Commentary:
By Steve Rodriguez

Readers following our states’ education debate are familiar with the usual list of suspects employed to explain the quality (or lack thereof) of California public schools. Most articles attempt to correlate school quality with much discussed factors as classroom size, standardized test scores, teacher experience/training, classroom discipline, charter schools, teacher salaries, student access to technology, etc. Educational experts, politicians, and dilettantes alike have long relied on these factors to make their respective points.

However, I am struck by the absence of public discussion regarding one major movement currently guiding the daily regimen of many teachers. I contend the concept of “teacher collaboration” needs to be made part of the educational debate for California residents to fully comprehend our schools’ potential for generating greater teacher effectiveness.

Many schools in San Diego County have implemented the concept of Professional Learning Communities (PLC), an approach requiring teachers to work together in teams to determine the best course of action for their common grade level or subject classrooms. For example, during the school year a PLC team of 9th grade English teachers will work collaboratively on a unit-to-unit basis to design a common pacing schedule of lesson activities, a list of common texts to be taught, as well as common assessments. These teachers then meet weekly to discuss the effectiveness of these common unit components, paying special attention to student data produced by the assessments, primarily to determine significant trends in student understanding of lesson objectives. Based on this data, effective PLC’s discover which students get it and which don’t (and why), then figure out ways to re-teach struggling students, or the parts of a lesson that proved ineffective. Along the way, teachers also share best practices and refine lesson plans for future use.

Such collaboration is impossible without teachers working off the same common pacing guides, texts, and assessments.

This common ground is necessary for professional discussions to be relevant for each PLC member, though the arrival at this common ground often requires compromise and a surrendering of some independence on the part of each teacher. Fortunately, a school’s adoption of the PLC approach is a healthy recognition by participating teachers that classroom learning is complex and cannot be addressed strictly on an individual teacher basis.

There are indeed considerations that can limit the effectiveness of PLC teams. First, not all teachers are willing/able to work on a collaborative basis with their colleagues. Such collaboration is viewed as a threat to their own “creativity” and “independence.” They seek to remain teacher lone wolves. Second, a school’s PLC program is largely dependent on the leadership of a school’s principal, who can establish clear expectations for collaboration, sell the PLC concept to wary teachers, and artfully mediate disputes between team members. Third, teachers volunteering for PLC team leader assignments need to be more than just classroom teachers of students—they must be willing leaders of fellow professionals, capable of cajoling, coordinating, caring and exercising initiative beyond their own classrooms. Finally, there’s the issue of time. Schools usually provide PLC teams with a mere 1 to 1-1/2 hours a week (courtesy of one shortened classroom day in the week) to conduct collaborative work/ discussions. Extra collaboration time must be found before/after school—but only when coaching duties, parent meetings, essay grading, or student tutoring is not occurring.

Students stand the most to gain from teacher collaboration. Ideally, all teachers become more effective from shared data analysis, lesson planning, and discussion/adoption of best practices. Teacher discussion—driven by data analysis—focuses on targeting struggling students for intervention. And if a PLC is truly effective, parents no longer resort to teacher shopping for each teacher gains access to the same instructional strategies, materials, and lesson activity ideas.

Under such circumstances, teacher quality should maintain an upward tick from year to year.

Accordingly, as a new school year begins, I recommend California residents henceforth develop an expectation of seeing the PLC approach discussed in education- related news articles as a possible factor for school/teacher effectiveness.

Let’s start to see if there is any correlation between student progress and effective school PLC programs. San Diego County parents should start asking “To what extent does my child’s school utilize the PLC approach?” And as a corollary, let’s assume the absence of such discussion indicates a serious lack of contemporary educational-related knowledge on the part of the individuals or groups making the latest claim about our schools’ progress (or lack thereof).

Rodriguez is an English teacher in the Sweetwater Union High School District. Email: srodriguez2@san.rr.com