District adopts Professional Learning Communities,
RtI models to improve student learning

Durango School District 9-R adopted the Professional Learning Communities model for school improvement in 2007-08. The following question-and-answer format explains what Professional Learning Communities are and why the district has chosen the model to improve student achievement.

What are Professional Learning Communities?

Put simply, a professional learning community is a team of teachers who get together at least once a week to analyze how well teaching strategies and curriculum are working, how well individual students are learning what they need to learn, and to generate ideas on how to improve each student’s performance.

More formally, a professional learning community is a model of school improvement developed by Richard DuFour, former superintendent of Adlai Stephenson High School in Illinois. Richard DuFour introduced the concept to Durango teachers during a series of workshops in 2004. In a professional learning community, teachers work as a collaborative team to identify what students should know, what assessments will tell them that students have learned, and what changes they will make to their instruction when students don't meet their learning goals. Some strategies may include giving struggling students additional time and support or changing what teachers teach, when they teach, or how they teach certain topics. When teachers work together to address students' learning needs, they apply more experience, knowledge, and training toward solving the learning problem than one teacher alone can do.

How do Professional Learning Communities integrate their activities with RtI?

RtI -- or Response to Intervention -- is a process that allows us to identify struggling students early in the learning cycle to provide critical support before they fail. We no longer wait for years of failure to provide services as we did under the old special education model. Rather, we now provide students with learning supports as soon as he or she shows evidence of falling behind.

The RtI process begins with teachers defining what students should learn and by when. They then develop frequent assessments to monitor student progress toward meeting those learning goals. When assessment data show that students are struggling, teachers change the way they deliver instruction based on a student’s learning needs. The cycle repeats itself with interventions that increase in intensity if the child continues to struggle.

This is the type of work that teachers undertake in their Professional Learning Communities each Friday. Clear learning targets, along with teacher collaboration, produce teaching and learning strategies that work for kids.

This process has been particularly effective in our reading program, especially as parents have encouraged us to address barriers like dyslexia and other specific learning disabilities. When parents and teachers identified the kinds of instruction these students needed, teachers obtained training in reading programs that have proven effective with children who have learning disabilities. Last year, for example, more than 40 special education teachers enrolled in a five-day workshop to learn Language!, a highly effective instructional program for students who struggle with reading. Other teachers have completed training in a variety of intensive multisensory reading programs, including Lindamood-Bell, Spalding, Sounds and Syllables, Corrective Reading, Wilson, and Orton-Gillingham. Multisensory instruction uses sight, hearing, touching, and other senses to engage different learning pathways in the brain.

Teachers discuss which strategies to use with their students during their Professional Learning Communities. Intensity of direct instruction depends on student needs. Some students who fall behind may need only a few sessions of small-group instruction to catch up, while others may need one-to-one tutoring with instructional strategies that the regular classroom teacher reinforces throughout the day. Depending upon a student’s intensity of need, the student may qualify for special education services defined in an Individual Education Plan. That’s why collaboration is so important. Special education teachers, reading specialists, and others with specific training in these techniques share their expertise with their peers so that all teachers use consistent instructional strategies for each student throughout the day.

We use a similar process for gifted students who advance more quickly than their peers. Teachers identify advanced learning targets and provide support through the district’s Gifted Education Program. Frequent assessments monitor student progress as identified in the student’s Advanced Learning Plan.

Why early release? Can't teachers do this during regular professional development days?

To be effective, professional learning communities must meet frequently to prevent gaps from occurring in student learning. That’s why the Board of Education agreed to release students from 60 to 90 minutes earlier on Fridays so that teachers would have a chance to address students' learning needs that week rather than waiting four to six weeks for another professional development day.

In addition, professional development days are used for just that – training. Teachers need time to learn about and use the latest developments in their profession. The district also has made a commitment to provide all teachers and staff training in cultural competencies to be more effective instructors with our ethnically diverse student population. That district-wide training will occur during the professional development days common to all schools.

Is this just for special education or at-risk students?

Not at all. The professional learning community model benefits all students, including gifted and talented students. Teachers will address all student learning needs, and they also will use the collaboration time to develop advanced learning plans for students who need enrichment or accelerated learning activities.

Don’t teachers already have planning time during the day? Why can’t they use that time?

Teachers do have individual planning times during the day, but that time is devoted to preparing lesson plans for their classes, meeting with parents, evaluating student progress, or working on other district initiatives. Plus, teachers’ planning times are scheduled at different times of the day; they don’t have time in common to work together as a professional learning community.

Why now?

Durango School District 9-R is a high-performing district already, but to make more progress schools need to address each student’s learning needs individually and systematically. Our goal is to reduce the number of students who score unsatisfactory – and move all students to the next performance level. We want our partially proficient students to advance to proficient, and proficient students to advanced. When teachers work together to improve and coordinate teaching techniques and materials across programs, classrooms, and schools, students receive more consistent instruction throughout the day and the year. More consistent instruction improves student learning. But that kind of coordination and collaboration takes more time than teachers currently have during the week.

Why Fridays?

Many students in the district already leave school early on Fridays to participate in extracurricular sports and academic activities. An average of 68 Durango High School students miss instruction weekly because of extracurricular activities on Fridays. (Some weeks it’s as low as 29 students, and others, as high as 180 students.) In addition, fewer students are enrolled in the district's after-school program on Fridays, indicating less need. By scheduling the early release on Fridays, students involved in extracurricular activities won’t miss so much school.

Will the early release mean that students have less time for art, music, or physical education?

Based on the current number of hours available for elementary teachers, the loss of 90 minutes should not impact the amount of art, music, physical education, and library time that students currently receive. Clearly, the intent is not to lose any of that instructional time. The high school will continue to offer the same number of instructional hours, and the middle school will reduce 17 instructional hours equally across the curriculum.

Incidentally, art, music, and physical education teachers also will participate in the professional learning communities with their peers.

This doesn’t make sense to me. Shouldn’t that time be spent teaching rather than talking about teaching?

When you’re a teacher, more than 90 percent of your work time is spent teaching. No other profession requires that amount of sustained production. Think about it. Most businesses have weekly – even daily – staff meetings to problem-solve, set priorities, and plan. Durango teachers currently don’t have that time. In addition, the professional learning community model is a research-based, proven strategy to increase student achievement. Research has demonstrated that substantive, sustainable improvement in student achievement occurs in those schools that operate as a professional learning community or a similar collaborative, results-based environment. Professional learning communities provide teachers with more opportunities to improve their teaching so they can be more effective with the time they DO have in the classroom.

Won’t teachers be tired and unfocused at the end of a long week?
How will you prevent them from leaving early rather than staying at school?

An analysis of teacher absences from August to November indicates that absences on Fridays dropped by 7 percent over the pervious year. Furthermore, Durango teachers are professionals who are committed to student learning and who are committed to using the time wisely. Many have said that they prefer the Friday afternoon release time, because it will allow them to summarize and analyze a week’s worth of work so that they can plan effectively for a fresh start on Mondays. Teachers have reported a renewed interest in and excitement for teaching.

How will you know that the collaborative planning time is effective?

The simplest answer? Student achievement will improve; the number of students scoring unsatisfactory will be reduced, and the number of students scoring advanced will increase.

We also will conduct a teacher survey this year to determine whether they believe the time was used effectively. The district will submit a report to the school board on activities conducted at each school, student achievement results, and the survey results this February to determine whether the early release program should continue.