PLC+Cultural+Shifts

Cultural Shifts in a Professional Learning Community
The following information is from DuFour's __Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work.__ For a complete list, refer to p. 93-95.

A Shift in a Fundamental Purpose:

 * From a focus on teaching... || to a focus on learning ||
 * From emphasis on what was taught... || to a fixation on what students learned ||
 * From coverage of content... || to demonstration of proficiency ||
 * From providing individual teachers with curriculum... || to engaging collaborative teams in building shared knowledge regarding the essential curriculum ||

A Shift in Use of Assessments:

 * From infrequent summative assessments... || to frequent common formative assessments ||
 * From assessing many things infrequently... || to assessing a few things frequently ||
 * From individual teacher assessments... || to assessments delivered jointly by collaborative teams ||
 * From each teacher determining the criteria to be used in assessing student work... || to collaborative teams clarifying the criteria and ensuring consistency among team members when assessing student work ||
 * From an over-reliance on one kind of assessment... || to balanced assessments ||
 * From focus on average scores... || to monitoring each student's proficiency in every essential skill ||

A Shift in the Response When Students Don't Learn:

 * From individual teachers determining the appropriate response... || to a systematic response that ensures support for every student ||
 * From remediation... || to intervention ||
 * From one opportunity to demonstrate learning... || to multiple opportunities to demonstrate learning ||

A Shift in the Work of Teachers:
 * From isolation... || to collaboration ||
 * From each teacher clarifying what students must learn... || to collaborative teams building shared knowledge and understanding about essential learning ||
 * From individual teachers attempting to discover ways to improve results... || to collaborative teams of teachers helping each other improve ||
 * From privatization of practice... || to open sharing of practice ||
 * From decisions made on the basis of individual preferences... || to decisions made collectively by building shared knowledge of best practices ||
 * From an assumption that these are "my kids, those are your kids"... || to an assumption that these are "our kids" ||

A Shift in Focus:
A Shift in Professional Development:
 * From an external focus on issues outside of the school... || to an internal focus on steps the staff can take to improve the school ||
 * From a focus on inputs... || to a focus on results ||
 * From goals related to completion of projects and activities... || to SMART goals demanding evidence of student learning ||
 * From teachers gathering data from their individually constructed tests in order to assign grades... || to collaborative teams acquiring information from common assessments in order to (1) inform their individual and collective practice, and (2) respond to students who need additional time and support ||
 * From independence... || to interdependence ||
 * From language of complaint... || to a language of commitment ||
 * From long-term strategic planning... || to planning for short-term wins ||
 * From external training... || to job-embedded learning ||
 * From the expectation that learning occurs infrequently (on the few days devoted to professional development)... || to an expectation that learning is ongoing and occurs as part of routine work practice ||
 * From presentations to entire faculties... || to team-based action research ||
 * From learning individually through courses and workshops... || to learning collectively by working together ||
 * From assessing impact on the basis of teacher satisfaction ("Did you like it?")... || to assessing impact on the basis of evidence of improved student learning ||
 * From short-term exposure to multiple concepts and practices... || to sustained commitment to limited, focused initiatives ||