P.L.C. School:

For staff, the following results have been observed:

• reduction of isolation of teachers
• increased commitment to the mission and goals of the school and increased vigor in working to strengthen the mission
• shared responsibility for the total development of students and collective responsibility for students' success
• powerful learning that defines good teaching and classroom practice and that creates new knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learners
• increased meaning and understanding of the content that teachers teach and the roles they play in helping all students achieve expectations
• higher likelihood that teachers will be well informed, professionally renewed, and inspired to inspire students
• more satisfaction, higher morale, and lower rates of absenteeism
• significant advances in adapting teaching to the students, accomplished more quickly than in traditional schools
• commitment to making significant and lasting changes and
• higher likelihood of undertaking fundamental systemic change (p. 27).

For students, the results include:

• decreased dropout rate and fewer classes "skipped"
• lower rates of absenteeism
• increased learning that is distributed more equitably in the smaller high schools
• greater academic gains in math, science, history, and reading than in traditional schools and
• smaller achievement gaps between students from different backgrounds (p. 28).

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"As an organizational arrangement, the professional learning community is seen as a powerful staff-development approach and a potent strategy for school change and improvement."

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For additional information, refer to the following sources:

• Professional Learning Communities: Communities of Continuous Inquiry and Improvement (Hord, 1997a)

   

• Professional Learning Communities: What Are They and Why Are They Important? (Hord, 1997b)

   

• Creating a Professional Learning Community: Cottonwood Creek School (Hord, 1998)