EXPLORATIONAND ADOPTION

INSTALLATION INITIALIMPLEMENTATION

FULLIMPLEMENTATION

SUSTAINABILITYAND SCALE-UP

RATIONALEProponents of professional learning communities (PLCs) seek to revitalize professional development by linking collaborative teacher-guided learning to daily practices in the class-

room. The adoption of PLCs within individual schools has increased substantially over the last decade. At the moment, though, PLCs remain rather limited in scope, since they are housed primarily within individual schools among teachers of the same age/grade level.

A birth-to-college (BTC) approach to PLCs takes this idea to the next level. BTC PLCs are more dynamic than traditional approaches in two distinct ways: (1) membership crosses not only organizational boundaries but also age, grade and discipline, and (2) members design and demonstrate alignments1 in attitudes and beliefs, knowledge, standards and practices as the professionals who are engaged in the daily work of instructional curricula, educational systems and family supports. Taken together, these qualities have the potential to foster a line of sight from birth to college—important because children are most successful when each step in their educational journey is successive and cumulative.

Administrators, teachers and staff all recognize that transforming professional development in individual schools is a large undertaking. The establishment of BTC PLCs adds another layer of complexity to an already complicated process. Therefore, extra time and consideration is required when moving from installation to initial implementation. This guide for school and program leaders continues to discuss the key considerations to address initial logistics and planning for cultivating mindsets and developing the systems and processes that will allow teachers and staff to implement a BTC approach to professional development through the adoption of BTC PLCs. The guide also provides reflection questions to support the installation of BTC PLCs and offers examples from the Birth-to-College Collaborative.

KEY DECISIONS AND STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATIONAt the earliest stages of exploration, adoption and installation, input from all levels of leader-ship is crucial to success. However, as efforts move toward initial and full implementation, it

How do program and school leaders supportthe early work of PLCs within a BTC approach?

Written by Leanne Beaudoin Ryan, Amanda Stein, Holly Lewandowski and Elizabeth Rothkopf

Implementation Guide for School and Program Leaders: Initial Implementation*

may become important to divide the many and varied responsibilities of alignment by level of leadership. In this guide, the authors will focus mainly on the responsibilities of site leaders, who are housed in individual schools (e.g., principals) or programs (e.g., program directors) and are responsible for organizing and implementing alignment efforts on a day-to-day basis.

GETTING STARTEDAll recommendations are based on the experiences of the BTC Collaborative. We have attempted to sequence these recommendations in a way that is logical for readers unfamiliar with the BTC Collaborative and embarking on the work of alignment in their own contexts. However, it is important to emphasize that these recommendations are in no way prescriptive and should be informed entirely by your own circum-stances and sequenced based on your own organizational and contextual priorities and needs.2

● Orient Staff Members to BTC PLCs: Prepare staff members for working outside of their established silos (e.g., grade, age, discipline, classroom) by orienting them to the BTC model and how it can be advanced through the adoption of BTC PLCs. Orientations should illustrate that the framework for BTC PLCs is actually very different from other, more traditional forms of professional development. Emphasis should be placed on the fact that BTC PLCs are a more effective form of professional development that is inquiry-based, peer-led, collaborative and job-embedded. Moreover, orientations should also involve exposure to models, namely, successful professional learning communities in action. Exposure can occur in many ways, including shared readings, site visits to other schools for observation and outside speakers (e.g., teachers) who can describe their positive PLC experiences.

● Create a Safe Space: Site leaders must help facilitate staff participation in PLCs. However, members must trust one another before they will actively engage in the work of the PLC. Therefore, school and

program leaders must create a safe space for members to share ideas, beliefs, thoughts and best practices with one another in a way that respects members’ knowledge and professional expertise. Leaders should also provide guidance on the progress of PLC work in a supportive, constructive manner.

● Cultivate Relationships: PLC members will need to spend a significant amount of time getting to know one another’s practices by becoming acquainted with each other as well as with each other’s curricula

and approaches to teaching and family engagement. Leaders can assist PLCs in these efforts by providing ample time and helping members establish trust and learn about each other’s school cultures, priorities, policies and practices through school visits, classroom observations and informal presentations. These activities are important because they allow members to see each other in their individual contexts and in action, providing a glimpse into daily work life as well as instructional approach. Leaders should anticipate that PLCs will not gel into cohesive groups overnight and that initial meetings will more than likely focus exclusively on relationship cultivation and development of trust.

● Nurture Relationships: If alignments around professional development are to be successful over the longer term, fellowship between BTC PLC members will need to be prioritized and protected. Fledgling

relationships can be insecure and will need to be nurtured for quite some time. Leaders should be aware that relational trust might have to be reaffirmed after long stretches between meetings (e.g., after summer break). Additionally, any changes to PLC membership will more than likely impact the dynamic of the group, and leaders will need to help PLCs weather these changes in a way that does not sacrifice a group’s established cohesion.

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● Support PLC Leaders: PLC leaders will need continual guidance and support. Guidance may be provided through ongoing leadership training, especially relevant for those who have not had previous

experience with practitioner-led exploration and learning. Support may come in the form of open channels of communication by which site leaders regularly touch base with PLC leaders. This may occur through face-to-face check-ins with those in your school building, brief written updates via email or simple reports to jointly fill in and share after each meeting. Ideally, communication channels will be bidirectional so that PLC leaders feel empowered to provide feedback just as they receive it.

● Identify Benchmarks: Site leaders should expect to help PLCs set realistic short-term benchmarks for their work based on the longer-term goals of the partnership.3 Once in place, these benchmarks should

stimulate potential paths of inquiry, allowing PLC members to self-direct their learning using research-based literature, learning standards and examples of best practice in the field.

● Guide Inquiry: Consider providing a process or sequence to guide PLC members’ inquiry. For example, they may need assistance in backward mapping the necessary steps for reaching each benchmark, identifying appropriate deliverables and establishing realistic timelines for the completion of those deliverables. Ultimately, however, BTC PLCs are meant to be a rewarding experience for teachers and staff. Site leaders should be mindful that PLC members are not only accomplishing something that moves the schools toward alignment but are also benefitting from their experience as professionals.

Specifically, PLC members should feel that they are engaging in a process that will strengthen not only their own knowledge base but also their classroom practices.

● Provide Opportunities for Cross-Pollination: Leaders must recognize that cross-pollination

of ideas, beliefs, thoughts and best practices will drive the adoption of a line-of-sight

perspective from birth through college that is unique to alignment work. Therefore, leaders should seek to provide PLC members with many and varied opportunities to share with one another new ideas and lessons learned. For example, many K–12 practitioners would benefit from exposure to a social-emotional development perspective, a core tenet of the early childhood approach to education. PLC members

might (1) review the literature on the contribution of social-emotional skill sets to later academic achievement, (2) observe early childhood education classrooms to see firsthand how social-emotional skills are fostered by teachers, or (3) brainstorm on how social-emotional competencies might contribute to later classroom success.

● Be Actively Involved With Your PLCs: Your role as a site leader in the development of PLCs is to mentor and support PLC leaders. Plan to monitor meetings periodically throughout the school year.

This will give you insight into your staff’s strengths and needs around each PLC topic area. Other benefits include (1) learning about the interaction styles and collaborative abilities of each PLC, (2) seeing firsthand strategies, solutions and innovations being explored by PLCs that might be likely

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candidates for schoolwide adoption, and (3) ensuring PLC work aligns with other ongoing professional development and standards for learning and practice.

SELF-STUDYSchool and program leaders may use the following questions in their efforts to guide initial implementation efforts around alignment of professional development through

the adoption of BTC PLCs:

ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERS• What are our expectations and intended purposes for implementing PLCs? • How do these expectations align with not only our program or schools’ goals but also those goals around alignment between schools? • What are the most important decisions that need to be made prior to PLCs meeting? Who is needed to make these decisions? • What is a reasonable timeframe for decision-making and structure-building?

SITE LEADERS• What information do teachers and staff need to orient them to the BTC PLC model?• What criteria will we use to assess the development of trust? • What strategies can we develop to promote transparency and communication at all levels of the PLC implementation process? • What is a reasonable timeframe for PLCs to accomplish the defined alignment goals? • What are some milestones or benchmarks by which we can measure progress toward these goals?

WINDOW TO THE BIRTH-TO-COLLEGE COLLABORATIVEA BTC approach to alignment of professional development through PLCs has not always been easy. Several times since the inception of the project’s implementation phase, BTC Collaborative

members have had to “reset” the course the PLCs have taken. The purpose of this section is to walk those individuals who may be considering PLCs as a predominant form of alignment in their partnership through the iterative, three-year learning process of the BTC Collaborative.

YEAR ONENewly formed PLCs were instructed to schedule meetings where they would use content topics provided by leadership to self-identify smaller goals that could be achieved within the school year as well as the shorter-term benchmarks that would indicate progression toward meeting these goals. Each PLC was also asked to create a one-page statement summarizing its progress toward goal setting and achievement for the end of the year.

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During this time, PLC members expressed insecurities about what was expected of them. Upon obtaining information about these expectations, leaders were able to reassure PLC members and shift the focus of the PLCs to having members take the time to not only get to know one another as individuals but also as educators. The trust that would be built through this process would lead to the work of the PLCs: co-creating knowledge in service of designing and piloting new practices with the potential to advance student learning. This shift in focus helped PLC members feel there was a consistent, unified and focused goal. Furthermore, feedback from PLC members allowed BTC leaders to recognize that PLC co-leaders might need more consistent support—a mechanism that was built into the planning for year two.

YEAR TWOIn the second year of the PLCs, BTC leaders sought to capitalize on the lessons learned during the previous year by continuing to clarify and structure the work of the PLCs. First, leaders spent time crafting a logic model for the PLCs that would serve as a step-by-step guide on the PLC process. PLC members began by establishing relational trust with one another. Trust empowered them to explore their own knowledge and teaching practices and to share that insight with other members of the group. Sharing, in turn, helped increase the collective knowledge of the group, which led to changes in individual practice. In addition to a logic model, BTC leaders established acomprehensive support system for co-leaders, including additional oversight from facilitators—namely,individuals who were recruited from leadership to provide an additional layer of support and guidance to the PLCs.

BTC leaders felt confident that these additional support structures would further catalyze the work of the PLCs. Yet despite these changes, PLC members craved additional support around the topics of goal setting and achievement. Therefore, BTC leaders attempted further triage. Additionally, PLCs needed a scaffold for goal setting and achievement.

YEAR THREEBased on this learning curve, BTC leaders continued to structure and scaffold the work of the PLCs.In addition to the logic model and support to PLC co-leaders, BTC leaders focused on providing each PLC with specific goals within given content topics that were a school priority and that fit within the particular age and grade span. Additionally, PLC members were given a process for directing their inquiries and working toward their goals. BTC leaders selected educational reformer John Dewey’s process of scientific inquiry. At its heart, this process helps guide the creation of meaningful research questions and considers the steps necessary to begin to answer those questions.

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CONCLUSIONThe BTC Collaborative has learned many valuable lessons about the implementation of BTC PLCs across two organizations and three school campuses. Leaders have learned that PLC members need to trust one another before they are able to share with and learn from one another. Trust is built slowly by getting to know one another not only as professionals but also as individuals. Leaders have also learned that PLC members crave structure and their inquiries need a scaffold. Leaders must provide clear, concrete goals within a given content topic and must also provide a process for catalyzing inquiry. Despite these challenges, leaders learned that implementing this form of dynamic, job-embedded professional development, while complex and time-consuming, has the potential to be quite enriching for those involved.

For a more detailed account of the initial implementation stage of the BTC Collaborative PLCs, please refer to the teaching case study—with teaching notes and companion video—Building a Birth-to-College Model: Professional Learning Communities. This can be found in the “For More on This Subject” section of this document.

SUMMARYThe purpose of this guide is to continue the discussion of alignment within the domain of professional development by focusing on initial implementation efforts, specifically how

school and program leaders can support the work of PLCs. The hope is that these considerations will continue to inform leaders across partnering organizations that may be considering PLCs as a driver of alignment work, with the goal of helping leaders determine if BTC PLCs are feasible given their unique circumstances. Future alignment guides from the Birth-to-College Collaborative will addresslater stages of implementation and other areas of our alignment efforts.

FOR MORE ON THIS SUBJECT_Beaudoin-Ryan, L., Nash, R.S., and Wing, L.C. (2012). Building a Birth-to-College Model: Professional Learning Communities (Research Report No. 2). Foundation for Child Development. http://www.fcd-us.org/sites/default/files/Final%20PLC%20 Teaching%20Case %20 Study 2012 _0.pdf

Carroll, T. G., Fulton, K., & Doerr, H. (2010). Team Up for 21st Century Teaching and Learning: What Research and Practice Reveal About Professional Learning. Washington, DC: National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future. http://nctaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/TeamUp-CE-Web.pdf

Croft, A., Coggshall, J.G., Dolan, M., Powers, E., & Killion, J. (2010). Job-Embedded Professional Development: What It Is, Who Is Responsible, and How to Get It Done Well. Issue Brief. National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality. http://learningforward.org/docs/pdf/jobembeddedpdbrief.pdf?sfvrsn=0

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Fixsen, D.L., Naoom, S.F., Blase, K.A., Friedman, R.M., & Wallace, F. (2005). Implementation Research: A Synthesis of the Literature. Tampa, FL: University of South Florida, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, National Implementation Research Network (FMHI Publication No. 231) http://nirn.fpg.unc.edu/sites/nirn.fpg.unc.edu/files/resources/NIRN-MonographFull-01-2005.pdf

Sadowski, M. (October 2006). Core Knowledge for PK-3 Teaching: Ten Components of Effective Instruction. (Policy Brief: Advancing PK-3 No. 5). New York: Foundation for Child Development. http://fcd-us.org/sites/default/files/Core_Knowledge.pdf

NOTES* These guides were organized and informed by the framework on program implementation created by

the National Implementation Research Network. “Initial implementation” is defined as the process of making “changes in the overall practice environment, [such that] the practitioner in the context of personal, administrative, educational, economic, and community factors [that] are themselves influenced by external factors.”

1 For an in-depth discussion of alignment, including a review of possible areas of alignment, please refer to Stein, A., Beaudoin-Ryan, L., Lewandowski, H., and Rothkopf, E. (2014). Implementation

Guide for Program and School Leaders: What Is Birth-to-College Alignment? How Do School and Program Leaders Get Started? Retrieved from the Ounce of Prevention Fund’s Birth-to-

College Collaborative website: theOunce.org/BTCToolkit; and Kauerz, K., & Coffman, J. (2013). Frame-work for Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating PreK-3rd Grade Approaches. Seattle: College of Education, University of Washington. http://depts.washington.edu/pthru3/PreK-3rd_Framework_Legal paper.pdf

2 For additional information on how the BTC Collaborative developed its mission, vision and initial goals, please refer to the teaching case study and its accompanying video Working Together to Build a Birth-to-College Approach to Public Education: Forming a Partnership Between the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute and the Ounce of Prevention Fund. https://uei.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/documents/FCD%20UEI%20CaseStudy%20%231.pdf

3 Organizational leaders craft the longer-term goals that will be used to fulfill the mission and vision of the partnership. The following sources of information contribute to the creation of goals that will help align organizational entities: (1) previously identified individual school priorities; (2) relevant data about children, families, staff and/or practices, and (3) mutually identified cross-organizational areas for improvement (e.g., establishing routines of collaboration or strengthening home-school connections to support children’s learning across multiple content areas).

7© 2014 Ounce of Prevention Fund and Urban Education Institute. All rights reserved.theOunce.org/BTCToolkit