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Reach the Highest Standard in Professional Learning: Learning Communities

By: Shirley M. Hord, Patricia Roy, Editor

Ann Lieberman
Lynne Miller
Valerie von Frank

The Learning Forward standards for professional learning communities are supported by a case study, close analysis, and an implementation guide applicable in any school.

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781452291833
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2013
Page Count: 128
Publication date: November 15, 2013

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Description

When teachers learn from each other, students reap the benefits.

Learning Forward is a leader in understanding and advancing professional learning that leads to student success. This book is the first in a series exploring each of Learning Forward’s seven Standards for Professional Learning, which outline the characteristics of effective professional learning. In this book, the authors help readers understand what it takes to establish and maintain professional learning communities (PLCs) that align with the Learning Forward standards and increase educator effectiveness in order to provide the best outcomes for students. Its features include:

An original essay by thought leaders Ann Lieberman and Lynne Miller designed to stretch readers’ thinking on the Learning Communities standard by introducing the underlying theory, research, and practice behind learning communities
A comprehensive guide to implementing the Learning Communities standard, with an overview of six critical attributes of PLCs and the seven-step cycle of continuous improvement
A case study of the district-wide implementation of PLCs that led to changed practices for educators and improved results for students, containing detailed analysis of what worked

With these tools in hand to strengthen professional learning, new heights of effective teaching, leadership and student achievement are within your school’s reach.

Key features

(1) Promotes a deeper understanding of the conditions, processes, and content of effective professional learning to support continuous improvement in leadership, teaching, and student learning.

(2) Provides educators with the learning opportunities and tools to unpack each standard, connect the standard to their own contexts and experiences, and build a common understanding of the qualities of effective professional learning.

(3) Original essays, written by leading experts in the field, challenge existing thinking and promote new, deeper-level understandings of the meaning of the standard.

(4) Explores the in-connectedness of individual standards and cultivates an appreciation for how the standards function in symmetry.

(5) Includes a detailed chapter on implementation and application of the standard to help close the knowing-doing gap and sustain improvements over time.

(6) Original case studies provide inspirational examples of actual districts "getting it right" and educators who have realized the promise of effective professional learning.

Author(s)

Shirley M. Hord

Shirley M. Hord, PhD, is the scholar laureate of Learning Forward (previously National Staff Development Council), following her retirement as Scholar Emerita at the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory in Austin, Texas. There she directed the Strategies for Increasing Student Success Program. She continues to design and coordinate professional development activities related to educational change and improvement, school leadership, and the creation of professional learning communities.

Her early roles as elementary school classroom teacher and university science education faculty at The University of Texas at Austin were followed by her appointment as co-director of Research on the Improvement Process at the Research and Development Center for Teacher Education at The University of Texas at Austin. There she administered and conducted research on school improvement and the role of school leaders in school change.

She served as a fellow of the National Center for Effective Schools Research and Development and was U.S. representative to the Foundation for the International School Improvement Project, an international effort that develops research, training, and policy initiatives to support local school improvement practices.

In addition to working with educators at all levels across the U.S. and Canada, Hord makes presentations and consults in Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa, and Mexico.

Her current interests focus on the creation and functioning of educational organizations as learning communities and the role of leaders who serve such organizations. Dr. Hord is the author of numerous articles and books, of which a selection of the most recent are: Implementing Change: Patterns, Principles, and Potholes, 3rd ed (with Gene E. Hall, 2011); Reclaiming Our Teaching Profession: The Power of Educators Learning in Community (with Edward F. Tobia, 2012); A Playbook for Professional Learning: Putting the Standards Into Action (with Stephanie Hirsh, 2012).

Patricia Roy

Dr. Patricia Roy is a Senior Consultant with Learning Forward’s Center for Results. She works with state departments of education, districts, and schools across the United States as well as internationally. Most recently, she developed briefings and a resource guide to help schools use results from the revised Standards Assessment Inventory (SAI2) to improve professional learning. She has authored many articles and chapters on effective professional development, school improvement, innovation configuration maps, and cooperative learning. In her work with Learning Forward, Pat developed professional learning resource toolkits for Georgia; Arkansas; and Rochester, NY. She co-authored with Joellen Killion, Becoming a Learning School and with Stephanie Hirsh, Joellen Killion, and Shirley Hord Standards into Practice: Innovation Configurations for School-Based Roles (2012). For five years, she wrote columns about implementing the Standards for Professional Development for The Learning Principal and The Learning System, two Learning Forward newsletters. She has also served as faculty for Professional Development Leadership Academy through the Arizona Department of Education. This 3-year program developed the knowledge and skills of school and district teams to plan, implement, and evaluate professional learning. She has also served as the Founding Director of the Delaware Professional Development Center in Dover, DE. The Center, developed by the Delaware State Education Association, focused on school improvement for student achievement and effective professional learning. She also served as the Director of the Center for School Change in connection with a National Science Foundation SSI grant, a district coordinator of staff development, and an administrator in a regional educational consortium in Minnesota. Creating and improving professional learning so that it impacts student achievement is one of Pat’s passions.

Editor

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Series

The Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning

The Learning Communities Standard

About the Series Editors

About the Contributors

1. Unpacking Professional Learning Communities: Getting From Here to There

2. Creating Learning Communities

3. The Case Study

Resources

Index

Other Titles in: Staff Development & Professional Learning | Professional Learning Communities | Leadership

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