Professional Learning Community
At UCHSK we operate as a Professional Learning Community (PLC). What is a Professional Learning Community?
- A professional learning community is a group of educators who are committed to working collaboratively to help each child be more successful in school.
- PLCs measure their effectiveness on the basis of results for students, rather than intentions or good ideas. It’s about monitoring data, taking action and continually adjusting to meet the needs of students.
- PLCs are instrumental in achieving the goals set in UCHSK Strategic Plan (2016-2020)
The professional learning community (PLC) model flows from the assumption that the core mission of formal education is not simply to ensure that students are taught but to ensure that they learn. This is a simple shift—from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning.
In professional learning teams (PLTs) based on subject areas, staff are continually engaged in the ongoing exploration of six crucial questions that drive the work of those within a professional learning community:
- What is it we want our students to know?
- How will we know if our students are learning?
- How will we respond when students do not learn?
- How will we enrich and extend the learning for those students who are already proficient?
- How will we increase our instructional competence?
- How will we coordinate our efforts as a school?
Every teacher team participates in an ongoing process of identifying the current level of student achievement, establishing a goal to improve the current level, working together to achieve that goal, and providing periodic evidence of progress. Staff in a PLC will do whatever it takes to ensure students succeed.