Richard DuFour & Rebecca DuFour THE SCHOOL LEADERS GUIDE TO PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES AT WORK—Essentials for Principals
There have been a substantial amount of publications around the
practices of a true professional learning community (PLC). I consider Richard
and Rebecca DuFour the co-founders and front runners of these effective
practices centered on student learning. The School Leader's guide to
Professional Learning Communities at Work focuses specifically on the role of
the building principal. It is a condensed read of less than 100 pages with
links to on-line ready to use tools to move the thinking into collaborative
conversations with staff.
Each chapter thoroughly and quickly reviews the commitments and
responsibilities of a building principal to lead a PLC. The DuFours remind the
reader, "It is not a meeting" or a "book club" (p.4). It is
"an ethos that infuses every single aspect of a school's operation"
(Hargreaves as citing in Sparks, 004, p. 48). My book is already worn and
referenced for our focused work ahead as we implement year two of a school
improvement turnaround grant.
The section in the DuFours’ School Leadership Guide is what I am
most excited about. This free on-line
template is for the principal to use, "for the collective dialogue that
takes place on a collaborative team after each common assessment”
(p. 52). This is not only to ensure each student is learning, but you are using
the "actual evidence of student learning" (p. 53) as the tool to
facilitate the conversation of the essential learnings for the students, evaluation
of the formative assessment, and to determine the instructional strategies’
effectiveness. Yay!
The DuFours conclude their book with this quote. "This is
the role of the principal, a role that is daunting, but doable”
(p. 89). I would add the role of the principal is also incredibly rewarding
when you impact student learning and teacher effectiveness with shared
ownership!
