Professional learning communities (PLCs) serve as a mechanism for schools and districts to promote teacher collaboration, collective inquiry, and a context to focus on student-centered learning processes. The study examined the perceptions of certificated staff and administrators pertaining to this practice. Three research questions guided this…

Apart from teachers, international school directors have the greatest impact on learning in their schools (Day et al., 2010), but they often find it difficult to engage in professional learning and support networks to continuously enhance their practice (Bailey & Gibson, 2020; Butler, 2020). The development of virtual professional learning…

This article investigates how schoolteachers', school leaders' and college teachers' involvement affects placement schools as professional learning communities. Norwegian teacher education is used as a case. The first part builds on a survey among schoolteachers and mentors at 111 placement schools in Norway. It documents great variety in the…

This three-article dissertation contains three approaches to the topic of professional learning communities and their impact on student achievement. Article I is a synthesis of the literature related to the purpose of professional learning communities. Implications in educational settings are also presented in this article. The context of the…

The purposes of the research study were to a) study the current situation of school management and administration using professional learning community b) to develop professional learning community for the school administrators and c) follow up collaborative practice among school colleagues and administrators within school using professional…

Professional Learning Communties (PLCs) school reform movement that is grounded in decades of research. The purpose of this research was to investigate whether or not a PLC would help in cultivating a culture of learning and collaboration at a small charter school in Delaware. The research involved interviews of teachers, administrators and a data…

This research to practice brief provides a research summary for the study "Using Data to Alter Instructional Practice: The Mediating Role of Coaches and Professional Learning Communities." The study investigated whether the use of coaches or professional learning communities (PLCs) had an impact on how educators used data to change…

The purpose of this study was to examine one urban elementary school to determine the influence of PLCs on administrator and teacher efficacy in supporting academic success. Using Stewart, Williams, and Matthew's (2009) Learning Community Culture Indicator (LCCI), which is based on the work of Richard DuFour (2006) and Eaker and DuFour (1998), the…

This paper documents the progress of eight middle schools, four from one school district, and four from another that were engaged in the process of implementing Professional Learning Community (PLC) concepts. The descriptive study used quantitative and qualitative information gathered in a standardized, open-ended interview with the teachers and…

The "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 has created a system, which potentially labeled 82% of US school as "failing" in 2011. Consequences for failing schools go beyond public ostracism to the release of numerous staff and school leaders or the closing of the…

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), in which educators work collaboratively to improve learning for students, need effective strategies to sustain them. PLCs promote continuous improvement in student learning and build academic success with increased teacher expertise. Grounded in organizational systems theory, participative leadership…

This article describes a learning partnership between district or county leaders and school leaders to create a system of principal professional learning that came to life in principal learning communities across a district or multiple-district region. For more than a decade, Learning Forward has engaged with district-level leaders as learning…

SPLASH is a 3-year professional development program designed to work with classroom teachers of students with moderate and severe disabilities. The program targets new teachers and employs methods aimed at supporting rural classrooms. The training content focuses on evidence-based practices in English language arts, mathematics, and science, as…

School reform, initiated by the No Child Left Behind Act, has developed Common Core State Standards to promote both equity and excellence in education. The local problem that this study addressed involved understanding the effects of Common Core State Standards implementation on Professional Development and the use of Professional Learning…

The American Institutes for Research® (AIR®) has conducted an independent evaluation of the implementation and impact of the Teach For America (TFA) Rural School Leadership Academy (RSLA), a 1-year professional development program designed for two streams of aspiring and current leaders. The objective of RSLA is to recruit and provide professional…