Professional Learning Communities at Work - DuFour

1. Professional Learning Communities at Work - DuFour Chapter I Overview Rebecca Rocho, Asst. Superintendent / General Services and Legislation 269.789.2475 rochob@calhounisd.org gehrigm@calhounisd.org

2. Did you know . . . • A significant body of circumstantial evidence points to a deep, systemic incapacity of US schools, and practioners who work in them, to develop, incorporate and extend new ideas about teaching and learning in anything but a small fraction of schools and classrooms. Richard Elmore (1996)

3. Public Education Criticisms • “Crisis in Education” (Life, 1957) • “What Went Wrong with US Schools” and We are Less Educated than 50 Years Ago” (US News & World Report 1958) • “Educational Wastelands” (Bestor 1953 – dumbing down the curriculum) • Nation at Risk (1983) – impetus to begin the “Excellence Movement”

4. Excellence Movement • 1988 Reagan – no real reform; 1990 US DoE confirms that opinion • 1989 – Gov. Bush convened only the 3rd NGA Summit (this on Education) • This NGA Summit lead to Goals 2000 • The Goals 2000 (supported by Governor’s, the President, the US DoE) lead towards a national exam system • 1996 2nd National Education Summit

5. Restructuring Movement • Excellence Movement doomed as “top down”; responsibility handed down to states (Governors, SEAs and Legislatures) • Embraced as “site based reform” • “The restructuring movement brought confidence that teachers and principals, with help from parents and students, can get their own schoolhouse in order” (Barth, 1991)

6. Disappointment • “Restructuring” largely about non-academic, administrative issues . . . Students virtually untouched by the reforms . . . not within their classrooms” (DuFour, 1998) • Fullan (1997) and Sarason (1996) wonder if “we are facing a lost cause”. • 1994 Levin suggests we shift from reforming educators and schools to improving the children we send there.

7. Hope ? • If we are to change the students we send to school, society problems must be solved first: • Poverty (40% of our children) • Families (33% single head of household; 30% of those teen mother) • Victims of violent crime (> 4000 children murdered each year • Alcohol (by grade 8, 70% have consumed) • Increase: minorities, ESL, “broken homes”, etc.

8. Educators Push Back • Berlinger (1995) “The Manufactured Crisis • Schneider, Houston (1993 AASA) “Exploding the Myths” • Bracey’s (1997) “Setting the Record Straight” • Unfortunately, this is not a dialogue that create the conditions for improving schools (DuFour, 1998)

9. Can We Reform Education? • “If future efforts to improve schools are to be productive, they must address two questions (Bracey, 1997): • Why have past efforts not achieved intended results? • What course of action offers the best hope for those who seek to make their schools more effective?”

10. Hard, but “the Right Work” • Complexity of the Task (50 states, 15,000 districts, 80,000 board members, 200,000 administrators, 120,000 principals, 2.5 M teachers, for 84,000 school buildings serving 43 M children) • Misplaced focus • Lack of clarify on intended results • Lack of perseverance • Respect for, attention to, the Change Process

11. What is the Truth? • “If schools are to be significantly more effective, they must break from the current model and embrace a model that allows them to function as a learning organization; through action-oriented professional learning communities of interest; . . . community places greater emphasis on relationships, shared ideals, and a strong culture.” (DuFour, 1998)