Supporting the Development of Effective Professional Learning Communities: The Need for District, School, and Teacher Leadership

• In Event: Roundtable Session 39
  In Roundtable Session: Learning Communities for School Improvement

Abstract

Schools are setting aside time for job-embedded professional learning so that teachers might have time to collaborate in professional learning communities (PLCs) to improve classroom instruction. To facilitate the development of effective PLCs, educational leaders need to provide essential supports to assist teachers in learning to work together to identify students’ learning needs and meet them in the classroom. In addition to the provision of districtwide supports, including the provision of professional development and the use of an improvement process, the results of this study indicate that effective PLC teams, identified at the end of this district’s two years of PLC work, developed as the result of both supportive school and teacher leadership at school sites.

Author

• Rebecca Ann Thessin, The George Washington University