow them to complete their task or job.

Inadequate information:

Individuals have a lack of clarity about the different levels of risk, creating a mindset of fearing the worst.

Have We Provided These Resources?

• Standardized safety protocols and expectations for students and faculty • An established “Fear of

Infection” curriculum • Clear sanitizing procedures and adequate materials to students and faculty • Establish district, school, and classroom safety procedures. • Provide instructional time to teach the “Fear of Infection” curriculum. • Create infection protocols, and distribute them to all students and faculty for easy access.

• Weekly celebrations for students and faculty • A team-building curriculum for students • Virtual student trackers to allow students to track learningtarget progressions

• Basic internet specifications for an effective virtual platform • Necessary technology to administer and receive the curriculum • Virtual platform options for delivery of instruction

• A clear communication plan for faculty, students, and parents • A district or school communication team to process and update information as necessary • A master schedule allowing students to take as many courses as possible virtually

How Do We Respond?

• Provide formalized networking and celebration time prior to faculty meetings. • Create informal electronic bulletin boards for faculty to post special projects. • Establish a school blog or wiki to allow all faculty to respond to a specific concept.

• Create internet hot spots for the community (cellular hot spots in school parking lots, school district vehicles with hotspots parked at key locations in the district). • Provide internet services for faculty based on necessary specifications. • Assess student and faculty needs for remote learning.

• Establish and monitor an online feedback loop for faculty concerns and questions. • Establish and monitor an online feedback loop for parents and students of the district or school to reach the communication team. • Create a virtual master schedule for increased virtual access to all courses.

highest capacity to allow each student to engage and participate in effective pedagogy, and this requires the implementation of the full PLC process.

As a keynote speaker at a multitude of Solution Tree PLC Institutes across North America, internationally renowned author and educator Rick DuFour (1947–2017) would frequently make the comment, “The PLC process is not like ordering off a Chinese food menu; you can’t select certain items from column A and certain items from column B. Rather, there are certain things that must be done, or are tight, in the PLC process.” As schools function face-to-face, virtually, or in a hybrid manner, it’s imperative that they implement the entire PLC process, rather than selecting items to create a customized version of the process. The process ensures a focus on learning with a results-oriented focus by collaborative teacher teams. This focus allows educators to work interdependently as a school versus teachers working independently in the isolation of their own classroom implementation. It challenges the mindset of executing popular practice strategies versus ensuring the practices followed by the collaborative teams guarantee student learning as measured by results. Although this is important in face-to-face or virtual settings, it is easier to lose sight of these practices when teaching virtually because of potential isolation from daily interaction with the rest of the team.

This book provides a road map of the PLC process with corresponding strategies for implementation in virtual and hybrid environments. The tool in figure I.1 (page 10) allows readers to both assess their progress and make notes along the journey. Readers can self-evaluate each element of a PLC by marking plus (meaning “This is strong”) or delta (meaning “We need to make changes”) on the tool. The plus or delta columns allow readers to make notes and identify actions that are taking place and still need development in the virtual learning environment. The tool is designed to allow educators to explore the PLC process as a journey instead of just a destination. (Visit go.SolutionTree.com/PLCbooks to download a free reproducible version of the tool.) The chapters that follow then cover the essential components of the PLC process and how to strengthen or implement them in a virtual environment.

There are many steps along the journey from a traditional school with a primary focus on teaching to a PLC with a prioritized focus on learning. As traditional schools take the first step in transformation, a fork in the road quickly becomes evident as school leaders begin to address both culture and collaboration. This book will reinforce the need to develop both pathways, as school culture and collaboration are two essential ingredients in the PLC process. We’ve coached hundreds of schools that address only one of these two avenues of the PLC process and will dismiss the other. For example, once schools form collaborative teacher teams, these teams often become confused and unable to define their teams’ focus or link their work to their schools’ and districts’ overall purpose, and the process stalls. We have observed this procedural error in many virtual settings as teachers struggle to maintain an effective student learning process. We maintain that a school can take either direction as it begins the PLC process, yet it will need to eventually address both directions. Providing a clear structure to allow the PLC process to advance is essential for all schools

Plus or Delta

Our Current Reality

Develop and Train the Guiding Coalition Identify Our Why Collaboration

Culture

Plus or Delta Team Protocols Team SMART Goals Essential 1. Standards Formative 2. Assessments (Informal and Common) Interventions 3. Extensions 4.

Mission 1. Vision 2. Values 3. Goals 4. PLC School Create a Focus on Learning Ensure a Collaborative Culture and Collective Responsibility Maintain a Results Orientation Sustain the Ongoing Work

Figure I.1: PLC road map. for a free reproducible version of this figure.

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