1	Creating a Professional Learning Community @ Bijou The entire staff builds a knowledge base regarding the current status of the school and best practices with regard to building a PLC and the basic concepts of a PLC.
2	Clarity Precedes Competency The staff must create deep understanding and system-wide agreement on three important questions that Rick DuFour identifies as being fundamental to the daily work of PLCs:
3	"What should students be able..." What should students be able to know and do as a result of this class? How will we know they have learned what was expected? How will we respond when they do or do not learn what is expected?
4	"To this end," To this end, teachers are organized in teams which understand “that the primary focus of the school is student learning and examines all of its practices, policies, and procedures to identify and eliminate those that are incongruent with that purpose.”
5	These teams: need student achievement data to make good decisions develop common formative assessments to be used multiple times throughout the year to monitor student learning develop systematic responses to students who experience initial difficulty learning which are schoolwide timely interventions, not remediation required of the student
6	Tie to CQI Performance Excellence Result of a SYSTEM of continual improvement driven by stakeholder needs Stakeholder needs? = (rephrased in PLC terms) What should students be able to know and do as a result of this class? How will we know they have learned what was expected? How will we respond when they do or do not learn what is expected?
7	Systems approach to Continual School Improvement Systems Alignment of Goals and Measures interlocking (SIP) Systems (continual) Improvement PDSA Systems Integration Leadership commits to improve the system not just the people in the system
8	CQI talks about the Leadership doing things like these: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Set and communicate direction Reinforce values Facilitate development of goals Facilitate implementation Determine stakeholder requirements Measure stakeholder satisfaction Select and manage information Select and use data Ensure teamwork Support training, education, and empowerment of staff Facilitate design of instructional and support processes Continuously improve important processes Monitor and report baseline performance Performance over time
9	CQI talks about the process being SYSTEMATIC and SYSTEMIC meaning the continual improvement process happens in predictable ways and times so that all stakeholders can repeat successful actions, and it happens across all parts of the system everywhere and every time it’s appropriate.
10	PLC says much the same, but stresses the Team structure: collaboration (embedded as a routine practice, focusing on learning) build shared knowledge develop common assessments develop resources to help teams time built in to the day and calendar for collaboration products of collaboration are explicit pursue specific and measurable performance goals SMART
11	"If CQI seems too like..." If CQI seems too like “business,” PLC may seem more education oriented. Same goal, similar approach, different terms.
12	Creating a Professional Learning Community @ Bijou