Professional Development Learning Communities 1

Professional Development Learning Communities:

Using Professional Learning Communities as Vehicles to Deliver High Quality Professional Development
Eric Kursman
August 5, 2012
George Mason University
EDLE 597
Dr. Diana DAmico













Professional Development Learning Communities 2
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE FOR MIXED ABILITY CLASSES
At Blue Ridge Middle School, eighth grade English teachers will continue to pilot last
years mixed ability classes for the upcoming 2012-2013 school year. Teachers and
administrators at Blue Ridge believe that mixed ability classes provide academic rigor while
maintaining sensitivity to the socio-emotional needs of adolescents. To support Blue Ridges
position with respect to academic rigor, research on mixed ability classes shows that
heterogeneous groups of problem solvers outperform homogeneous groups of problem solvers
(Hong, 2004). These results further underscore similar findings that homogeneous grouping
does not yield higher student achievement (Slavin, 1990). In addition, mixed ability classes offer
constructivist opportunities for students of diverse learning styles build knowledge in social
groupings (George, 2005). With regards to students socio-emotional needs, mixed ability
classes heighten awareness of individual differences while still highlighting the similarities
amongst diverse learners (George, 2005). Furthermore, the social foundation of mixed ability
classes boosts students already-peaking sense of social cognition (Ormrod, 2007). By attending
to both students socio-emotional and academic needs, mixed ability classes provide Blue
Ridges eighth grade English teachers with the platform to best reach all students.
In order to maximize student potential within mixed ability classes, eighth grade English
teachers at Blue Ridge Middle School differentiate their instruction to meet the needs of
individual learners. In its defense, differentiated instruction provides learning environments
reflective of our democratic society, ensures the equity of curriculum for all students, and
destigmatizes student learners (George, 2005). In addition, when considering the highly-able
learner, differentiated instruction diminishes a students sense of declining self-perception,
provides students with multiple methods to reach expertise, and, most importantly, the
Professional Development Learning Communities 3
individualized approach of differentiated instruction eliminates teacher tendencies to overlook
highly-able learners (Marsh, 1995; Tomlinson, 2005; Tomlinson, 2006). By focusing instruction
on the needs of individual learners, differentiated instruction allows eighth grade English
teachers to improve student achievement, especially for highly-able learners.
Although mixed ability classes and differentiated instruction provided Blue Ridge
teachers with successful instructional practices during the 2011-2012 school year, the concept of
mixed ability grouping came under fire from the surrounding community. After a years worth
of heated debate between Blue Ridge Middle School and its surrounding community, parents still
felt a single question remained: how can eighth grade teachers effectively instruct mixed-ability
classes? To seek further answers to that question, Blue Ridge Middle School scaled back its
heterogeneous grouping practices from all core academic classes to only English classes for the
2012-2013 school year. Administrators at Blue Ridge only chose to focus on English because all
eighth grade English teachers already employ Nancy Atwells Reading Writing Workshop, a
curricular platform that relies on the same aspects that make up high-quality curriculum and
effective differentiation. Therefore, since eighth grade English teachers were already
experienced with the Reading Writing Workshop, these teachers were already experienced in
effective differentiated instruction.
The eighth grade English team at Blue Ridge Middle School abhors relying on past
success to fuel future achievements and is dedicated to always improving their craft. Since Blue
Ridge eighth grade English teachers already employ effective differentiation within the Reading
Writing Workshop, these teachers can further improve their instructional delivery by learning
how to effectively differentiate their classrooms beyond the Reading Writing Workshop. To
accomplish this goal, Blue Ridges eighth grade English team needs meaningful and effective
Professional Development Learning Communities 4
professional development in order to gain more knowledge and skills to enhance their
differentiated practices.
EFFECTIVE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Research on professional development indicates that current development models differ
from outdated, more traditional designs. Although educational researchers differ slightly in their
definition of various elements, they still agree on the following key characteristics (Borko, 2004;
Desimone, 2002; Lieberman, 2008).
Effective professional development.
- Takes place over longer durations than traditional workshop seminar models
- Offers opportunities to actively construct knowledge (as opposed to passively receiving
information)
- Focuses on student learning and the learning process
- Delivers explicit teachings of specific instructional practices
- Is comprised of a community of learners who all collaborate within the same work
environment
Although researchers agree that these characteristics help to deliver effective professional
development, school administrators, such as the team at Blue Ridge Middle School, struggle with
the reality of limited resources to provide teachers with high quality development programs.
Luckily, Blue Ridge has already established a platform in which teachers can receive effective
professional development without wiping out competitive resources: Blue Ridge administrators
Professional Development Learning Communities 5
can use professional learning communities (PLCs) as a vehicle to deliver high quality staff
development.
Professional learning communities, such as those already established at Blue Ridge
Middle School, already mirror several key characteristics of effective professional development.
Professional learning communities tackle building and district-level curricular goals, offer
opportunities for teachers to actively construct knowledge through the creation of common
assessments and teaching units, and are already designed around a community of learners
within the same academic subject. In order to use the existing platform of professional learning
communities as a vehicle to deliver high quality staff development, Blue Ridge administrators
and school leaders need to tweak the PLC system to incorporate expert instruction (in the form of
outside professional development facilitators) into PLC meetings.

PROPOSED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
In order to incorporate expert instruction into the platform of professional learning
communities, Blue Ridge Middle School needs to create a pilot Professional Development
Learning Community (PDLC) for its eighth grade English teachers.
STAKEHOLDERS
Key stakeholders within the PDLC would include the following:
Who is involved? Title How are they helping? They will provide that help by
Brion Bell BRMS
building
principal
Supporting efforts of PDLC by:
- scheduling bi-weekly meeting times
- establishing standards for PDLC curriculum
- acquiring PD program
- regularly evaluate impact of PDLC
Professional Development Learning Communities 6
Michelle Schmidt-
Moore
LCPS
English
Department
Supervisor
Supporting efforts to acquire PD program by:
- providing lists of available PD programs
- collaborating with department chair to create catalogue of PD program
choices
- helping to acquire selected PD program
John OConnor LCPS Staff
Development
Supervisor)
Supporting efforts to acquire PD program by:
- providing lists of available PD programs
- helping to acquire selected PD program
Allyson White BRMS
English
Department
Chair
Furthering progress of PDLC by:
- establishing standards for PDLC curriculum
- providing catalogue of PD program options
- participating in selected PD program
- co-creating PDLC curriculum
- leading PDLC meetings
- regularly evaluating impact of PDLC
Eric Kursman BRMS 8
th

Grade
English
Teacher
Furthering progress of PDLC by:
- establishing standards for PDLC curriculum
- selecting PD program
- participating in selected PD program
- co-creating PDLC curriculum
Ginny Walker BRMS 8
th

Grade
English
Teacher
Furthering progress of PDLC by:
- establishing standards for PDLC curriculum
- selecting PD program
- participating in selected PD program
- co-creating PDLC curriculum
Professional
Development
Experts
Professional
Development
program
facilitators
Supporting efforts of PDLC by:
- teaching professional and instructional practices to PDLC members
- video conferencing to develop and strengthen new professional and
instructional practices throughout the school year
Marnie Hawk BRMS
Technology
Specialist
Supporting PDLC meetings by:
- setting up and ensuring stability of technology for PD programs

Professional Development Learning Communities 7
TASKS
To create and sustain the PDLC, stakeholders will need to complete a number of tasks:
Tasks to be
completed
Goal of task Who By when Resources Needed Expected
Results
How this differs from current practices at BRMS
Schedule
biweekly
meeting
times for
PDLC
PDLC members have unencumbered 90
minutes twice a week to meet.
Brion Bell 6/4/2013 Master schedule Biweekly PDLC
meetings built
into PDLC
members
schedules
Currently, PLCs only meet once per week; this
design would allow for PDLCs to meet at least twice
a week.
Determine
goals of
PDLC
Establish and align a set of standards and
expectations for the PDLC with the
curricular and building goals of the
district and the school to serve as
groundwork for PDLC curriculum.
Brion Bell,
Eric
Kursman,
Allyson
White, and
Ginny Walker
8/25/2013 60+ minutes for
unencumbered meeting
prior to students first day
PDLC goals
established and
aligned with
curricular and
building goals of
the school and
district
Goals are normally established by building and
district administration; department chairs may have a
say in final goals, but teachers do not have input to
design goals of PD.
Create
catalogue of
five
professional
developmen
t programs
Department Chair develops a catalogue
of PD options that provide opportunities
to address PDLC goals.
Allyson
White,
Michelle
Schmidt-
Moore, John
OConnor
9/10/2013 List of available
professional development
programs within
school/district budget
Catalogue of PD
options created
Although teachers can choose from district-assembled
catalogue of PD that corresponds to districts goals,
teachers do not currently have ability to select PD
based on building needs and teacher-defined goals.
Nominate
one PD
program
From catalogue of five options, eighth
grade English teachers select one PD
program that they feel best addresses
goals of PDLC.
Allyson
White, Eric
Kursman,
Ginny Walker
9/17/2013 2 planning periods to meet
and choose PD program
PD program
chosen by
teachers
Teachers currently do not have the opportunity to
choose from variety of department-based PD
programs.
Acquire PD
program
Teacher-selected PD program is acquired. Brion Bell,
Michelle
Schmidt-
Moore, John
OConner
9/30/2013 Funding to acquire PD
program
PD program
selected
Although building principals currently have ability to
acquire PD workshop for entire faculty, they currently
do not have ability to acquire PD program for single
department (these acquisitions are currently made by
department supervisors).
Deliver PD
program to
PDLC
PD program facilitators meet with PDLC
members for two work days to teach
instructional practices and professional
practices to accomplish goals of PDLC.
PD
facilitators,
Allyson
White, Eric
Kursman,
Ginny
Walker,
Marnie Hawk

10/30/2013
-11/1/2013
Three substitute teachers
to cover three PDLC
members; light
refreshments; coffee;
unencumbered meeting
space; computers with
stable internet access;
lunches for PD facilitators

PDLC members
gain valuable
instructional and
professional
practices that can
be easily applied
to PDLC goals
Currently, teachers do not have intimate, small-group
access to PD facilitators over the span of full
workdays.
Professional Development Learning Communities 8
Create
PDLC
curriculum
PDLC members meet for one work day
to create PDLC curriculum by
synthesizing predetermined goals of
PDLC and knowledge gained in previous
days PD program.
Allyson
White, Eric
Kursman,
Ginny Walker
11/2/2013 Three substitute teachers
to cover three PDLC
members; unencumbered
meeting space; computers
with stable internet access
PDLC curriculum
created
Teachers currently do not have resources required to
design a PLC-based curriculum nor the time to
develop a sequence that determines when and how
expectations from the PDLC curriculum will be met.
Meet as
PDLC to
accomplish
established
goals
Meet objectives in PDLC curriculum by:
Engaging in professionally critical
dialogue about students and student
learning
Studying educational research to
combine/synthesize with craft
knowledge
Thoroughly and collaboratively
analyzing student data
Setting student learning goals based
on disaggregation of student data
Studying the role students
developmental thinking plays in the
learning process
Assessing student work for
comprehension and misconceptions
Creating lesson studies and
common assessments
Publishing collaborative work

Allyson
White, Eric
Kursman,
Ginny Walker
Biweekly,
11/5/2013-
6/7/2014
Unencumbered, biweekly
meeting time; computers
with stable internet access;
unencumbered meeting
space; opportunities to
publish PDLC-created
work; opportunities to
distribute PDLC-created
work to educational
commnunity
PDLC members
partake in
biweekly
meetings to
accomplish goals
set forth in PDLC
curriculum
Currently, PLCs only meet once per week; this
design would allow for PDLCs to meet at least twice
a week to accomplish goals set forth in PDLC
curriculum.
Formative
check-ins
PD
facilitators
PDLC members video conference with
PD program facilitators for half day to
explore:
- PDLC progress throughout the year
so far
- New methodologies to achieve
additional goals of PDLC

PD
facilitators,
Allyson
White, Eric
Kursman,
Ginny
Walker,
Marnie Hawk
Quarterly,
12/5/2013-
6/7/2014
Video conferencing
software; webcam;
unencumbered meeting
space; computers with
stable internet access
PDLC check-ins
with PD
facilitators
completed
Currently, teachers do not have the resources or the
opportunities to continually meet with PD program
facilitators throughout the course of the year to
strengthen and develop instructional and professional
practices.
Assess
impact of
PDLC
Stakeholders meet to evaluate impact of
PDLC on:
- SOL scores
- BMA scores
- Various summative common
assessments
- Various formative in-class
assessments
- Published student writing
- Published teacher-created
collaborative work
- Student feedback
- Teacher feedback

Brion Bell,
Allyson
White, Eric
Kursman,
Ginny
Walker,
Marnie Hawk
6/11/2014 120 minutes of
unencumbered meeting
time; unencumbered
meeting space; computers
with internet access
Impact of PDLC
evaluated
Currently, PLCs do not have the opportunity to meet
with building administration to address and evaluate
the impact of their efforts on student achievement,
student learning, and various building and district
goals.
Professional Development Learning Communities 9

RESOURCES
In order to complete the above tasks, the stakeholders will need the following resources:
What resource is needed? These resources are needed for
Initial administrative support at
the building and district level
Developing and maintaining the PDLC
Established set of standards
and expectations
Designing the curriculum of the PDLC
Unencumbered meeting times
for PDLC members
biweekly opportunities to talk with one another and study
student and teacher learning
School and district finding Teacher-selected professional development program
School funding Substitute teachers to cover classes of PDLC members for
initial three-day meeting and quarterly meetings
Skype-enabled computers and
webcams
Video conferencing during quarterly meetings with PD
facilitators


EVALUATION
In order to ensure the pilot PDLC has its desired impact on student achievement and
teacher instruction, we will evaluate the following assessments:
Formative
Assessment Data collected When
collected
How analyzed
Teacher
feedback
surveys
Confidence in using strategies
with students, frequency of using
strategies with within PDLC
11/15/2013
2/15/2014
5/15/2014
Disaggregate confidence
ratings, frequency of
implementation, self-
Professional Development Learning Communities 10
meetings, self-efficacy ratings efficacy
Student
feedback
surveys
Confidence in English skills
learned, perceptions of
improvement in English class,
self-efficacy ratings
11/15/2013
2/15/2014
5/15/2014
Disaggregate confidence
ratings, perceptions of
improvement, self-efficacy
LCPS
Benchmark
Assessments
Overall reading and writing
scores
11/15/2013
4/25/2014
Compare initial BMA to
final BMA scores of all
eighth grade English
students
In-class
assessments
Patterns of student
comprehension and common
misconceptions
12/12/2013
3/15/2014
In PLCs, share assessment
data, seek trends of all
students
Summative
Assessment Data collected When
collected
How analyzed
8
th
grade
Reading
SOL and
Writing
SOL
Overall scores; overall reading
comprehension; overall writing
skill
6/1/2014 PDLC breaks down data of all
students
Published
student
work
Frequency of student writers
attempting and achieving
publication
6/1/2014 Tabulate number of eighth
grade English students who
attempted and achieved
publication
Published
teacher-
created
collaborative
work
Number of lesson studies,
common assessments, and
various other curriculum
materials created by PDLC
members
6/1/2014 Tabulate number of lesson
studies, common assessments,
and various other curriculum
materials



FUTURE IMPLICATIONS
By developing, maintaining, and evaluating this pilot PDLC, Blue Ridge Middle School
will advance teacher learning and improve student achievement without exhausting valuable and
competitive resources at the school and district level. After the successful one-year pilot PDLC,
Professional Development Learning Communities 11
Blue Ridge administrators and school leaders will have the opportunity to adapt the same PDLC
model either vertically throughout the English Language Arts department (of whose members all
employ Nancy Atwells differentiated Reading Writing Workshop) or horizontally across the
entire eighth grade (returning to the 2011-2012 heterogeneous grouping practices of all core
academic classes).
Throughout the 2011-2012 school year, eighth grade English teachers at Blue Ridge
Middle School demonstrated that they were able to effectively differentiate instruction within
mixed ability classes to spur academic and social growth of their eighth grade students. With the
addition of the PDLC, these teachers have the opportunity to capitalize on high quality
professional development and best teaching practices to raise expectations for academic rigor
and more effectively tune into adolescents socio-emotional needs for years to come.









Professional Development Learning Communities 12
Works Cited
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terrain. Educational Researcher, 33(8), 3-15.
Desimone, L.M., Porter, A.C., Garet, M.S., Yoon, K.S., & Berman, B.F. (2002) Effects of
professional development on teachers instruction: Results from a three-year longitudinal
study. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24(2), 81-112.
George, P. (2005). A rationale for differentiating instruction in the regular classroom. Theory
into Practice,44(3), 185-193. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3496997
Hong, L. (2004). Groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability
problem solvers.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of
America,101(46), 16385-16389. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3373827
Lieberman, A., & Pointer Mace, D. H. (2008). Teacher Learning: The Key to Educational
Reform. Journal of Teacher Education. 59 (3), 226-234.
Marsh, H., Chessor, D., Craven, R., & Roche, L. (1995). The effects of gifted and talented
programs on aca- demic self-concept: The big fish strikes again. Amer- ican Educational
Research Journal, 32, 285-320.
Ormrod, J. E. (2007). Educational psychology, developing learners. (6 ed.). Prentice Hall.
Slavin, R. (1990). Achievement effects of ability grouping in secondary schools: A best-evidence
synthesis.Review of Educational Research, 60(3), 471-499. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1170761
Professional Development Learning Communities 13
Tomlinson, C. A. (2006). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms. Prentice
Hall.
Tomlinson, C. (2005). Quality curriculum and instruction for highly able students. Theory into
Practice, 44(2), 160-166. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3497034