MILLBROOK LEARNING COMMUNITY

PLC DESCRIPTION

The term professional learning community describes a collegial group of administrators and school staff who are united in their commitment to student learning. They share a vision, work and learn collaboratively, visit and review other classrooms, and participate in decision making. The benefits to the staff and students include a reduced isolation of teachers, better informed and committed teachers, and academic gains for students.

A school that functions as a Professional Learning Community (PLC) shares a mission, vision, values, and goals and works together collaboratively to achieve the goals. A PLC focuses on data and results and conducts periodic assessments of behavior changes as the result of its efforts.

Mission: A building block of a PLC and the fundamental purpose of the school – answers the question “Why do we exist?”

Vision: A building block of a PLC and the sense of direction for the school – realistic, credible, attractive future for your school. Answers the question “What kind of school do we hope to become?”

Values: A building block of a PLC that moves past the “why” we exist as a school and gets to the “how” we exist. Values are action statements that identify the attitudes, behaviors, and commitments of the school community to accomplish the mission and vision of the school. Answers the question “How must we behave in order to create the type of school we want to become?”

Goals: The final building block of a PLC that establishes priorities and measurable milestones for the school to accomplish. Answers the question “What are the things we need to accomplish and at what levels to become the school we envision?

MILLBROOK’S PLC HISTORY

In 2003, a small group of math teachers investigated collaboration and PLCs.  This small group started a book study, began working together on assessments and visited Stevenson High School.  Their energy and passion ignited the vision that Millbrook adopted whole school in 2004 to embark on the PLC journey.

During 2004 and 2005, over 68 teachers visited Stevenson High School.  Our school reorganized into curriculum teams and began learning to collaborate.  Several models for providing teams time to meet during the school day were utilized.  Department chairs attended SMART Goal workshops and wrote SMART goals for departments.  This spread to curriculum teams, who now have SMART goals as well.

Between 2004-2006, over 100 teachers attended workshops specifically designed to increase their understanding of PLCS.  Many of these were High Five sponsored workshops.  Sam Ritchie visited Millbrook in 2006 and provided us with a Professional Learning Community Survey Report.  Over 72 teachers have attended the 2 day workshop offered by Rick and Becky DuFour, 6 of us attended a year long PLC Coaching Academy and Millbrook High School was recognized as a leader in this endeavor within the Wake County Public School System.

In 2006, WCPSS adopted the PLC model and other schools forged ahead.  Millbrook focused its entire efforts on the PLUS period as part of a pyramid of interventions.  This aborted effort left Millbrook behind other schools in their implementation of PLC strategies and practices.  In April 2007, MLC Leadership team went on a retreat and refocused itself and the school’s direction with the premise that in 2007-08 we would focus our energies on supporting curriculum teams to the highest level possible.  This unified goal has helped jumpstart our journey somewhat.  Our master schedule reflects common planning for curriculum teams on a daily basis.  We have pulled a teacher out of the classroom to serve as a Curriculum Team Coordinator (full-time.) We continue to send large groups of teachers to professional development related to PLCs.

UPDATE: For 2008-2009, we have continued to employ a full-time PLC Coordinator to support the work of our curriculum teams.  Additionally, we have implemented Team Intervention Plans for all teams.  The purpose of these plans is to instill a specific process for each team to address the needs of struggling students.  We have also adopted a team-wide grading breakdown in every curriculum team.  This promotes equitability among team members for how students are assessed and graded.  Finally, our curriculum teams have participated in ongoing professional development in grading practices, common assessments, leadership and course essentials.