Please Let's Collaborate: New Regional PLC Model

Usually a PLC (professional learning community) is composed of the staff within a specific school district. This article describes how several Houston school districts came together to impro... See More

Usually a PLC (professional learning community) is composed of the staff within a specific school district. This article describes how several Houston school districts came together to improve science learning and teaching by forming a regional PLC composed of 20 to 30 participants from 8 different school districts. The group met 3 hours each month and used Project Learning Tree as the vehicle to strengthen their content and pedagogy in the areas of science and environmental education. Teachers were also expected to complete course work that would help them improve their science content. Each year, pre- and posttests were administered to track the success of this PLC model. The results were documented and showed teachers’ content knowledge increased significantly, and other benefits included expanded opportunities for professional development, workshop presentations, and mentoring. The NLC (NSTA Learning Center) was mentioned as a resource for not only identifying one’s own PD needs (see ‘My PD Indexer’ and ‘My PD Plan & Portfolio’ tabs in the NLC) as it relates to specific content or pedagogy, but as a place in which to find available PLCs to join. This is a PLC model that can be replicated anywhere several like-minded teachers want to form networks to encourage and inspire each other to grow professionally.