Teams that engage in designing, using, and responding to common formative assessments are more knowledgeable about their own standards, more assessment literate, and able to develop more strategies for helping all students learn. In this conversational guide, the authors offer tools, templates, and protocols to incorporate common formative assessments into the practices of a PLC to monitor and enhance student learning

Provides specific information on how to transform schools into results-oriented professional learning communities, describing the best practices that have been used by schools nationwide.

This anthology presents the recommendations of education leaders, and each chapter contributes to a sound conceptual framework and offers specific strategies for developing PLCs. These leaders have found common ground in expressing their belief in the power of PLCs although clear differences emerge regarding their perspectives on the most effective strategy for making PLCs the norm in North America.

Learn, do, and lead with the guidance of Formative Tools for Leaders in a PLC at Work(R) by Kim Bailey and Chris Jakicic. With this practical resource, you'll first discover how to gather evidence from staff about PLC practices, processes, and products. Then you'll explore how to use that evidence to gauge the effectiveness of your professional learning community (PLC) and make informed and targeted decisions about your collective next steps for a school culture of continuous improvement. This book will teach you how to implement professional learning communities more effectively: ● Discover how to gather formative evidence from a number of sources to implement collaborative structures and a schoolwide change process. ● Understand how to use the three stages of assessing, analyzing, and acting as a formative feedback loop to improve instructional practices. ● Gain clarity on what makes a successful professional learning community and where to focus your school's energy and effort moving forward. ● Access tools and templates designed to support and strengthen team practices in order to shape school culture and ensure learning for all students. ● Explore how teams effectively answer the four critical questions of a PLC. Contents: Acknowledgments Table of Contents About the Authors Foreword Introduction Part 1 Chapter 1: A Culture of Learning for All Chapter 2: The School's Collaborative Structures Chapter 3: Quality Instructional Practice Chapter 4: Schoolwide Systems of Support Part 2 Chapter 5: A Focus on Getting Clear About What Students Should Know and Do Chapter 6: A Focus on How Teams Gather Information About Student Learning Chapter 7: A Focus on Supporting Students Who Need Additional Time and Support Chapter 8: A Focus on Responding When Students Have Already Learned Epilogue References and Resources Index

In the third edition of Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work®, authors Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Thomas W. Many, and Mike Mattos provide educators with a comprehensive, bestselling guide to transforming their schools into professional learning communities (PLCs). In this revised version, contributor and Canadian educator Karen Power has adapted the third edition for Canadian educators, emphasizing how Canadian educators can effectively improve learning for each student across their unique and widely diverse provinces and territories. Rewritten so that the scenarios, research, and language appropriately meet the needs of Canadian educators, this version is packed with real-world strategies and advice that will assist readers in transforming their school or district into a successful PLC.

Common formative assessments—the centerpiece of an integrated, standards-based system! Now you have powerful means to closely align curriculum, instruction, and assessment to the standards essential for student success. This timely resource presents the "big picture" of an integrated, standards-based instruction and assessment system, and offers guidelines for: Aligning school-based common formative assessments with district benchmarks and large-scale summative assessments Predicting likely student performance on subsequent assessments in time to make instructional modifications Implementing and sustaining common formative assessments within the school’s or district’s culture

This book demonstrates how educators can develop effective and efficient assessments. The authors simplify assessment development to give teacher teams the confidence to write and use team-designed common formative assessments that help ensure all students master essential skills and concepts.

Learn how to promote teacher, student, and collective efficacy Teachers are a school’s greatest resource. Excellent teachers make excellent schools. Leading Impact Teams taps into the scheduled team planning time every school already has, and repurposes it in a model that provides the processes needed to build teacher expertise and increase student learning. The model combines two existing practices, formative assessment and collaborative inquiry, and promotes a school culture in which teachers and students are partners in learning. Readers will learn how to: Build a culture of efficacy Take collective action Embed student-centered assessment in the classroom culture Clarify learning goals for success Leverage progressions of learning for “just right” instruction Utilize evidence-based feedback

This book presents the results of a four-year, National Science Foundation-funded project that engaged nine high school biology teachers at three public high schools in long-term, on-site professional development program centered on a learning progression. It explores the influence of teacher participation in this professional development experience on their learning about student thinking, formative assessment task design, classroom practices, and student learning. Taking an in-depth look at the multiple sources of data gathered as part of the study, this volume reflects on the emergence of professional communities focused on formative assessment design and enactments and associations between teacher participation in learning progression-centered professional development and student learning.

Presents a model for ensuring quality teaching that balances the necessity of research-based data with the equally vital need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of individual students.