SCSD2 had two schools, Meadowlark Elementary and Highland Park Elementary, that wanted to serve as pilot settings for districtwide school reform. This decision to start small with just two schools speaks to the district’s commitment to careful consideration before jumping into a districtwide solution.
Merit Pay
The first choice focused on installing a merit-pay system that offered a financial reward for individual teachers who could show growth in their students’ achievement. The merit-pay system, known as the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP), was fairly simple. TAP provided a performance metric that was measured before and after student learning data and then calculated compensation based on a merit-pay formula.
This system had a rather interesting impact. Indeed, motivated and innovative teachers outperformed some of their colleagues. However, this approach unintentionally established a new level of secrecy about innovative approaches. Instead of sharing creative ideas that worked for students, teachers actually had a financial incentive to keep those innovations cloistered, only to roll them out for their own students in hopes of attaining the merit pay. For example, a teacher who had developed a detailed and effective system for collecting and representing student learning data, and for using these data to drive daily instruction, felt pressure from the TAP model to keep the system to herself. (As a side note, we recognize that merit pay has many permutations that allow districts to roll it out differently. However, the outcome we describe here is the real impact that merit pay had in this case.)
SCSD2’s merit-pay system rewarded individual teachers, encouraged more isolated professional practice, and offered a systemic disincentive to work together. With each translation of the data points, educators drifted further away from the essence of their work—the students and the observable results.
PLC Implementation
Spoiler alert: SCSD2’s successful piloting of the PLC process forever shifted the focus of the district’s work. It started, however, with a handful of educators leading one pilot school. These educators studied the PLC concept DuFour, Eaker, and DuFour outline (see DuFour et al., 2016); attended PLC events; and truly invested in learning about what it meant to be a high-functioning PLC. For the purpose of this discussion, we want to reflect on the relative differences between the two reform choices the district considered.
PLC implementation meant using structures designed to operationalize teaching and learning in a very different way. The PLC process itself establishes mandatory sharing of professional practice (DuFour et al., 2016). It largely supplants individual rewards in favor of team rewards. Rather than bifurcating students into groups and carefully evaluating which teacher served which group, the district sees all students as the responsibility of every adult in the building. Without really knowing it, SCSD2 picked two very different approaches to school reform. PLC was more impactful for student results. Implementing the PLC process set the district on the journey that brought out its students’ outstanding districtwide performance levels. Consider the following data.
• From 2002 to 2015, Sheridan elementary schools increased fourth-grade proficiency from 48 percent to 84 percent in reading and fourth-grade mathematics proficiency from 59 percent to 85 percent.
• Meadowlark Elementary School, the first PLC adopter, increased mathematics proficiency among fourth graders by 264 percent between 2001 and 2017.
• At Sheridan Junior High, eighth-grade reading proficiency grew from 48 percent in 2001 to 75 percent in 2015; mathematics proficiency increased from 41 percent to 69 percent during this same time frame.
INSIDE SCSD2
Scott Cleland, Principal, Highland Park Elementary
Highland Park Elementary had been utilizing a merit-pay model for two years, beginning in 2006. Within two years, morale in the school was at an all-time low; teachers routinely shut their doors, creating a feeling of isolation; and academic scores were plummeting. Change was needed. Our staff were ready to begin a journey to meet the needs of every student and grow as professionals. One of the necessary components for the successful implementation of the PLC process is to have widespread commitment to the idea. Highland Park’s staff were so hungry for change and unity that the decision to embrace the PLC process was the obvious choice if we were going to collectively impact student learning.
During the summer of 2009, a large portion of our staff attended a PLC institute to gain a deeper understanding of the process and create an attitude of buy-in. The difference in our school culture was incredible. The collective work we were doing was not coming from administration; it was organically grown from within our teacher teams. Our school went from an underachieving school with very low morale and trust among staff to a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence in 2014. PLC impacts student success every day, and we truly live our fundamental purpose of ensuring high levels of learning for every student, every day. (S. Cleland, personal communication, June 12, 2018)
Over the years, we’ve observed the difficulty that leaders face in figuring out how forcefully they need to implement the PLC process. Or, put another way, they ask if they can dictate the PLC process. In sharing how SCSD2 got started and continues to evolve with excellence, we hope to illustrate that the answer to that question is pretty clear: in order for the PLC process to succeed, it must have widespread support. In SCSD2, implementation of the PLC model took a grassroots effort. Simply executing steps in teams’ work within a PLC isn’t enough. You can dictate team time, team protocols, the establishment of essential learning, and a shared common formative assessment as described by DuFour, Eaker, and DuFour. All those steps are necessary. However, to truly change the building’s culture and ultimately shape results in a meaningful way, all staff must wholeheartedly embrace the PLC framework and believe that this process works and can transform the building’s culture (DuFour et al., 2016).
The PLC implementation process has the potential to engage teachers in a very different way, putting them in leadership positions like never before. The focus turns to student learning as the primary motivating factor for the work of teachers and teams. PLC transformation takes schools on an imprecise journey that no one can totally predict. It ebbs and flows, even for the most successful schools. We suggest that schools truly engage staff in considering the deep innovations that can occur when the PLC process becomes a way of life, and the best way to engage staff is through learning by doing—taking action to make necessary changes a reality. Certainly, there comes a time when the debating must stop. A school needs to commit to the PLC process and all the steps that come along with it. To that end, schools must make tight commitments that move beyond the establishment of grassroots, emotional connections. More on all of this as we go.
ADDITIONAL PLC RESOURCES TO CONSIDER
While many authors have written extensively on the PLC concept, as practitioners, we have based our thoughtful application of this process on the seminal work of PLC architects Richard DuFour and Robert Eaker and PLC visionary Rebecca DuFour. Throughout this book, we reference books that build on these authors’ original seminal works, which undergird every recommendation and philosophy we present. The appendix, page 115, contains a list of helpful books that can assist you in your journey of PLC transformation. We encourage you to become familiar with these foundational works.
A Continuing Journey
If you were to observe SCSD2’s collaborative teams in action to obtain perspective on what it’s like to experience a fully functioning PLC, you would likely make the following observations.
Wow—They Work Hard, With Happiness
Although working together undoubtedly lightens the load, the educators at SCSD2 work really hard every day. They do so because they have become