This article integrates the research about professional learning communities (PLCs) with research about second-order change for the purposes of reviewing the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that administrators need to transform their schools into learning communities. As such, this article describes the components of PLCs and addresses the…

The examination of a large, urban, East Coast high school provides an enlightening chapter in the implementation and validation of a professional learning community (PLC) as a strategy for school improvement. The teachers of this East Coast school were accustomed to working in isolation, and the students demonstrated numerous areas of academic…

In this article, the authors argue that district and school leaders continue to struggle with the apparent dichotomy between "traditional" and "reform-oriented professional development," especially with increased presence of professional learning communities in schools and their use in replacing other forms of professional development. Traditional…

Many public schools currently have organizational structures that form barriers for dealing more effectively with students' challenging behaviors even though positive school-wide approaches exist and provide empirical support for their use. Nevertheless, resistance to change occurs at both institutional and individual levels. Improving student…

Background: Implicitly, innovative schools have historically contained some (but not usually all) of the properties of learning organizations and professional learning communities but have a weak record of sustaining success over time. Can innovative schools that self-consciously establish themselves as learning organizations and professional…

Building community and supporting learning are two principles of Whole Schooling. This article describes how Center for Inspired Teaching, a nonprofit educational reform organization, uses these principles to foster professional learning communities in public schools in Washington, DC. When change agents approach disengaged, disempowered faculties…