TRANSFORMING A DISTRICT INTO A PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY; AN ONGOING PROCESS IN STUDENT AND ADULT LEARNING

Communities emerge when a collected group comes together around a common thread. The term “professional learning communities” first emerged in the 1960s as a response to the social isolation in which teachers performed their educational practices. The common thread of student learning linked professionals in a communal capacity. Over time, research has indicated that the seemingly simple act of creating a community of professionals around a common thread is, in fact, complex.The purpose of this action research is to illuminate the underlying complexities involved in transforming one specific rural school district into a professional learning community with a focus on student learning. This study examines the roles of the district leaders, campus leaders, and teacher leaders, and it seeks to clarify their respective roles in the process. Building the capacity of collaborative teams is a blend of building a positive culture, creating appropriate conditions, developing systems of support, and promoting job-embedded professional learning. The practice of a continuous improvement process transfers into student learning as well as adult learning. The following research questions guided the action research study: 1. How does the implementation of a professional learning community in a rural school district impact daily instructional practice? 2. How do members of a district-wide action research team in a rural school district describe the impact of professional learning communities? 3. What do members of the action research team learn as they engage in a collaborative district model of a professional learning community? Guided by these research questions, teams of educators collected evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of current practices within the organization. The collaborative teams determined practices to abandon and practices that needed to be included in their continuous improvement processes. Recurring themes emerged throughout the study: (1) the campus leader must be actively involved in the process; (2) collaborative teams are most successful when they bring evidence and ensure the collaboration is transferring to daily instructional practices impacting student learning; (3) teacher efficacy increases when all voices are heard and are treated as an instrumental part of the process.

INDEX WORDS: Professional Learning Communities, Culture, Action Research, Evidence, Collaborative Teams, Capacity Building, Teacher Efficacy