Anthony Leadership Matters: Moving Beyond “PLC Lite” and … · 2018-03-13 · PLC Lite...

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Leadership Matters:Moving Beyond “PLC Lite”

and Nurturing Full Commitment

Anthony Muhammad

In-Depth Seminar

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Muham

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Anthony

Muham

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Anthony

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Leadership Matters:Moving Beyond “PLC Lite”

and Nurturing Full Commitment

Anthony Muhammad, PhD

What Is a PLC?“An ongoing process in which educators work together collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve. PLCs operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous job‐imbedded learning for educators.”

—DuFour, Dufour, Eaker, Many, & Mattos, Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities

at Work (2016), p. 10

Three Big Ideas That Drive the Work of a PLC

• A focus on learning

• A collaborative culture and collective responsibility

• A results orientation

Six Essential Elements of a “Real” PLC

1. Educators work collaboratively rather than in isolation, take collective responsibility for student learning, and clarify the commitments they make to each other about how they will work together.

2. The fundamental structure of the school becomes the collaborative team in which members work interdependently to achieve common goals for which all members are mutually accountable.

3. The team establishes a guaranteed and viable curriculum, unity by unit, so all students have access to the same knowledge and skills regardless of the teacher to whom they are assigned.

© New Frontier 21 2018. SolutionTree.comDo not duplicate.

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Six Essential Elements of a “Real” PLC (Continued)

4. The team develops common formative assessments to frequently gather evidence of student learning.

5. The school has created a system of interventions and extensions to ensure students who struggle receive additional time and support for learning in a way that is timely, directive, diagnostic, and systematic, and students who demonstrate proficiency can extend their learning.

6. The team uses evidence of student learning to inform andimprove their individual and collective practice of its members.

—DuFour, Dufour, et al., Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (2016), p. 10

Four Corollary PLC Questions

1. What do we want student to know and beable to do?

2. How do we know if students have learned?3. How do we respond when students don’t

learn?4. How de we respond when students have

learned?

Professional Learning Communities

A World Leader in Education Cultivating Exceptional Thinkers Prepared for the Future

Targets

Q1. What do we want students to know and be able to do?

Evidence

Q2. How will we know if they get it or can do it?

Action

Q3.How will we respond when they don’t learn?

Q4. How will we respond when they do learn, or already know it?

Evidence‐Based Practices (Skill)

—Hattie, Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta‐Analyses Relating to Achievement (2009)


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Evidence Based Practices (Skill)

Desired Practices (>.4)

• Teaching clarity (.75)

• Providing formative evaluation(.9)

• Feedback (.73)

• Response to Intervention (1.07)

—Hattie, Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta‐Analyses Relating to Achievement (2009)

PLC Lite“‘PLC Lite’ is the most accurate way to describe the current state of most professional learning communities around the country. Educators rename their traditional faculty or department meetings as ‘PLC meetings,’ engage in book studies that result in no action, or devote collaborative time to topics that have no effect on student achievement—all in the name of the PLC process.”

—DuFour and Reeves, “The Futility of PLC Lite,” Phi Delta Kappan 97(6), 69–71

Valley of DecisionIs your school …

“Flirting” with or “dating” the PLC process?

Or

Are you “married” to the process?

—Hierck & Williams, Starting a Movement: Building Culture From the

Inside Out in Professional Learning Communities (2015)

PLC “Lite‐ese”

• “We are having conversations.”

• “We are in different places. Some of our PLCsare further along than others.”

• “District initiative”


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What’s Next? Is Change Necessary?

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”

—Albert Einstein

Two Forms of Change

• Technical–structural (skill)

• Cultural (will)

Government

• Provide fair playing fieldand adequate funding.

• Partner with schools, ratherthan punish them.

• Educate yourself and be anhonest broker.

Funding

“Most states cut school funding after the recession hit, and it took years for states to restore their funding to pre‐recession levels. In 2015, the latest year for which comprehensive spending data are available from the U.S. Census Bureau, 29 states were still providing less total school funding per student than they were in 2008.”

—Leachman, Masterson, & Figueroa, A Punishing Decade for School Funding, 2017. https://www.cbpp.org/research/state‐budget‐and‐tax/a punishing‐decade‐for‐

school‐funding


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National Trends• One in three schools with a majority African‐American or Latino

student population offer a single chemistry course. One in four offer a course beyond Algebra II.

• African‐American and Latino students make up over 40% of American public school students but less than 25% of giftedand talented program enrollees.

• African‐American students are suspended at a rate three times higher than other public school students.

• African American, Latino, and impoverished students attendschools with the highest concentration of first year and nontenured teachers.

(U.S. Department of Education, “2013–2014 Civil Rights Data Collection: A First Look,” 2016)

G.E.R.M.Global Educational Reform Movement• Standardizes teaching and learning• Focuses solely on literacy and numeracy• Teaches prescribed curriculum• Borrows market‐oriented reform ideas• Uses test‐based accountability and control

—Sahlberg, Finnish Lessons 2.0: What Can the World Learn From Educational Change in Finland? (2014)

NCLB The Great Re‐Segregator!

• School and home choice are two of the most important decisions that an American citizen will make in his or herlifetime.

• Gold Standard: The ability to move into a racially andsocioeconomically segregated community with a school system that reflects that exclusivity.

• NCLB and creative home financing fueled a level of segregation that exceeds pre‐Brown vs. Board of Education.

(Lareau & Goyette, Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools, 2014)

ESSA Does Not Have to be NCLB 2.0

“If states pursue this new direction, they must abandon the thinking that led to failed reforms and embrace a new mindset regarding the most promising strategies to improve their schools.”

—DuFour, Reeves, & DuFour, Responding to the Every Student

Succeeds Act With the PLC at Work Process (2017), p. 27


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Central Office

• Model what you expect from schools. You arethe lighthouse of ethics!

• Consistently measure and support what yousay you value (student learning)!

• Avoid creating initiative fatigue.

Coherence“Leaders in PLCs must focus on building collective coherence and a shared mindset among individuals and across the whole system. They must focus on transforming culture. Coherence making is a critical process.”

—DuFour & Fullan, Cultures Built to Last: Systemic PLCs at Work (2013), p. 23

The Most Critical Cultural Relationship

School Leadership Teachers

Call to Arms

“When a school or district functions as a PLC, educators within the organization embrace high levels of learning for all students as both the reason the organization exists and the fundamental responsibility of those who work within it.”

—DuFour, DuFour, et al. (2016), p. 11


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We Need Each Other!

School Administration

• Teacher cooperation andcommitment to school vision

• Teacher commitment to focus on 4 PLC Questions

• Interpretation of studentdata and adjustments to instructional practice

Teachers

• Commitment of resources to make the PLC process work

• Manipulating the master schedule in order to provide adequate collaborative time

• Resources to provide training and systemssupport the PLC process

“Healthy” School Culture

“Educators have an unwavering belief in the ability of all of their students to achieve success, and they pass that belief on to others in overt and covert ways. Educators create policies and procedures and adopt practices that support their belief in the ability of every student.”

—Peterson, “Is Your School Culture Toxic or Positive?”Education World (2002)

Predeterminations

• Perceptual

• Intrinsic

• Institutional

Perceptual Predetermination

“Perceptual predetermination involves an educator’s own socialization and the impact of that socialization on his or her practice in the classroom, including expectations for student performance.”

—Muhammad, Transforming School Culture: How to Overcome Staff Division

(2009), p. 21


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Stereotypes

“To help simplify a complex world, people develop mental models called schemas. Problems arise when people start to oversimplify schemas. Oversimplified schemas are known as stereotypes. Stereotypes are fixed impressions and exaggerated and preconceived ideas and descriptions about a certain type of person, group, or society.”

—Langlois, Kalakanis, Rubenstein, Larson, Hallam, & Smoot, “Maxims or Myths of Beauty? A Meta‐Analytic and Theoretical Review,”

Psychological Bulletin (2000), p. 390

Dangerous Synonyms

• “Changing demographics”

• “High minority”

• “High poverty”

• “Special ed kids”

• “EL students”

Crucial Conversations

• Conflicting opinions

• Potential to become highly emotional

• Stakes are high.

(Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, & Switzler, Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes are High, 2011)

Corrective Lenses“The Optometrist”

Combat false/incomplete information with better information.

Try:• Enlightenment• Encouragement• Experimentation


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Intrinsic Predetermination

“Intrinsic predetermination is the student’s perception of his or her probability of success in school. The messages students receive from their environment—the home, community, and school—can either build their confidence or work to destroy it.”

—Muhammad (2009), p. 23

When Cultures Collide

Student Norms

School Norms

Assimilation or Education

Assimilation• Control

• Manipulation

• Standardization

• Docile

Education• Liberation

• Development

• Creativity

• Empowerment

Gifted and Talented Education

“Gifted and talented education works for two reasons: the student believes that he is gifted and the teacher believes that he is gifted. Based on this agreement, the teacher and student create the right learning environment and they utilize rigorous learning activities. All human beings possess a gift; the key is to identify and capitalize on it.”

—Renzulli, “What Makes Giftedness? Reexamining a Definition,” Phi Delta Kappan (1978)


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Pedagogy of Confidence

• Identify and activatestudent strengths.

• Elicit high intellectualperformance.

• Provide enrichment.

• Integrate prerequisites.

—Jackson, The Pedagogy of Confidence: Inspiring High Intellectual Performance in

Urban Schools (2009)

The Maestro

Blending the best in students with the best in the institution to create beautiful music

Institutional Predetermination

“I contend that we have institutional barriers in place that make the job of educating every student very difficult.”

—Muhammad (2009), p. 25

Policy Elephants

• Student placement in advanced coursework

• Zoning policies around ethnicity andeconomic class

• Discipline/expulsion policies

• Graduation standards/policies


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Evidence‐Based Practices (Will)

—Hattie (2009)

Teacher Estimates of Achievement

1.62

Collective Teacher Efficacy

1.57

Student Self‐Reported Grades (Student

Confidence/Efficacy)

1.44


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Anthony Leadership Matters: Moving Beyond “PLC Lite” and … · 2018-03-13 · PLC Lite...

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