RSA 2: Successful Educational Leadership at High Performing Schools

http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED520457.pdf

The readings for Module 3 address the need for a professional learning community to have a results oriented structure. Dufour, Dufour, Eaker and Many (2010) believe that the SMART goal acronym can and should be used to align the goals of the learning community. They write “Goals are SMART when they are strategic (aligned with the organization’s goals) and specific, measurable, attainable, results oriented, and time bound” (p. 158). The authors also believe that in conjunction with these SMART goals, that organizations should also have stretch goals that “are intended to inspire, to capture the imagination of people within the organization, to stimulate creativity and innovation, and to serve as a unifying focal point of effort” (p. 160). These goals, when used in conjunction, allow for a clear structure and provide the PLC to achieve.

In Successful Educational Leadership at High Performing Schools, the author sets forth the idea that high achieving schools have six elements in common that help lead to this success. According to Wilson (2011), these include an agreed upon vision, instructional leadership, a safe, orderly and respectful environment, timely monitoring of student progress, professional learning communities, and school and family partnerships (p. 394-396). Within monitoring of student progress, Wilson believes that to have success, “Students’ achievement data were analyzed and openly shared among teachers to facilitate the improvement of individual and collective performance” (p. 395).

The readings in Module 3 and the article above are closely related in that goals are essential for creating and maintaining a successful professional learning community. In Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work the authors believe that achievable (SMART) and stretch goals are necessary to have success, and according to Wilson, (2011) in successful PLCs, “school wide goals and specific goals for individual students are set” (p. 396). Both readings address this need for PLCs to have goals to drive instruction and learning.

References

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T. (2010). Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at work (2nd ed., pp. 155-204, 247-266). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Wilson, D. L. (2011). Successful Educational Leadership at High Performing Schools. US-China Education Review, Volume 8, n3 p 393-398. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED520457.pdf

RSA 1: Learning Communities: The Starting Point for Professional Communities is in Schools and Classrooms

http://www.learningforward.org/news/getDocument.cfm?articleID=2311

The readings for Module 2 describe the importance of a PLC having a focus of learning for students, embedding systematic interventions to respond to student learning, and creating a collaborative culture within the team of teachers. Within this, Dufour, Dufour, Eaker & Many (2010) present the idea that teachers must “engage in a systematic process in which they work together, interdependently, to analyze and impact their professional practice in order to improve individual and collective results”(p. 120). In this process, teachers must work towards a collaborative goal and must rely on each other to “accomplish a goal that none could achieve individually” (Dufour, et al., 120).

Learning Communities: The Starting Point for Professional Communities is in Schools and Classrooms was published in the August 2011 Journal of Staff Development. Within this article, the authors took five research studies that touch on the validity of learning communities, and narrowed down eight key practices relative to the successful learning communities. Based on their research, Lieberman and Miller (2011) also address the challenges associated with learning communities, and give ways to prevent these challenges from occurring.

The ideas that Lieberman and Miller set forth relate closely to the ideas within the Module Two readings. Lieberman and Miller (2011) write that successful learning communities “work hard to develop a clear purpose and collective focus on problems of practice” (p.19). It is within a learning community that this purpose should be thoughtfully created and then should be addressed in the work of the learning community. This correlates with the ideas presented by Dufour, Dufour, Eaker & Many in that the goals and purposes of a learning community should be held up by the teachers or members of the learning community.

References

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T. (2010). Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at work (2nd ed., pp. 59-154). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Lieberman, A., & Miller, L. (2011). Learning Communities: The Starting Point for Professional Learning Is in Schools and Classrooms. Journal Of Staff Development, 32(4), 16-20.

Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL). (2003). Sustaining school improvement: Professional learning community, 1–4. Retrieved from http://www.mcrel.org/PDF/LeadershipOrganizationDevelopment/5031TG_proflrncommfolio.pdf

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