Running head: PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY PROJECT

Professional Learning Community Choice Project

Megan Endicott

Kennesaw State University

EDL 8840 Professional Learning

Dr. Susan Banke

Fall 2017
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY PROJECT 2

Professional Learning Community Project

The Fulton County Public School system has been nationally recognized by the National

Association for Music Education (NAfME) and the National Association for Music Merchants

(NAMM) with the distinct title of Best Communities for Music Education for the last

seventeen consecutive years. This honor is awarded based on a survey with data collected from

students, faculty, parents, and community stakeholders. Fulton County is only one of two

districts to receive this honor consecutively since the inception of the award. The school system

is proud of this distinguished honor and utilizes the title on their Wow Fact page and website

to encourage families to move to our district. Fulton County Schools is the fourth largest school

district in Georgia and is unique in that it is bisected by Atlanta Public Schools and stretches

more than seventy miles in length. Due to the size and diversity of the district, Fulton County is

divided into learning communities: Northwest Learning Community (NWLC), Northeast

Learning Community (NELC), Central Learning Community (CLC), South Learning

Community (SLC), and an Achievement Zone (AZ) identifying schools at risk in the SLC. Under

the supervision of the Assistant Superintendent of Learning and Teaching, Fulton County

Schools employs the Performing Arts Coordinator charged with overseeing all kindergarten

through twelfth grade general music, chorus, band, orchestra, drama, and dance specialists. There

are four elementary support teachers, as well as a secondary band, orchestra, and chorus support

teacher, or FAST member, designated with the mission of providing instructional support for the

district music department. The purpose of the FAST, or Fine Arts Support Team, are to provide

resources and instructional support for teachers. With a district of this size, finding ways to

maintain professional connectivity while building community has traditionally proved difficult.

As the new Performing Arts Coordinator took his position in 2016, the goal of finding innovative
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY PROJECT 3

ways to promote community and collaboration was established through a new program called the

Music Leadership Council, or MLC. The goal of the MLC is to build capacity, identify leaders,

and promote student achievement in music through best practices. In effort to build a learning

environment and reform the current teacher network into a full-functioning professional learning

community, an action plan has been created, SMART goals have been identified, and a peer

group of critical friends has been established to promote an area of need based on a needs

assessment survey and observation data.

Goals and Objectives

The Fulton County Mission is to educate every student to be responsible, productive

citizens. Their vision is for all students to learn to their full potential (2012-17 Strategic Plan

Building Our Future: Fulton County Schools Where Students Come First, p.2). To support the

districts vision and mission statement, careful and strategic instructional planning to promote

student achievement must be considered. Effective instructional planning and design was

identified as an area of weakness among district employed elementary music teachers through

careful analysis on data collected through teacher observations conducted by the FAST team and

a needs assessment survey amassed at the end of the 2016 school year. Lesson plans are

systematic records of a teachers thoughts about what will be covered during a lesson (Farrell,

2002 p.31). These thoughts should be organized with student achievement in mind and include

assessments for flexible grouping based on student knowledge, plans to resolve misconceptions,

a structured roadmap for the lesson, opportunities for differentiation and personalization, and a

document to record what has been taught. To better equip teachers with new skills on

instructional planning and design, the objective will be to combine the MLC meetings in

conjunction with the county required professional development days and redefined learning with
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY PROJECT 4

a focus on instructional planning through the implementation of a professional learning

community.

The following are focused SMART Goals and objectives for the Fulton County Elementary

Professional Learning Community:

By June 2017, at least 80% of the Fulton County elementary music teachers will increase

instructional planning methods as measured by the Fine Arts Support Team observation

tool.

By June 2017, at least 50% of the Fulton County elementary music teachers will be

collaborating in a professional learning community to improve their practice as measured

by the Fine Arts Support Team observation tool.

By June 2017, teacher buy-in for attending the music PLC group will increase by 25% as

measured by teacher attendance at MLC meetings.

By June 2017, a total of 85% of all students will achieve a passing score on end of the

year student summative assessments in fifth grade music classes.

Specific protocols

There are many definitions for professional learning communities; however, Stoll and

Seashore Louise (2007) state that it is evident when one exists because you see a group of

teachers sharing and critically interrogating their practice in an ongoing, reflective, collaborative,

inclusive, learning-oriented, growth-promoting way (p. 2). To begin creating an effective

professional learning community, members of the FAST team will establish a critical friend

learning environment and begin creating a PLC plan for implementation. Ultimately there will be

two functioning professional learning communities. One will include the leadership team or the

FAST team, while the other PLC will be all elementary music teachers.
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY PROJECT 5

To effectively implement a professional learning community, all participants must create,

establish, and agree upon group norms. Norms are the framework in which the team follows to

conduct business. In addition, norms aid in setting the teams values and ensures the success of

the groups ability to deal with critical issues as they arise. Several components would need to be

identified to clarify and characterize team values. The specific components will include: when

and where to meet, a clear start time that will be observed, a focus on listening with respect,

confidentiality, participation, and expectations for the group. The norms are best implemented

through set PLC roles. The roles of the group will include a facilitator, recorder, follow-up

contact, focus monitor, communications, and time keeper to ensure norms are maintained and

smart goals are met.

The important role of a critical friend should also be included in the norms and structured

in a format where members feel comfortable with open dialogue and communication. This can

be built over time through set protocols and gradual trust. Critical friend groups help people

involved with schools to work collaboratively in democratic, reflective communities. The

training focused on building the trust needed to engage in direct, honest, and productive

conversations with colleagues about the complex art of teaching (Bambino, 2002). Often the

word, critical, is received with a negative connotation; therefore, building trust through protocols

is necessary to create a structure where opportunities are generated for colleagues to challenge

their own practice as well as those of their peers. The work is critical because it challenges

educators to improve their teaching practice and to bring about the changes that schools need, but

the process is neither negative nor threatening (Bambino, 2002). As suggested by the

Educational Leadership Journal article, Through the Lens of a Critical Friend, by Costa and

Kallick (1993), specific protocols for critical friends should include:

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY PROJECT 6

Be clear about the nature of the relationship, and not use it for evaluation or judgment

Listen well: clarifying ideas, encouraging specificity, and taking time to fully understand

what is being presented

Offer value judgements only upon request from the learning

Respond to the learners work with integrity

Be an advocate for the success of the work (para. 7).

With protocols now in place for the structure of the meeting and expectations in place for

critical friends, an action plan will be created and implemented based on data from the needs

assessment survey and teacher observation measurement tool. These elements combined will be

used to create and measure the SMART goals. The next step will be implementing the plan. At

each meeting, attendees will analyze progress based on data points in the team meetings and

participate in a reflection on teacher progress. Reflective questions such as: How well did the

team implement the plan? What went well? What needs to be changed? What evidence of

learning supports the discussion? will all be discussed at the conclusion of each meeting.

Literature support for the project

Successful professional learning should be structured much like that of our classrooms, in

a supportive, social, constructivist learning environment. Learning constructively requires an

environment in which learners work collegially and is situated in authentic activities and

contexts (Hord, 2009). Understanding that the success of education lies ultimately with the

measurement of student achievement, and that student achievement occurs through quality

teaching, then quality teaching is a defining factor in student achievement. Therefore,

professional development is an important factor in increasing student success. However,

successfully training teachers to break habits or learn new habits must occur through a sustained
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY PROJECT 7

model. Literature (Anderson & Henderson, 2004) supports a disconnect with professional

development world-wide as being attributed to a lack of sustainability. In a case study on a PLC

of seven music teachers from a suburban school district in the upper Midwest, teachers in their

second year of the study became more comfortable seeking and providing feedback from each

other rather than the facilitator (Sindberg, 2016). Sindberg (2016) identifies six features that he

believes influences the success of professional learning communities comprised of music

teachers: commitment to the group over time, tension between content knowledge and

pedagogical knowledge and which is more important, differences in teacher goals and roles,

establishment of group norms, teaching assignments of group members, and support for

implementation. The action plan for Fulton County music teachers will continue over the course

of three years to promote the sustainability needed for success.

Fine arts, health and physical education teachers in elementary schools are unique in that

they teach students for multiple years. In addition, these teachers tackle discovering unique ways

to assess large numbers of students daily. Because of these differences, it is even more critical

for these groups to establish and maintain a professional learning environment. By leaning on

the shoulders of other music teachers who are doing what you do every day, you can share best

practices, discuss local resources, create learning materials based on your districts standards or

curriculum, support one another through the often convoluted teacher evaluations systems in

your school system or state, and help each other problem solve all those little day-to-day issues

that come with teaching music (Traxler).

The case study of the music teachers using Comprehensive Musicianship through

Performance (CMP) promote the success of a professional learning community. They attribute

this success to three possible implications: the power of shared experience, encompassing the
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY PROJECT 8

understanding that change is possible but takes time, and teaching comprehensively (Sindberg,

2016). Teachers began to build trust and comfort. The collaboration transformed from displaying

artifacts and sharing resources, to an open space for sharing emotions of frustration, guilt,

uncertainty, and triumph as well as release tension (Sindberg, 2016). As a community, they

began to problem solve, celebrate, create, and overcome unfamiliar approaches as a unified

collaborative front.

Strategies for establishing buy-in for PLC

One could agree that professional development includes the process of professional

learning and personal learning. Caine and Caine link these findings to brain and mind learning

principles. When we realize that emotions and relationships and personal beliefs are involved,

then we have to grapple with the fact that in professional development two different but parallel

processes are taking place all the time: professional learning and personal learning (Caine &

Caine, 2010). Catering to both sides of the educator can prove beneficial when establishing buy-

in for a professional learning community.

Fulton County currently struggles with teacher buy-in because of location concerns due

to the layout of the district. To promote teacher interest, the Fine Arts Team first conducted a

needs assessment survey as a basis for SMART goals that would increase teacher development,

but pique interest in personal growth as well. By providing content based on teacher needs as

well as interest, teachers will be more inclined to brave the traffic to attend the meetings. Music

teachers are specialists in the field; therefore, identifying and featuring teacher leaders as models

in varied strategies will be important. The FAST team will offer courses that include a mixture of

district-led professional development by teacher leaders to focus on the Fulton way as well as

pulling in respected professionals in the field to keep learning engaging and relevant.
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY PROJECT 9

Hord suggests conditions for successful buy-in would include community membership,

leadership, time for learning, space for learning, data use support, and distributed leadership

(Hord, 2009). Ensuring that each meeting includes data to support the essence for the content on

the agenda adds relevance and purpose to the meeting. Not only will the information learned

increase student achievement, but the information will ultimately increase teacher evaluation

scores on Teacher Keys Effectiveness System (TKES) and the elementary music teacher

observation measurement form. Teachers will be measured on their PLC material during the

Wednesday FAST observation visits and documented on the observation feedback form.

Using Hords conditions, the FAST teams biggest barrier lies in finding time and space

for learning. Music Educators traditionally have a difficult schedule to accommodate with

concerts, after school rehearsals, and private lessons to name a few. Combine this with the size

of the district makes adding additional meeting time outside of school an issue that must be

addressed. Currently the FAST team has assigned meeting locations that are in the central

learning community and will consider incorporating a flipped or blended instruction model to

reach all educators. Ultimately the goal is for teachers to be intrinsically motivated to take

ownership of their own learning; however, it takes building a community of trust and respect,

which takes time.

Strategies for developing consensus and collaboration

Establishing and maintaining protocols and norms will help foster a collaborative

environment as well as place a clear understanding of the consensus process among professional

learning members. Ultimately, laying a clear foundation and setting up expectations for the

benefits of the consensus process will offer teachers with better decision making, promote better

group relationships, and provide better implementation of decisions without hurt feelings or
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY PROJECT 10

overlooking the minority vote. Incorporated in the expectations should be inclusion,

participation, cooperation, and an attitude for identifying solutions rather than barriers. If

educators ensure that all participants are active members of the conversation, work together to

find solutions to concerns, and create alternate paths to reach a decision the professional learning

community will be able to engage all learners at a meaningful level that is relevant to each

member.

The FAST team would like to infuse interactive and hands-on learning in each session,

whether it is collaborative groups offering ideas and suggestions on a Padlet wall, or focusing on

variety strategies through hands-on playing and moving through collaborative music making.

Music is naturally collaborative and social and will easily be incorporated in each PLC meeting.

To end each session, music teachers will work in collaborative groups through a reflective

process to aid in informing decisions for the next PLC meeting.

Measures for monitoring PLCs work

After the 2016 school year, the Performing Arts Program Director distributed on online

survey to identify areas of interest for professional development. In conjunction with the FAST

team observations, the decision was made to focus on instructional planning and design. At the

beginning of the 2017 school year, the FAST team took this information and began to assess the

current observation tool and its effectiveness. The previous form was compared to the Fulton

County Personalized Learning walk form as well as the state of Georgia observation forms. After

discussion, a new form was created and piloted as a team during a live observation. Several

revisions were made before the team reached a consensus and the new observation measurement

tool was officially ready for use. The observation form was rolled out and communicated during
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY PROJECT 11

the first professional learning meeting as well as the monthly team newsletter enacted by the

PLC this fall.

The FAST team meets the first Wednesday of every month to review observation

feedback forms and discuss individual strengths and successes. All information is documented

and tracked in the meeting minutes. This time is used as a reflection to see how the MLC

meetings have impacted teacher performance during the observations. If needed, changes will be

discussed, a consensus for these changes will be decided upon and implemented in the upcoming

MLC and communicated in the monthly newsletter.

A means for assessing the final outcome of the PLC

At the conclusion of year one, the FAST team will request teachers to submit student data

based on a fifth grade summative assessment that will include scores from a diagnostic and

summative assessment. In addition, FAST members will review and reflect on observations and

compile monthly discussions to measure teacher growth for the 2017-2018 school year. A needs

assessment survey will be distributed to check for teacher climate, perspective, and interest at the

end of each school year. All elements will be pieced together to inform decisions for the 2018-

2019 school year MLC and district professional development days as well as collaborate on a

consensus for additional strategies to implement as needed.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY PROJECT 12

References

2012-17 Strategic Plan Building Our Future: Fulton County Schools Where Students Come First.

(n.d.). Retrieved September 22, 2017, from

http://www.fultonschools.org/en/Documents%20%20StrategicPlan/SP2017Final.pdf

Farrell, T. S. (2002). Lesson planning. Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of

current practice, 30-39.

Stoll, L., & Louis, K. S. (2007). Professional learning communities: Elaborating new approaches.

Professional learning communities: Divergence, depth and dilemmas, 1-13.

Bambino, D. (2002). Critical friends. Educational leadership, 59(6), 25-27.

Costa, A. L., & Kallick, B. (1993). Through the lens of a critical friend. Educational leadership,

51, 49-49.

Traxler, K. (n.d.). Music Teacher PLCs. Retrieved September 23, 2017, from http://aosa.org/wp-

content/uploads/2014/05/Music-Teacher-PLCs.pdf

Hord, S. M. (2009). Professional learning communities. Journal of Staff Development, 30(1), 40-
43.
Anderson, N., & Henderson, M. (2004). e-PD: blended models of sustaining teacher professional

development in digital literacies. E-Learning and Digital Media, 1(3), 383-394.

Sindberg, L. l. (2016). Elements of a Successful Professional Learning Community for Music

Teachers Using Comprehensive Musicianship Through Performance. Journal Of

Research In Music Education, 64(2), 202-219. doi:10.1177/0022429416648945

Caine, G., & Caine, R. N. (2010). Strengthening and Enriching Your Professional Learning

Community : The Art of Learning Together. Alexandria, Va: Assoc. for Supervision and

Curriculum Development.