PLCs can be a powerful lever for collaborative professional learning IF they are implemented with intention and fidelity.

We’ve supported our EIR grant partners to reconfigure how their PLCs operate — from a compliance and administrative orientation to providing opportunities for invigorating professional work. As one NTC program lead observed: “When they realized what a PLC could be, they were eager to make the shifts.”

Research on teacher working conditions indicates that collaboration is critically important to teachers and a key indicator for retention. Professional learning communities, when implemented and facilitated with intention, can provide structured opportunities for professional learning in which educators work together to collaboratively improve instructional practice and student outcomes.

The Effective Professional Learning Communities framework is designed to support PLC growth and development in four key areas: Structure, Culture, Focus, and Facilitation. Key implementation guidelines help teams assess conditions for PLC function and maximize effectiveness.

The principal plays a pivotal role in teacher induction, serving as a key leader in fostering a supportive environment for new educators. Effective principals actively engage in the induction process by promoting a culture of collaboration, setting clear expectations, and providing ongoing support to ensure that new teachers feel welcomed and empowered. They facilitate meaningful connections between mentors and mentees, helping to establish strong professional relationships that enhance instructional practices. By prioritizing teacher induction, principals not only support the retention and growth of new educators but also contribute to improved student outcomes and a positive school culture.

This resource emphasizes the importance of a rigorous selection process based on clear criteria, ongoing professional learning for mentors/coaches, and ensuring protected time for mentor-teacher interactions. By offering multi-year mentoring and continuous support for all educators, not just struggling or first-year teachers, schools can foster sustained growth and improved instructional practices across the board.

Optimal Learning Environments are based on the belief that every student can achieve high expectations. Instruction is strengths-based and personalized to ensure students meet the demands of grade-appropriate standards. Kind, caring, and respectful relationships among adults and students are understood to be integral to academic success and personal well-being.

Optimal Learning Environments are supported by a positive, instructionally focused school climate and provide engaging classroom communities that are tailored and co-constructed by students and adults to support the success of each and every learner.

Building from our nationally recognized teacher induction program and 20+ years of experience working in close consultative partnerships with hundreds of districts across the country, the New Teacher Center (NTC) has become a leader in teacher development. Today, our evidence-based mentoring and coaching program models support leadership to design sustainable school- and district-based systems of support for teachers at all stages of their careers—from beginners to teacher leaders.

To better understand how to implement effective instructional coaching programs at scale, in 2015, NTC received a five-year Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Working with SRI, the external evaluator for the grant, we looked at the complex process of implementing our rigorous, instructionally focused coaching model in two case study sites. Specifically, this work involved:

• Capturing data that uncovered the existing perceptions, practices, and contextual factors that impacted early implementation at the case study sites
• Using our formative assessment system in conjunction with specific recommended leadership practices to support effective implementation
• Documenting early indicators of positive change in teacher practice and student outcomes

This report presents a summary of findings, including:

• A brief description of the case for coaching as a driver of instructional improvement and outline of the NTC Program Theory of Action
• Example data from case study sites that illustrate typical coaching contexts
• Examples of implementation and course correction strategies with recommendations detailing leadership practices that have resulted in improved implementation in the case study sites
• Preliminary data that indicate resulting change in teacher instructional practice at the case study sites with potential impact on student learning anticipated in the longer term

This paper NTC prepared for Smarter Balanced explores the practical considerations for LEAs managing the implementation of a statewide through-year model with instructional priorities. Key implications include defining their theory of action for assessment; ensuring alignment and coherence between curriculum, instruction, and assessment; developing a plan to support teachers and students; providing information about assessments with families and other key stakeholders; and managing the administrative systems of testing and assessments.

Aligned with Dr. Thomas Guskey’s five levels of evaluation, Designing for Impact is a planning guide for professional learning design and monitoring. The protocol walks teams through a series of questions to define realistic and authentic program objectives and measurable goals. It helps users identify types and sources of evidence to monitor and gauge implementation progress towards those goals. It also elevates an essential aspect of program design that often gets ignored — the necessary organizational supports to create the conditions for success.

Highlights

• Engaging all stakeholders influencing or impacted by the program clarifies how to work collectively to create the enabling conditions for effective professional learning.
• Defining specific changes you want to see in the student learning experience, and measuring what matters first, helps identify what the research says teachers and schools need to do to support that change.
• Building a solid list of types and sources of evidence supports data-based discussions to pinpoint new or unanticipated challenges and the agility to make adjustments along the way.

Why this matters

Professional learning planning, design, and evaluation are too often guided by intuition, assumptions, and unaligned outcomes. Scaffolds for defining goals and evidence of success at every level of participation leads an invested stakeholder community to evidence-based program design.

This resource provides an overview of the stages new teachers move through during that crucial first year — from anticipation, to survival, to disillusionment, to rejuvenation, to reflection, then back to anticipation. It includes real excerpts from new teachers’ journal entries and end-of-year program evaluations, reflecting support for nearly 1,500 new teachers.