Charting the Course for Collaborative Teams: Lessons from Priority Schools in a PLC at Work(r) (Strategies to Boost Student Achievement in Priority Schools)

Develop the know-how to work collaboratively within the PLC at Work® process to overcome barriers and challenges in your priority school. Edited by Sharon V. Kramer, this must-read anthology brings together numerous contributors who share the strategies they used to successfully turn around underperforming schools. Rely on their specific suggestions and purposeful actions to guide the work of your collaborative teams on a daily basis.

• Understand how to effectively implement the PLC process to support school improvement efforts.
• Receive replicable research-based strategies and processes for turning around underperforming schools and districts.
• Study the experiences of educators who have worked with priority schools and solved common challenges and pitfalls within them.
• Explore equitable practices for working with various student populations within priority schools, such as English learners, students in need of intervention, and students who will benefit from learning extensions.
• Understand how to collaboratively gather, analyze, and take action on data to inform school improvement efforts.

Contents:
Introduction
Chapter 1: Teaching the Behaviors You Expect (Joe Cuddemi)
Chapter 2: Rethinking SMART Goals to Accelerate Learning (Gerry Petersen-Incorvaia)
Chapter 3: Adopting the Ten-Day Collaborative Cycle (Tamie Sanders and Dana Renner)
Chapter 4: Answering the First Critical Question From an English Learner's Point of View (Dianne Kerr)
Chapter 5: Getting Students to Grade-Level Reading Fast (Tammy Miller)
Chapter 6: Working Together to Ensure All Students Learn Mathematics (Sarah Schuhl)
Chapter 7: Understanding the Story Data Tell (Dana Renner)
Chapter 8: Moving From a Flooded to a Balanced Intervention Pyramid (Gerry Petersen-Incorvaia)
Chapter 9: Making Proficient Students a Priority (Michael Roberts)

Sharon V. Kramer, PhD, knows firsthand the demands and rewards of working in a professional learning community (PLC). As a leader in the field, she emphasizes the importance of creating and using quality assessments as a continual part of the learning process. Sharon served as assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction of Kildeer Countryside Community Consolidated School District 96 in Illinois. In this position, she ensured all students were prepared to enter Adlai E. Stevenson High School, a model PLC started and formerly led by PLC architect Richard DuFour.

A seasoned educator, Sharon has taught in elementary and middle school classrooms, and she has served as principal, director of elementary education, and university professor. In addition to her PLC experience, Sharon has completed assessment training by Rick Stiggins, Steve Chappuis, Larry Ainsworth, and the Center for Performance Assessment (now the Leadership and Learning Center). She has presented a variety of assessment workshops at institutes and summits and for state departments of education. Sharon has also worked with school districts across the United States to determine their power standards and develop assessments.

She has been a Comprehensive School Reform consultant to schools that have received grant funding to implement the PLC process as their whole-school reform model, and her customized PLC coaching academies have empowered school and district leadership teams across the United States. Sharon has presented at state and national conferences sponsored by Learning Forward, the National Association for Gifted Children, the American Federation of Teachers, and California State University. She has been instrumental in facilitating professional development initiatives focused on standards-based learning and teaching, improved understanding and utilization of assessment data, interventions and differentiation that meet the needs of all learners, and strengthened efforts to ensure K-12 literacy.

Sharon is the author of How to Leverage PLCs for School Improvement and coauthor of School Improvement for All: A How-To Guide for Doing the Right Work; Best Practices at Tier 2: Supplemental Interventions for Additional Student Support, Elementary; and Best Practices at Tier 2: Supplemental Interventions for Additional Student Support, Secondary. She also contributed to the books It's About Time: Planning Interventions and Extensions in Elementary School, The Teacher as Assessment Leader, and The Collaborative Teacher: Working Together as a Professional Learning Community.

Sharon earned a doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies from Loyola University Chicago.

To learn more about Sharon's work, follow @DrKramer1 on Twitter.