Agenda Item
e. DCSD PLC @ Work and Coaching Academy w/Solution Tree, Inc. (Not to exceed $218,660) ~ Updated 9.6.2024
Summary: Presented by: Ms. Stacy E. Stepney, Chief Academic Officer, Division of Curriculum & Instruction
Request: It is requested that the Board of Education approve the DCSD PLC @ Work for principals, assistant principals, teachers, academic coaches, professional learning facilitators, leadership coaches, and district instructional support leaders from Solution Tree, Inc. Services Agreement in an amount not to exceed $218,660.
Why: Presently, there exists a compelling need for our district leaders to fortify their understanding and proficiency in implementing Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). Defined as "an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve" (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2010, p. 11), PLCs stand as a cornerstone for educational excellence and student success.
The forthcoming DCSD PLC @ Work and Coaching Academy will serve as a strategic platform to address this need comprehensively. Through foundational learning sessions, participants will cultivate a common language, schema, and process essential for fostering effective PLCs. By facilitating collaboration and shared expertise among building and district leaders, the customized leadership development and Coaching Academy aims to establish a cohesive framework that ensures higher levels of learning for all scholars within the DeKalb County School District.
Details: The DCSD PLC @ Work and Coaching Academy w/Solution Tree, Inc. initiative is designed to equip principals, assistant principals, central office leaders, support staff, professional learning facilitators, and coordinators with a comprehensive understanding of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), focusing on their purpose, structure, and function. These learning opportunities will move our district toward a deeper implementation of the PLC process at all schools. The purpose of training the principals, assistant principals, professional learning facilitators, teachers and additional district instructional support staff is to ensure that we have a knowledgeable team supporting the schools’ efforts toward fidelity.
PLC Coaching Academy
(Will occur across 3 (2-day) sessions for a total of six days of in-depth learning)
The PLC at Work Coaching Academy provides the following:
• Training for School Leadership Teams: Clear guidance and strategies are provided for implementation and ongoing support.
• Learn/Practice/Reflect Cycle: The Academy is three, two-day sessions with “implementation time” built in between sessions.
• Supporting Resources: Each building is provided with a “PLC Library” of books, videos, discussion guides, and reproducibles.
Note: Each participant also receives a Coaching Academy Binder
PLCs@ Work Customized Leadership Development
This learning will happen during four of the District’s Principals’ Learning Opportunities and during the scheduled Assistant Principals’ Academy (4-6 sessions).
The content will follow the design below for the coaching academy and be customized to the goals for the Principals’ Learning Opportunity and Assistant Principals’ Academy.
Training: The Coaching Academy is led by a master coach who presents information, leads roundtable discussions and tabletop exercises, guides the groups in reflection activities at the end of each session, and serves as the Solution Tree liaison during the Academy training period. The training is designed to provide each participant with a working knowledge of PLC implementation and sustainability practices as well as foster basic facilitation skills within individual participants’ group-leading styles.
A PLC master coach will engage administrators and staff members in a highly interactive curriculum. Participants will leave each session with a new skill set, activities, and an action plan for sharing their knowledge. Individual participants and school teams will also receive a robust selection of PLC resources. The ultimate goal of the Coaching Academy is to develop the capacity for implementing and sustaining PLCs within every school in the district.
Quality of Learning: Solution Tree chooses master coaches from a cadre of qualified associates who have succeeded in deep PLC implementation. Their experiences enable them to impart the essential facilitative and leadership skills that teams need to build capacity for creating and sustaining a PLC, which ensures high levels of student learning. Each master coach has unique strengths, and every Coaching Academy is guaranteed to be of the highest caliber.
Resources: To equip participants for their schools’ PLC transformation, each person will receive a selection of PLC resources to use as they lead others through the PLC implementation process. During the Academy training period, participants will be instructed in the use of each resource, with specific attention given to using the resource as a tool to teach others. Each participating team will be allowed to keep the complete set of resources to use at specific school sites.
The PLC at Work Coaching Academy Curriculum and Agenda
Session One, Day One: The Four Pillars
Goals for the Day
➢ Introductions
➢ Define the Professional Learning Communities at Work process
➢ Understand the Shared Foundation of PLCs
➢ Review the Academy Materials
Guiding Questions
➢ Why are we here?
➢ What is a Professional Learning Community?
➢ Why do we exist?
➢ What must our school become to accomplish this purpose?
➢ How must we behave to achieve our purpose?
➢ What are our timelines and targets?
➢ What resources are available to me?
Session One, Day Two: Three Big Ideas
Goals for the Day
➢ Introduce a Focus on Learning
➢ Understand Collaborative Culture
➢ Define Results Orientation
➢ Create SMART Goals
➢ Facilitate the Work
Guiding Questions
➢ What has come clear since last we met?
➢ How do we create a focus on learning?
➢ What is collaboration, and what makes it different from teams?
➢ How should we organize teams?
➢ What does it mean to be results-oriented?
➢ How do we create SMART goals?
➢ What is my role in this process?
Session Two, Day Three: Assessment
Goals for the Day
➢ Define the PLC at Work Vocabulary
➢ Make Time for Team Collaboration
➢ Create Essential Learnings
➢ Understand Common Formative Assessments
Guiding Questions
➢ What has become clear since we last met?
➢ How do we create common vocabulary?
➢ How do we find time for teams?
➢ How do we define what we want students to learn?
➢What is the importance of common formative assessments?
Session Two: Day Four: Intervention
Goals for the Day
➢ Use Formative Assessment to Inform and Improve Practice
➢ Analyze Data to Identify Students Who Have and Have Not Learned
➢ Make Time and Support for Intervention and Extension
➢ Allocate Existing Resources Differently
Guiding Questions
➢ What has come clear since last we met?
➢ What is the importance of Assessment?
➢ How do we know if students are learning?
➢ What does it look like to be results-oriented?
➢ How do we monitor and celebrate our progress?
➢ What have we learned, and what will we do about it?
Session Three: Day Five: Leadership
Goals for the Day
➢ Map Progress
➢ Revisit Critical Issues for Teams
➢ Understand Shared Leadership
➢ Define Loose-Tight Leadership
➢ Rethink Hiring, Orienting, and Retaining New Staff
➢ Identify Practices
➢ Learn to Build Consensus
Guiding Questions
➢ What has become clear since we last met?
➢ What is the work of collaborative teams?
➢ What does our leadership structure look like?
➢ How do we hold everyone accountable?
➢ How do we make decisions in our school?
Session Three: Day Six: Celebration
Goals for the Day
➢ Learn Strategies to Have Crucial Conversations and Respond to Resistance
➢ Understand Importance of Doing the Work Now
➢ Identify Celebrations
➢ Sustaining the Effort
Guiding Questions
➢ What has come clear since last we met?
➢ How do we have crucial conversations?
➢ How do we respond to resistance?
➢ How do we monitor and celebrate our progress?
➢ Why is it important to do this work?
PLCs@ Work Customized Teacher Development
Over 400+ teachers will participate in professional development on supporting the Guiding Coalition work of the PLC across our district schools. Teachers will receive customized training during the districts November 5 and March 7 Professional Development Days.
Financial impact: The total budget for these services is allocated from the cost code 100.1000.53000.00011.7250.9990.8010.020.0000
Purchased Prof/Tech Services in the amount of $218, 660.
Contact: Ms. Stacy E. Stepney, Chief Academic Officer, Division of Curriculum & Instruction, 678.676.0731
Effective: September 10, 2024 - April 30, 2025
Status: Approved by Office of Legal Affairs
PLC
AT WORK ®
Success Story
Lindsey Elementary School
WARNER ROBINS, GEORGIA
After experiencing learning disruptions caused by COVID-19, the staff
at Lindsey Elementary relied on the skills, strategies, and focus they
built through Priority Schools in a PLC at Work® to bring their growth
data for math and reading to the 99th percentile in most grades.
Lindsey Elementary School
WARNER ROBINS, GEORGIA
DEMOGRAPHICS
› 280 students
› 100% eligible for free and reduced lunch
› 16.3% English learners
› 17% special education
RACIAL/ETHNIC PERCENTAGES
› 70.6% Black
› 20.1% Hispanic
› 5.9% White
› 0.3% Asian
› 3.1% Multiracial
Lindsey Elementary School was a Title I school
located in Houston County School District just
south of metropolitan Atlanta. It earned Model
PLC at Work® school status in 2020. The school
building now serves as a wraparound center for Dr. Anisa Baker-Busby led the journey of Lindsey Elementary to become a
the district. Model PLC at Work school. She is now principal of Shirley Hills Elementary, also
located in Houston County School District, where she plans to further the PLC
work initiated by the previous principal.
CHALLENGE
“When I became principal, Lindsey Elementary was identified as a priority
school and one of the most underperforming schools in the district,” recalled
former principal Dr. Anisa Baker-Busby. “Everyone knew Lindsey was struggling,
but no one knew how to turn it around. Everyone had ideas, but no one had
actually done this work in a priority school.”
In June 2017, Baker-Busby attended a PLC at Work Institute in Atlanta,
Georgia, joined by two teachers. Their goal was to establish a guiding
coalition to develop a guaranteed and viable curriculum for all students. This
would mark the beginning of the school’s journey toward implementing a
PLC at Work culture.
IMPLEMENTATION
Baker-Busby and her staff worked diligently to build a high-performing PLC,
focusing on assessment and RTI at WorkTM practices. They studied books:
Learning by Doing, 3rd ed; Design in Five; Make It Happen; Taking Action: A
Handbook for RTI at Work™; and Best Practices at Tier 2. They attended other
events, and Baker-Busby connected with Solution Tree authors and presenters
on social media. All of this was establishing a solid foundation, but Lindsey
Elementary had the additional challenges of a Priority School. That’s when
Baker-Busby discovered the book School Improvement for All, by Sharon V.
Kramer, and dove into learning about Priority Schools in a PLC at Work®.
2 @SolutionTree #atplc
Priority Schools in a PLC at Work concisely guided me on what we need
to do, how to look at data and data pictures, and how to tuck it all in
when you have so many students performing below grade level. School
Improvement for All was my handbook for improving our school.”
—Dr. Anisa Baker-Busby, principal, Lindsey Elementary School
IMPLEMENTATION (continued) 3rd–5th Grade MAP Math and Reading Achievement Percentiles
50
“This brought the PLC at Work concepts down to a level of detail 45
that I needed to access,” said Baker-Busby. “It concisely guided me 40
43
on what we need to do, how to look at data and data pictures, and 35 36
how to tuck it all in when you have so many students performing
30 31 31
below grade level. This was my handbook for improving our school.”
25
Embracing Priority Schools in a PLC at Work, the staff worked from 20
a strategic plan on how to move from one level to the next. They 15
15 15
learned the importance of scooping up prerequisites, or teaching 10 11
previous years’ essential standards to students in need and then 10
9
5 6
connecting the learning back to the current grade-level standards. 3 3
2 2 5 2
3 1
0
With so many students below grade level at Lindsey, the easy path 3rd Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 4th Grade 5th Grade 5th Grade
Math Reading Math Reading Math Reading
would have been to water down standards and assessments. But
they committed to the purpose of Priority Schools in a PLC at Work, 2020 Percentiles 2021 Percentiles 2022 Percentiles
which is to stay focused on grade level.
3rd–5th Grade MAP Math and Reading School Conditional Growth Percentiles
Just as results were affirming the efforts of Lindsey educators, the
100
pandemic hit. But thanks to the collaborative culture created at 99 99 99 99 99
Lindsey, staff were able to respond effectively. 80
81 83
89
73
60 65
“After a year of Covid, we came back and focused on what
mattered most. We hit essential standards hard. We worked 40
on common formative assessments, and we focused heavily on 20 23
27
providing strategic and targeted interventions for students,” said 10
4 1 4 11 1
0
Baker-Busby. 3rd Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 4th Grade 5th Grade 5th Grade
Math Reading Math Reading Math Reading
RESULTS
2020 Percentiles 2021 Percentiles 2022 Percentiles
As in schools around the world, student achievement at Lindsey
Elementary took a hit during the pandemic. The achievement
scores, which were still not where teachers would like them to be,
remained low or even decreased from 2020 to 2021. Conditional
growth indicators painted an even more stark picture of how Covid
affected student learning, plummeting for the most part from 2020
to 2021.
When educators and students returned in the 2021–2022 school
year, Dr. Baker-Busby insisted that their mission had not changed.
Every teacher, every support staff member, and every adult in the
school was there to support all students learning at or on grade
level. In the spring of 2022, the growth percentiles showed what
that dedication meant for student success.
“The teachers would tell you,” said Dr. Baker-Busby, “this shifted
the entire school culture. The work of PLC really does change the
entire school mindset.” Not only that, but parent participation also
improved. The entire community began to view the work being
done at Lindsey with the attitude that learning is required for every
student, and they supported that mission with their words and,
more importantly, their actions.
SolutionTree.com 800.733.6786 3
Start Your
Success Story
You have a vision for change and improvement in your school or district. You want to see
results in the classroom for the lifelong betterment of your students. Like many educators, you may
be doing more with less, and you are always looking for ways to improve.
At Solution Tree, we share your vision to transform education to ensure learning for all, and we can
help you make this vision a reality.
OUR PROMISE: No other professional learning company provides our unique blend of research-
based, results-driven services that improve learning outcomes for students.
Start your school’s PLC at Work® journey at SolutionTree.com/PD or call 800.733.6786 ext. 440