Ensure your school district is doing the right work, the right way, for the right reasons. With this resource as your guide, you will learn how to align the work of every PLC team districtwide--from the boardroom to the classroom. Each chapter focuses on one of four types of teams and provides practices and tools for working together to foster a districtwide culture of continuous improvement. Use this resource to align your district's work in a top-down, bottom-up cyclical process: Learn the leadership role the district office plays in supporting successful PLC at Work implementation and school-improvement efforts. Observe how collaborative teams at every level align their work districtwide to ensure high levels of learning in professional learning communities. Study real-life examples and artifacts of best practices in action. Receive protocols and templates, such as the Team Analysis of Common Assessment (TACA) form, to move student learning forward. Review a process for establishing a guaranteed and viable curriculum, and discover strategies for analyzing student learning and making data-informed decisions. Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Starting at the Top--The School Board and the Superintendent Team Chapter 2: Setting the Stage--The District-Level and Principal Teams Chapter 3: Effective Leadership Matters--The School-Level Principal and Grade-Level or Content Team Leaders Chapter 4: The Key to Improving Learning--Grade Level and Content Teams Chapter 5: Imagine This School District

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.

In this sequel to Total Instructional Alignment, the author peels back complex layers of the change process to reveal the five big ideas at the core of successful schools. Focus on these foundational ideas to simplify decision making and eliminate distractions from your efforts to promote effective teaching and learning. Teachers and administrators alike will appreciate this straightforward approach to solid leadership for school improvement.

Expand your leadership capacity. Through this how-to guide, you’ll investigate why strong leadership is a crucial element of successful PLCs and delve deep into what leadership should involve at the district and site levels. Discover leadership strategies for creating a collaborative culture, learn how to build shared values among educators, and explore tools and techniques for monitoring progress on your PLC journey.

In order for a professional learning community to achieve its full potential, all levels districtwide must align with the three big ideas: ensuring a focus on learning, building a collaborative culture, and establishing a results orientation. This book breaks down the complex process of aligning the work of central office staff, building leadership, and teachers to increase student achievement.

Teachers Leading Educational Reform explores the ways in which teachers across the world are currently working together in professional learning communities (PLCs) to generate meaningful change and innovation in order to transform pedagogy and practice. By discussing how teachers can work collectively and collaboratively on the issues of learning and teaching that matter to them, it argues that through collective action and collaborative agency, teachers are leading educational reform. By offering contemporary examples and perspectives on the practice, impact and sustainability of PLCs, this book takes a global, comparative view showing categorically that those educational systems that are performing well, and seek to perform well, are using PLCs as the infrastructure to support teacher-led improvement. Split into three sections that look at the macro, meso and micro aspects of how far professional collaboration is building the capacity and capability for school and system improvement, this text asks the questions: Is the PLC work authentic? Is the PLC work being implemented at a superficial or deep level? Is there evidence of a positive impact on students/teachers at the school/district/system level? Is provision in place for sustaining the PLC work? Teachers Leading Educational Reform illustrates how focused and purposeful professional collaboration is contributing to change and reform across the globe. It reinforces why teachers must be at the heart of the school reform processes as the drivers and architects of school transformation and change.

Take your professional learning community to the next level! Discover a systemwide approach for re-envisioning your PLC while sustaining growth and continuing momentum on your journey. You’ll move beyond isolated pockets of excellence while allowing every person in your school system—from teachers and administrators to students—the opportunity to be an instrument of lasting cultural change.

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.

How do you define leadership? What kind of leader are you? What kind of leader can you be? Can you be both a leader and a follower? You can get a handle on these and other crucial questions by wrapping your brain around Leadership 101. It focuses on the nuts and bolts of solid Christian leadership (prayer, service, communication, conflict management, mentoring, etc.) but also goes deep into the soul of leadership. In these pages you'll find out why leading isn't always what we expect---and how leaders aren't always who we expect them to be. You'll learn to integrate your heart with the skills of leadership. And you'll discover how Jesus, David, and others journeyed on the leadership path---so you can join them, too. This interactive guide also includes checklists, surveys, fill-in-the-blank questions, and journal exercises so you can take your own leadership pulse, identify the traits you want to live out, and record your thoughts and prayers right on the pages---which helps you put leadership into practice more quickly and effectively. Just remember: Leadership isn't a job...it's a journey.