How to Launch PLCs in Your District (Solutions for Professional Learning Communities)

Part of the Solutions for Professional Learning Communities series

Transform your district with thriving professional learning communities. Implementing high-performing PLCs can enhance educators' outlooks and dramatically improve learning for all students. With this user-friendly guide, your team will discover practical, research-based strategies for committing to districtwide PLC implementation, navigating challenges along the way, and ensuring sustainable practices are in place for far-reaching, lasting results.

Benefits:

• Discover how Sanger Unified School District successfully implemented PLCs.
• Consider the elements for successful member selection for your district's guiding coalition.
• Explore the 18 critical issues for successful PLC implementation.
• Review optional PLC implementation kick-off steps and common PLC implementation models.
• Understand rubrics' strengths and weaknesses for district and site leadership uses.

Contents:
About the Author
Introduction
Chapter 1: Developing a District Guiding Coalition and Common Language
Chapter 2: Empowering Site Leadership Through Staff Development and Training
Chapter 3: Monitoring to Sustain Momentum
Chapter 4: Ensuring Sustainability Through Ongoing Commitment and Implementation
References and Resources

W. Richard Smith was deputy superintendent of Sanger Unified School District, which serves more than ten thousand students with a large population of minority and high-poverty students. He has been involved in public education for more than thirty-three years. Smith has presented on the power of professional learning communities throughout California, and more than 160 districts statewide have visited Sanger to see its collaborative culture firsthand. Smith has taught at the elementary and high school levels and has served as a special education resource teacher. He was principal of four elementary schools and a high school administrator for nine years. He also worked in the district office for ten years.

When Smith joined Sanger in 2004 as assistant superintendent for human resources, the district was one of ninety-eight in California to be named a program improvement district due to low performance among English learners. Two years later, Sanger became one of the first districts to rise above this status and is now one of the highest performing districts in the Central Valley. Among all eighteen schools, Sanger has won multiple state and national awards, eleven California Distinguished School awards, eight Title I Academic Achievement awards, two nominations for National Blue Ribbon Schools, and one National Blue Ribbon School award.

Smith was named the 1998 Administrator of the Year for the Clovis Unified School District for his work at the high school level. In 2010, he was named a distinguished alumnus by the Kremen School of Education and Human Development at California State University, Fresno. Additionally, California State University, Fresno, honored Smith as the 2014 Top Dog Distinguished Alumni Award Winner.