Thomas W. Many

Aligning School Districts As Plcs Thomas W. Many

In order for a learning community to best deliver upon its full potential, all levels and all roles districtwide need to become aligned around the three big ideas of a PLC: ensuring a focus on learning, building a collaborative culture, and establishing a results orientation. For each of these big ideas, there are certain non-negotiables things around which there must be common agreement and expectations. For the first big idea, ensuring a focus on learning, there are three non-negotiables: a guaranteed and viable curriculum, a balanced and coherent system of assessment, and a schoolwide pyramid of interventions. For building a collaborative culture, the non-negotiables are a shared mission, vision, values, and goals; high-performing collaborative teams, and intentional collaboration. And for the third big idea, a results orientation, the non-negotiables are establshing a data mindset; data management, collection, and analysis; and data-based action to improve results. In aligning around the non-negotiables, there are four essential elements to consider the definition of district roles (strategic, tactical, and operational), communication using data, loose and tight leadership, and the so-called alignment constants. The alignment constants are certain non-negotiables that are identical for each big idea (policies, practices, and procedures; appraisal systems; resources and training, and monitoring and reporting). Professional learning communities have shown clear and demonstrated success. Now the challenge is to replicate those successes on a larger scale in many school districts and across multiple schools. This approach of bringing the non-negotiables of the three big ideas into alignment across all three roles districtwide with respect to the essential elements has the potential to deliver PLCs on that larger scale.