Author Description

What would a professional learning community look like if we really meant it when we committed to ensuring the learning of each student? What would we consider good enough for our own children? In this resource, Robert Eaker and Janel Keating suggest that these two questions drive committed leaders to commit to specific leadership practices to embed PLC practices throughout an entire district. They share leadership strategies and insights on what works, what doesn¿t, and why, based on their experience in the White River School District in Washington state as well as extensive experience working with other schools and districts across North America. With a focus on creating simultaneous top-down and bottom-up leadership, the authors show how to grow professional learning communities by providing direction and encouraging innovation at every level of the district. Using many examples and reproducible tools, they illustrate how effective district leaders, principals, and teams work together to create a guaranteed and viable curriculum. The PLC journey begins by articulating a moral purpose: a dedication to ensuring the learning of every student. The authors explain how to introduce the PLC concept across a district and build shared knowledge of what it will mean to become a professional learning community. Then they explain, in detail, how to align district- and school-level policies and procedures with the learning mission. In particular, the authors focus on the critical role of district and principal leadership in creating high-performing collaborative teams. They explain provide a roadmap for hiring, communicating expectations, supporting, and monitoring principals and teams in ensuring student learning. The authors then dig deep into the work of collaborative teacher teams, explaining how districts and principals can provide specific support for each step of the teams¿ work to answer the four critical questions of learning. They discuss how to focus professional d