Elementary School Professional Learning Communities
Beginning January 9, 2008
November 20, 2007
Our Goal:
To increase elementary students’ achievement by creating collaborative school cultures that are focused upon student learning.
“Schools need to provide adequate professional development with collaborative planning time embedded within the school day to assist in the development of the whole child.”
From the Association For Supervision and
Curriculum Development
“Educators seeking to create more effective schools must transform them into professional learning communities.”
High quality staff development plays an integral part in the creation and operation
of a professional learning community.
From: Building Professional Learning Communities (DuFour)
On November 13, 2007, the Torrance Unified School District Board of Education approved Professional Learning Communities for all of our elementary schools.
The purpose of Professional Learning Communities (PLC) is to increase students’ academic achievement by creating a collaborative school culture focused upon student learning. We believe all students will benefit from the PLC model. You may be familiar with the term PLC since all middle schools implemented the model back in September, 2006. And now all elementary schools will implementing the model as well.
Beginning with the first Wednesday in January after Winter Break: January 9, 2008, each elementary school will be ending 45 minutes early. This is except for Carr Elementary which will continue to do Tuesday early outs. Kindergarten will still get out at the same time. And then every Wednesday through out the rest of the school year school will end 45 minutes early.
Your child will not be losing any instructional time because of PLCs. TUSD elementary schools used to have one hour early dismissal days scattered through out the school year for staff development and retention conferences. This year there will be one week of parent conferences in December and one week in March only. It’s easy to remember that every Wednesday the students get out early. Your child will have almost the exact same number of instructional minutes per year as required by state law as in past years.
If you cannot pick up your child early, each school will have a substitute teacher to supervise them while they are doing their homework or reading a book for the 45 minutes. You can still pick up your child at the same time as the other days of the week. There are also other alternatives. We have many programs and activities going on after school on Wednesdays. You can call your child’s school for more information.
What will teachers be doing during this PLC time? Each school decides what staff development need are. Some of the areas that schools may focus upon are Response to Intervention, special education, vertical and horizontal collaboration, formative assessments, etc. Teachers will not be grading papers or decorating their classroom alone. Periodically schools will let parents know specifically what the teachers are learning about during the PLC time.
Thank you very much for your patience and understanding as we get this wonderful new PLC program off the ground. We know that it will mean that your child/our student’s academic achievement levels will go up. They will be learning even more!
