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We’ve all heard it: Professional learning communities (PLCs) sound good in theory, but in practice, educators question the impact and prefer more time for instruction or lesson planning. During the edLeader Panel “PLCs That Change Instruction: A Data-to-Action Playbook From the Field,” educators from Falling Creek Middle School shared how incredibly powerful PLCs can be when they are grounded in real classroom practice and designed to meet the needs of every learner.

The panelists had a conversation about how to build PLCs that surpass informal collaboration and become meaningful systems that improve instruction. They shared Falling Creek’s best practices, providing a PLC Pathway framework that empowers school leaders to organize PLC time, analyze student evidence, support diverse learners, and distribute instructional leadership across teams. But first, they addressed the elephant in the room.

Why PLCs Fail

PLCs fall short of potential when “teachers don’t feel they have any power in the process,” said Ursula Rockefeller, Instructional Designer at Falling Creek. Leaving roles and expectations undefined also makes educators skeptical, if not resistant.

“When teachers understand the value they will get from it, I find they are more invested in the process,” said Lisa Persinger, Title 1 Math Coach at the school.

According to experts, removing teachers from the process is one of the three most common pitfalls. The other two costly mistakes include a lack of common formative assessment and inconsistent or inconvenient intervention time.

Making PLCs a Strategic Success

Making PLC time truly matter did not happen overnight for Falling Creek educators; however, their trials uncovered concrete strategies and ready-to-use resources to strengthen collaboration and support equity, which you can implement now:

Switch Up Meeting Norms and Save Time for Planning

Separating data and planning meetings allowed Falling Creek leaders to maintain valuable teacher planning periods and add time for PLC work. Instead of meeting once a week for an entire planning period, leaders separated the data and planning meetings and met twice a week for only half of a planning period. “That was just easier for the teachers to come in, do what they had to do, and then go back to what they were working on,” Rockefeller added.

Then, data meetings stayed focused on students, not on teachers, using these two key questions as the guiding principles: Are students learning, and how does the team respond to that?

Set the Stage for Collaboration

In schools, there can be skepticism about common formative assessments, especially if there is a fear that the results will be used punitively. Falling Creek leaders used it as a collaboration tool. “When teachers are doing something really, really well, and their kids are benefiting from it, other teachers want to know, ‘What are you doing? How did you get your kids to be so successful?’ on the standard or whatever it is that they were working on,” said Rockefeller.

Persinger reiterated being very intentional about the data conversations, “because that’s where you could really see the impact of those changes and allowing teachers to have more autonomy.” She described how the district provides resources for standards. Having data conversations enabled teachers to use available information, modify it, and tailor resources for their class. “That allowed them to be more invested in actually looking at the data and expecting something from it, versus just checking a box to do the things that were given,” she said.

Let Data Guide Intervention Strategy

ESL and special education educators attended PLC data and planning meetings, ensuring that intervention remained focused on goals and that support was guaranteed throughout the day. Using the data, educators identified which students and which skills needed support, eliminating guesswork or assumptions. Results from common formative assessments also ensured the team was looking at the same data.

“It wasn’t looking at the overall standard. We were all looking at the same question to see how students were responding. And so that really helped guide where we as a team might need to do something different,” said Persinger.

Get Your PLC Pathway

The panelists shared a PLC Pathways Tool that you can also use to get started. The document included two sides: one with the analysis of data from that week’s meeting, and the other with planning and responses. The tool helped keep teams focused, leaders updated, and became a “really good guide for teachers so they understood what was expected during the meetings, and how things were changing,” explained Persinger. You can download the free PLC Toolkit for the PLC Pathways Tool, a meeting agenda template, and other resources discussed by the panelists.

Learn more about this edWeb broadcast, PLCs That Change Instruction: A Data-to-Action Playbook From the Field, sponsored by Wayground (formerly Quizizz).

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Article by Suzanne Bell, based on this edLeader Panel