Professional Learning
Communities
Heritage Middle School
How Data Drives Instruction
Changes in Our PLC Structure
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PAST
After school
interventions
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Interventions are
optional for students
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Inconsistency between
teachers
Results were not always
effectively used
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CURRENT
Idea behind PLC is that
interventions happen
within the school day
Mandatory for students
who need intervention
Consistency between
teachers
Use results daily to
modify instruction
Mathematics Three Year Trend
Year
6th
7th
8th
2007
50.3%
45.8%
62.0%
2008
52.7%
57.6%
52.9%
2009
57.2%
57.6%
70.6%
• 7.3% increase from 2007 to 2008
•13% increase from 2008 to 2009
•Increases in the last five years have been between 4% and 7%
•Percentages have not been close to 70% (the highest was 62% in 2007)
What Does Our PLC Look Like?
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Data analysis-current data based directly on
specific standards and student achievement
Common planning based off the data-includes
specific lessons, re-grouping, and re-teaching
Communication and reflection-analyze new data
and reflect on effectiveness of interventions
Very little PLC time is spent discussing things
that are not directly related to student learning
Data Drives Intervention
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Teachers look for questions students struggled
with and analyze possible reasons for difficulty.
Teachers use data to design intervention for
specific indicators.
Data is used to find instruction that increased
student achievement for specific indicators.
Teacher Results
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Teachers receive results comparing classes by
indicators.
How Data Changes Instruction
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Data from common district assessments is used
to monitor mastery of indicators.
Students use data to self-evaluate their progress
with the standards.
Data is used to identify standards that need to
be re-taught.
Data is used to determine intervention groups.
Data is used to revise instruction in various
PLC’s to increase student achievement.
Standards Based Education
ASSESS
TEACH
Academic
Content
Standards
REVISE
Types of Intervention
What are we doing when students aren’t achieving at
high levels?
Re-teach material
 Small group instruction
 Re-group/re-teach with all three teachers
 Re-group/re-teach within our classrooms
 Re-take assessments
 Lunch support
 After school support
*Most of our support is within the school day and
is mandatory for students who are not achieving
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Common Planning
All planning is data driven!
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Engaging Lessons Are Shared
Problem of the Week
Common Assessments
District Assessments
Engaging Shared Lessons
Teachers create one lesson on a concept they
feel confident teaching
 All three teachers pick a different concept
 Each teacher teaches their lesson to all three
math classes over a three day period
 Planning time is saved and more engaging
lessons are created
 Teachers feel confident in their content and can
reflect and make changes to their lesson
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Problem of the Week
All teachers create and use the same problems
 O.A.T. level and format
 Writing in math is emphasized and practiced
daily
 DRASTIC improvements on short-extended
response items
*A big change we made this year was creating our
own problem of the week to include higher level
thinking and reasoning
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Common Assessments
Created weekly/bi-weekly
 Created by the whole team (including the
intervention specialist)
 Questions model the O.A.A. format
 Questions from all levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy
are used
 All students take the assessment on the SAME
day
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How Common Assessments Improve
Instruction
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The common assessment items are standardbased. Questions are written in O.A.A. format
and include varying levels of thinking.
The instruction is guided by the common
assessments items that are selected before
instruction begins.
There is consistency between what is being
assessed and the assessment method.
District assessments are also created using
common assessment items.
District Assessments
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Teachers collaborate to build common assessments at
the beginning of the nine weeks.
Learning activities are designed around concepts on the
district assessments.
Common assessments (quizzes) are also built into the
quarter and are designed around the common district
assessments.
Common district assessments are administered at the
end of each quarter.
Results are quickly sent to teachers.
Intervention begins based off results.
Communication and Reflection
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Teachers collaborate throughout the whole process
Common lesson plans, activities, homework, practice,
notes, assessments, etc.
Framework and structures of classes are very similar,
but there is still room for individual teaching styles and
strategies
Teachers communicate on a daily basis for reflection
and improvement
Intervention specialist attends all meetings and
collaborates
Challenges and Solutions
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Challenges
Insufficient staff for
regrouping
Rotating schedule
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Grouping
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Don’t know students
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Solutions
Utilize all available staff
Set standard time for regroup lessons (45 min.)
Variety of grouping methods
to choose from
After a few re-groupings,
students names were learned
and behavior problems
significantly dropped
Challenges and Solutions-cont.
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Challenges
Honors and resource classes
Lack of computers for
enrichment group
Lack of common planning
time
Lack of rooms for reteaching/re-grouping
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Solutions
Different models-sometimes
they were included-other
times they were not
Library computers/staff
Refocused meeting time to
concentrate on data and
planning-added our own PLC
time
Plan ahead and utilize all
available space