Principal Leadership in PLCs

1. Principal Leadership in PLCs Lakeville Administrative Academy November 2, 2012 Susan Huff susan.huff@nebo.edu

2. Two Objectives • Learn how to overcome barriers to school improvement. • Learn how to mentor instructional teams.

3. Norms for Us • Listen to learn and apply. • Participate fully and respect confidentiality. • Focus; pay attention to signal.

4. Transforming a school to a PLC is a journey that takes time and effort.

5. What Is a PLC? “…educators committed to working collaboratively in ongoing processes of collective inquiry and action research in order to achieve better results for the students they serve. PLCs operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous, job-embedded learning for educators.” DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many (2006)

6. Why PLCs? “Throughout our ten-year study, whenever we found an effective school or an effective department within a school, without exception that school or department has been a part of a collaborative professional learning community.” (Milbrey McLaughlin)

7. Characteristics of a PLC • Shared mission, vision, values, and goals • Collaborative teams focused on learning • Collective inquiry into best practice and current reality • Action orientation and experimentation • Commitment to continuous improvement • Results orientation (DuFour & Eaker, 1998)

8. 3 Big Ideas of a PLC • Unwavering focus on student learning • Collaborative teaming • A results orientation (DuFour & Eaker, 1998)

9. Four Crucial Questions • What do we want each student to learn? • How we will know when each student has learned it? • How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning? • How can we enrich and extend their learning when they already know it? (DuFour, 2006)

10. What is building a PLC? Building a school culture of continuous improvement in teaching and learning

11. Barriers to School Improvement • Here’s what . . . • Here’s why . . . • Here’s how . . .

12. Barriers • Changing the existing school culture • Changing the power structure in the school • Overcoming inertia to perform the hard work of school improvement • Dealing with resistance • Finding time for training and collaboration • Sustaining progress (Huff, 2007)

13. Here’s What . . . 1. Changing the existing school culture. Transforming a school to a PLC is about shifting the existing culture.

14. School Culture School culture includes the rituals, traditions, and ceremonies that are symbols of what is important, valued, and significant. (Deal & Peterson, 1999)

15. The culture in a learning community recognizes and capitalizes on the collective strengths and talents of the staff.(Shellard, 2003)

16. Trust and respect among colleagues is essential. • Trust centers on respect, personal regard, competence, and personal integrity. (Bryk & Schneider, 2003)

17. Here’s Why . . . • PLC culture focuses on learning, not teaching. • PLC culture has an unwavering focus on student learning. • PLC culture supports collaborative teaming. • PLC culture has a results orientation.

18. Here’s How . . . • Get the right people on the bus. • Get the right people on the bus in the right seats. • Get the wrong people off the bus. • If you can’t get the wrong people off the bus, make sure they’re not in the driver’s seat. (Collins, 2001)

19. Here’s How . . . • Preserve the core. Stimulate progress. • “Try a lot of stuff and keep what works.” (Collins & Porras, 1994, p. 140) • Make reflective practice a habit of mind and practice. • Align all practices with the school’s vision.

20. Here’s How . . . • Use the hedgehog concept: Take the complexities of school and boil them down to simple, yet profound ideas that reflect penetrating insight and deep understanding. • Confront the brutal facts. (Collins, 2001)

21. Here’s How:Create Norms Norms clarify how we - • Work and produce results. • Solve problems. • Disagree and challenge ideas. • Make decisions. • Interact, participate, and celebrate. • Treat each other. (See norm examples)

22. Here’s What . . . 2. Changing the Power Structure in the School

23. Scribner and colleagues (1999) found the most important facilitating or impeding factor in the development of professional learning communities was the role of the principal.

24. “When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.” –Benjamin Franklin

25. A professional learning community culture does not solely depend on principal leadership. • Richard Elmore (2004) stated that distributed leadership capitalizes on “concerted action among people with different areas of expertise and a mutual respect that stems from an appreciation of the knowledge and skill requirements of different roles.” (p. 87)

26. PLC Leadership • Widely dispersed • Reciprocalaccountability • Clear communication (DuFour, Associates Retreat, 2007)

27. Here’s How . . . • Manipulate group size to increase receptivity to new ideas. • Tinker with the presentation of information. • Find ways to reach a few key people who hold social power in the school. (Gladwell, 2002)

28. Here’s What . . . 3. Overcoming inertia to perform the hard work of school improvement

29. “Nothing ever comes to one that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.” –Booker T. Washington

30. Here’s Why . . . It is challenging to set goals, determine crucial concepts, map the curriculum, and develop common assessments.

31. Here’s How . . . • Take action; move forward. • Continue to build shared knowledge. • Reflect on what’s working. • Use the power of the Flywheel Effect. (Collins, 2001)

32. Here’s What . . . 4. Dealing with resistance; building consensus Resistance to change from mindless precedent

33. Here’s Why . . . Culture shifts may result in resistance: • Changing from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning • Changing from a culture of teacher isolation to a culture of collaboration • Changing from “I think . . . I feel” to evidence-based results

34. Here’s How . . . • Attitudes follow behavior. • People accept new beliefs as a result of changing their behavior. • Action influences talk more than talk influences action. • Embed more of the process of acquiring new knowledge into doing the task and less in formal training programs. (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2000)

35. Here’s How . . . • Build consensus. • Create a guiding coalition. • Build shared knowledge. • Engage in dialogue with staff members in small groups to listen to and address concerns. (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2006, p. 164)

36. Continuum for determining if consensus has been reached: “We have arrived at consensus in our school when: • All of us can embrace the proposal. • All of us can endorse the proposal. • All of us can live with the proposal. • All of us can agree not to sabotage the proposal. • We have a majority—at least 51%— in support of the proposal.” (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, Learning by Doing, 2006, p. 165)

37. A Better Definition of Consensus “A group has arrived at consensus when: • All points of view have been heard. • The will of the group is evident even to those who most oppose it.” (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, Learning by Doing, 2006, p. 165)

38. The Need to Confront “Nothing will destroy the credibility of a leader faster than the unwillingness to address an obvious violation of what the organization contends is vital. A leader must not remain silent; he or she must not be unwilling to act when people disregard the purpose and priorities of the organization.” (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, Learning by Doing, 2006, p. 168)

39. Here’s How . . . • “When persuasion and consensus building don’t work, direct confrontation may be needed to change someone’s mind. • “Assertiveness over passivity: ‘When someone is more concerned about being liked than with getting the job done right, and so tolerates poor performance rather than confronting it….’” (Goleman, 1998, p. 190)

40. Here’s How . . . Don’t focus on attitude; focus on behavior. When work is designed to require people to act in new ways, this can result in new experiences, which can lead to the possibility of new attitudes over time. (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2000)

41. Teams Get Stuck Teams may lose sight of the school’s vision for improvement.

42. Here’s How . . . Changing behavior - 1. The great persuader is personal experience. • Confront the brutal facts. • Create a surrogate for actual experience. • Create profound vicarious experiences. • Use stories to help change minds. • Is there an ability or motivation issue? (Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan, & Switzler, 2005)

43. Six Sources of Motivation

44. Here’s How . . . Hold a “crucial confrontation” to hold another person accountable for a broken promise, a violated expectation, or bad behavior. • Decide what and if (use CPR). • Master my stories. • Describe the gap. (Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, & Switzler, 2005)

45. Here’s What . . . 5. Finding time for training and collaboration

46. Here’s Why . . . Improving schools requires collaborative cultures. Without collaborative skills and relationships, it is not possible to learn and to continue to learn as much as you need to know to improve. (Fullan, 1993)

47. Here’s Why . . . • Continuing to build shared knowledge through staff development helps a PLC move forward. • Enhanced teaching and learning result from collaboration.

48. Here’s How . . . • Make time for collaboration and time for staff development priorities. • Schedule time. (Simple Ways Schools Find Time to Work Together)

49. Here’s What . . . 6. Sustaining progress

50. Here’s Why . . . • Continued mentoring helps team progress. • New staff need to build shared knowledge. • School leadership changes.