FBLA 272: Organizational System

Behavior
PLC Implementation
 Defining the System: --- High School
● 39 teachers
● 489 students
● Seven PLCs, 3-6 members each
○ All are at various stages with implementing PLC
● Teacher Leadership Team
○ Seven teachers & one instructional coach who support other teachers by coaching & consulting
○ Bridges teachers to administration
● One instructional coach
○ Visits with PLCs to help meet their needs
○ Teaches part-time and sometimes fulfills associate principal roles
● One principal
 Current Reality
● PLCs have identified essential standards
○ The practice of PLCs has nearly halted since accomplishing this step
● Staff recently expanded dramatically as a result of student body growth
● All teachers have 1-4 new courses this year due to the gradual decline of electives
in previous years
● Shifting to shared courses
● Changing digital platforms
● Attempting to use Edmentum to create common assessments and monitor
students’ growth toward specific skills and standards
○ Many complications with Edmentum, such as the inability to generate reports broken down by skill
and creating accurate, quality formative assessments
 Current Reality
Student Achievement
Math Proficiencies Reading Proficiencies Science Proficiencies
Grade 9: 91 Grade 9: 95 Grade 9: 90
Grade 10: 89 Grade 10: 87 Grade 10: 87
Grade 11: 84 Grade 11: 84 Grade 11: 81
*Based on the results of the 2017-2018 Iowa Assessment-----
*Previous year shows similar achievement trend---------------

● High achievement, but all subjects show a gradual decline as students grow older
● Illuminates the shortcomings of current system and its practices
● Highlights need for a continual improvement model such as PLCs in order to
achieve the system’s aim of increasing student learning

● Most of staff has attended a PLC institute
● Weekly PLC meetings
● New and expanded staff
○ 14 of 39 teachers are new to district (36%)
○ 11 of 39 are new positions
○ Opportunity for change
● Essential standards defined by PLCs
● Larger TLT
○ More support for teachers
Current Reality
Partially implemented PLCs that meet every
week but infrequently complete data
analyses and learning interventions
Desired State
Fully implemented PLCs that
analyze student data and utilize
learning interventions
● Lack of time for new tasks
○ PLC assignments, Rubicon, Edmentum, coaching cycles
● Teachers’ disposition
○ Third attempt at PLCs, never implemented, data platform changes,
stuck on same steps, comfortable with closed-door teaching
○ Potential blind spot
● Changes in leadership
○ Three principals in previous five years
● New and shared courses
○ No time for collaboration
● Daily Schedule
○ No intervention period, no common planning time
 Changes in
Lack of Time
Leadership
(3, 1)
(0, 4)

Teachers’
New Courses
Disposition
(2, 2)
(4, 0)

Daily Schedule
(1, 3)
 Changes in
Lack of Time
Leadership
(3, 1)
(0, 4)

Teachers’
New Courses
Disposition
(2, 2)
O.F.I. (4, 0)

Daily Schedule
(1, 3)
 Learning Disability #1 - The Illusion of Taking Charge
● “All too often, proactiveness is reactiveness in disguise” (Senge 21).
○ Our system remained essentially the same in size and practice despite the +25% student growth
○ Most of this growth occurred under different leaderships; current principal is now making the
adjustments that should have been made about five years ago

● “True proactiveness comes from seeing how we contribute to our own problems”
(Senge 21).
○ By not changing our system as it grew, we severely decreased our capacity
○ As the system grew, we gradually reduced course options, eliminated common planning time,
promoted closed-door teaching by actively reducing shared courses
■ Eliminated the urgency for PLCs
○ Attempted to reverse this in one year
 Learning Disability #2 - The Parable of the Boiled Frog
● “Learning to see slow, gradual processes requires slowing down our frenetic pace
and paying attention to the subtle as well as the dramatic” (Senge 23).
○ Growth was steady; change was not
■ Additional sections without additional teachers
● Eliminated shared courses and electives
● Minimized students’ choices
○ System was completely out of capacity
○ Focused primarily on managing students physically, not educationally
■ Lost sight of best practices
■ We focused more on making room for students instead of the work we would do with
students
 Systems Archetype: Limits to Growth Limiting
Condition

Implementing Increasing Daily Schedule

PLCs Student ● Lack of time
Achievement ● New courses

Reinforcing
Balancing
Feedback
Process
Process
 Systems Archetype: Limits to Growth
Early Warning Symptoms
● “We don’t need to worry about student learning and achievement. Our school has
always been high achieving.”
● A little later, “Sure, we have some problems with getting all students to learn, but
all we have to do is put in some extra time and work with those students.”
● Still later, “The more work we put into PLCs, the more we seem to stay in the
same place.”
Management Principle
● Don’t push on the reinforcing process (implementing PLCs), remove the sources
of limitation
 Moving Forward
Do:
● Remove sources of limitation
● Restructure daily schedule
● Include common planning time
● Create learning intervention period
○ Provide support through PD
● Give teachers more autonomy over PLC time
○ Eliminate tools and activities that detract from productivity (Edmentum, PLC assignments)
○ Stop placing additional tasks onto teachers without removing something first
○ Differentiate pacing for departments
■ Have each departement complete a tool for continual improvement to determine next steps
 Moving Forward
Study:
● Once PLCs are fully implemented, study the results to determine effectiveness
● Regardless of results, determine the highest leverage point to continue to improve
PLCs in order to improve student learning
○ Examine student growth, student achievement, and common assessments to determine the
effectiveness of interventions
○ Gather student feedback
○ Gather teacher feedback
● Look at PLC and seminar data to determine how many of Dufour’s questions are
being acknowledged and acted upon to determine effectiveness of changes
 Moving Forward
Act:
● Based on the collected data, act on the weakest component of the PLC system
● Continue root cause analysis, especially when changes are made
● Provide professional development around coachable issues
○ Instructional strategies, use of intervention time, reteaching and extension strategies
● Objectively examine system and gather feedback to continue to remove sources of
limitation