School Improvement Plan

The following is a School Improvement Plan for Dyckman Valley Elementary School regarding professional development, learning, and evaluation for a Professional Learning Community (PLC). The 12 NSDC Standards, PLC concepts (DuFour & Eaker, 1998; Huffman & Hipp, 2003), and additional references are incorporated in the design of the current plan for the 2004 school year.

Current PLC status was established by teacher-responses on the PLCA. Teachers reported positive responses for the following areas: Shared and Supportive Leadership (most agreed or strongly agreed); Shared Values and Vision (most agreed or strongly agreed); Collective Learning and Application (most agreed or strongly agreed); Shared Personal Practice (most agreed or strongly agreed); Supportive Conditions-Relationships (most agreed or strongly agreed); and Supportive Conditions-Structure (many agreed but some disagreed). The school has the goal of providing a PLC with continued striving toward this goal. The PLCA findings demonstrate the current success status relative to this goal.

Teacher responses to the PLCA revealed that supportive conditions in the form of structures are lacking in the work setting. Problems include: not enough time provided to facilitate collaborative work; school schedule does not promote collective earning and shared practice; fiscal resources are not avai

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current education trends and teacher-needs (Slick, 2002). Teachers collaborating with each other is also important for the development of communities of learners; teachers need to share experiences, reflections, struggles, and revisions as they improve their own practices (Whatley & Canalis, 2002). Chen (2003) noted that effective networking is imperative in a learning community and this networking is enhanced with on-line learning and interaction. Chen reported that learning communities must be interactive with opportunities for collaboration and they must have a meaningful and motivating context with the availability of continuous learning. On-line learning, technological, social, and pedagogical support, each maximize and reinforce learning community factors. Students. Student's perceptions of school goals vary according to gender and social influences, which must be considered in educational planning. Mahaffy and Ward (2002) found that there are gender differences and influences in the social context. Families influence the roles of males and females; females expect family goals such as childbearing to affect their education and males do not. Quirin, and Allen (2002) and Lindahl, Long, and Arnett (2002) noted that
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Some common words found in the essay are:
NSDC Standards, DuFour Eaker, Lum Souza, DuFour Eaker's, Supportive Conditions-Structure, School Gort, Reactions Teacher's, Lindahl Arnett, Issues Teacher, Academic Achievement, marked question, marked sa, learning community, mathematics science, visual arts, 24 marked, visual arts techniques, parent involvement, action plan, arts techniques, test scores, 24 marked sa, collective learning application, enhance learning community, marked sa marked,
Approximate Word count = 6756
Approximate Pages = 27 (250 words per page)

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