In this episode of Who Made That Decision, host Elaina Polsen is joined by Dr. Susan Silva, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, as well as Angela Hickelman, Director of Professional Learning. The topic is Professional Learning Communities: how they have evolved in CCISD, the value of collaboration, and tips for maximizing shared expertise.
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Speaker 1
Hello, Clear Creek ISD and thank you for joining us for this edition of who made that decision. This is Elaina Polsen. I'm excited to welcome Dr. Susan Silva, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, and Angela Hinkleman, Director of Professional Learning. Welcome.
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Speaker 2
Thank you. We're glad to be here.
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Speaker 1
So, Susan, I think I start with you. I really do think that professional learning communities has created its own identity in clear Creek ISD. This isn't necessarily a new idea, but how did it all come about? Okay.
00;00;36;00 - 00;01;01;02
Speaker 2
A little history. So you're right. It's not a new idea in CCISD but it has sort of evolved over time and really dating back probably ten years or so, we started working to have common planning time in schools. And obviously that's easier at elementary than at secondary. But we began working toward some ideas of getting teachers together to collaborate and specific time to do that.
00;01;01;12 - 00;01;23;10
Speaker 2
And then we started working with Learning Forward in, I think 14 or 15, and we did considerable work with them to sort of name professional learning standards and what we thought professional learning should look like. And we started what we called communities of practice back then, which were sort of the beginnings of PLCs, really structured PLCs for us.
00;01;23;10 - 00;01;50;25
Speaker 2
But what we noticed was we needed a little more structure, and so we sort of transitioned really before COVID maybe 1819, we started talking and working with solution tree who provided more of a structure. The four questions and sort of an easier format for us to follow and replicate across campuses. And so COVID slowed us down a little bit, but we're picking up again.
00;01;51;03 - 00;01;59;24
Speaker 2
And and I think teachers are really beginning to see the value in collaborating with each other. And and we continue to grow in that direction.
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Speaker 1
And Angela, what is your role in the policy process in Clear Creek, CCISD?
00;02;06;18 - 00;02;28;27
Speaker 3
Well, I work together with Susan and Shannon and a lot and we are presenting the PLC 101s so we can really give leaders and teachers some good tools to work in their PLC groups. And then I've been lucky enough to get invited out to see some great PLCs to help the coaches in supporting their teams in PLCs.
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Speaker 3
We've met with some principals to help them as they're thinking through their guiding coalition or their the civically helping their PLCs. So just partnering with campuses to support what they're doing.
00;02;41;18 - 00;02;48;20
Speaker 1
So when you think of our implementation status, I mean, how far deep do you think PLCs are in Clear Creek ISD?
00;02;49;29 - 00;03;11;27
Speaker 2
So I think we've tried to sort of structure some ways to support the continued growth. It's a journey for sure, and we are not there yet. And but we've made a lot of leeway. So we have a specific support for administrators like the leaders, learn where they come and they learn and then take it back to their campus and continue with their next steps.
00;03;12;26 - 00;03;31;29
Speaker 2
It's really all about sort of growth and moving forward. And so we know campus campuses are in different places and and even even within the campus, teams are in different places. But we've sort of set some sort of boundaries for creation of guiding coalitions and things like that. I don't know. Angela, you want to add anything?
00;03;33;03 - 00;03;50;01
Speaker 3
I like you said, I think every campus is different. We've seen some really great work in campuses lately. Even just yesterday, Shannon and I were invited out to join a campus visit. Laporte came in to see Clearlake High School and just to see some of the really great things they're doing, I think it's really starting to take off.
00;03;50;13 - 00;04;11;12
Speaker 1
I would agree. I remember at our board workshop not too long ago that we had a whole presentation from teachers about the power of PLCs. And I am being I'm not an educator, so I'm not in the classroom, but I really was taken by their descriptions about how much time they're saving by sharing the work among the team.
00;04;11;12 - 00;04;27;01
Speaker 1
And I'm like, If that's not enough to get a PLC up and running and it is, I don't know what it's right. But some teachers do struggle, I think, in trying to maximize that time together as a PLC, it still might feel a little abstract. What tips do you have to help those teachers through?
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Speaker 3
So I think the most important thing is to have a common goal. Like, what do you want to accomplish when you get in there? Otherwise, teachers just get in a hurry with everything they're trying to do and they get into the meeting and everybody looks at each other like, okay, so what are you doing? And you end up wasting time.
00;04;42;14 - 00;04;59;17
Speaker 3
Going back to the four questions that Susan mentioned earlier. Knowing what you want kids to learn, what's absolutely essential? Then how are you going to know that they learned it? Is it an essay? Is it a test? Is it you walking around doing formative checks? And then what are you going to do when they don't? And what are you going to do when they already know it?
00;04;59;25 - 00;05;24;14
Speaker 3
And so just that process of planning together and coming ready, wherever you're at in that process, coming to the policy meeting, ready to talk about. I mentioned being at Clearlake yesterday for the IPD. They talked about how the coaches meet with the team leads ahead of time and craft those agendas and they're really purposeful about here's what we're going to do when we come together so they're not wasting any time.
00;05;24;23 - 00;05;30;01
Speaker 3
So that common purpose, common goal. Being prepared, I think are really good ways to maximize your time.
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Speaker 1
Right. Well, buy in is big when it comes to initiatives in Clear Creek ISD. And how have IP days sort of put a little steroid shot into the play work?
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Speaker 3
I think a lot of it has given them the freedom and the common time, knowing that, hey, this is an expectation. Everybody's doing it. We're in this together. And then without, you know, with students not being on campus, that frees up your administrators to come in and out of the PLCs and support the teachers work. And the coaches have that dedicated time to to be in there and to pull the data and to have the really great conversations.
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Speaker 3
And the Singleton teachers like the career in tech or specific elective. They have that time to come together and meet as a district, and that's really the only time they get to meet with teachers who are teaching the exact same thing that they are. So that's been a really valuable plus time for them.
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Speaker 2
You know, when I think back to the teacher retention committee last year and one of the things that we heard over and over and over again, which we all know already, is the lack of time and how do we fit everything in. And I think the IP days with the combination of you have some collaboration time, so time to work in your PLC and then you have some time to do the work that you might have just talked about in the PLC, like creating creating a PowerPoint or creating a resource for students to use has been really supportive and and helpful for teachers.
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Speaker 2
You know, of course it's never enough. We never have enough time. We still know that. But but giving that specific intentional time I think has been really helpful so that they have an opportunity to see the value of it too. Because you mentioned buy in and that that is huge and people buy into things that they believe in and they see the value of, and that sometimes takes time.
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Speaker 2
But I think with the IP days, we've had a little push in a positive direction for that for sure.
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Speaker 1
So outside of the IP days and this is we've heard this too from teachers, is that that it may not be consistent campus to campus. On how some administrators can do their master's schedule, which allow PLCs to be meeting more regularly where others might be only able to meet on these IP days. What's the long term vision when it comes to creating some consistency across the district?
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Speaker 3
Well, most of our campuses have been able to create common planning times, at least for our core subjects, and we see that they're meeting at least once a week. And some teams are meeting more often, depending on where they need to go in the PLC process. Some of them Okay, Well, if our PLC days, Tuesday, some of them hey, let's meet back on Thursday and talk about how our kids did on the assessment.
00;08;18;11 - 00;08;32;27
Speaker 3
And some of them are just having hallway conversations, which is beautiful because it's organic and they're just, you know, going to each other out of habit. So I think a lot of our schools have been able to really fit in that time in different ways.
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Speaker 2
And I think when you when you say long term vision, I think to me I would say our vision is we want all students needs to be met, you know, and we know the people who impact that our teachers and they're doing the heavy lifting and they're doing the hard work. And so as many opportunities and that they have to work together and lean on each other, I mean, that we have expertise in every building.
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Speaker 2
Amazing things happening. But if you're in a silo and you're in your classroom and you're not talking to others, you may not know that. And so reaching out and opening doors and having the culture of learning together to grow to better meet student needs so they can grow is what we want. And so the more opportunities we have obviously for that, the better.
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Speaker 1
So there are teachers that do prefer to plan alone. How do you bring those teachers around to the PLC concept?
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Speaker 3
Well, I can empathize with that. You know, I like to have things a certain way. You know, when I'm planning something, I need to get my brain out and how I'm thinking. But I have never planned something that didn't get better when I brought it to somebody else for feedback or input or ideas. And so helping them understand also, it's not just my kids, it's our kids.
00;09;49;25 - 00;10;12;09
Speaker 3
I got a campus across the district. These are our kids. So if I can find out something a teacher is doing better that will help my kids. I have to ask. I have to collaborate to do that and vice versa. If I know a certain way to teach something, a reading strategy, a math learning opportunity, I have to share it with that because these are not just my kids, are our kids.
00;10;13;12 - 00;10;32;20
Speaker 3
And then going back to looking at the data, what does it say? You know, if I'm looking at my data and Susan's and yours and the three of us are like, Oh, well, Susan really has a higher data piece on this learning standard. I need to ask her what she's doing. And so just those continue conversations.
00;10;33;13 - 00;10;57;09
Speaker 2
Other thing, too, I think, you know, this is based on quite a bit of research and I'm not going to get too technical, but you know John, anybody has done a lot of research about what moves kids the most. What what are the what are the things we need to be doing that moves kids the most? And and he talks about collective efficacy of teachers a lot and essentially just we're better together.
00;10;57;09 - 00;11;23;28
Speaker 2
And so a PLC gives an opportunity for us to pull on the strengths of the team and what are the strengths of each person. And collectively, I'm going with that and moving forward the fastest. And so that's another piece that I think teachers see is that they get better when they talk to other their peers and and then they're better able to meet every student's needs.
00;11;23;28 - 00;11;27;08
Speaker 2
And so so it's a it's a team work for sure.
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Speaker 1
Okay. What role did the school administrators play in their success at the PLCs?
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Speaker 3
You know, if any time that they can provide teachers, that's a gift of time and that allows them to have these really great and deep conversations providing support when teams aren't functioning, coming in and helping mediate, set those norms and collective commitment. Sometimes they have coaching opportunities as an administrator to help coach the situation. And then we provided our principals with evidence based questions that they can ask.
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Speaker 3
You know, sometimes administrators can't get into every PLC life is happening on campus, but asking those teachers the questions that we shared with them, like, you know what does your team expect the kids to know? How does your team know they've learned it? What's your evidence? What are your already doing and what do you need to do for the ones who are learning it and not learning it?
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Speaker 3
So that's just powerful when you're sitting across from your leader and they're asking you and it's making you think about your practices.
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Speaker 2
Another thing too, I think that's been something we've really been working on since before we really started the Solution tree work. But even with Learning forward so several years ago with Administrators is that idea that we are a learning organization and we are all moving forward. And so as a principal or as a leader of a department or as a campus administrator, in whatever sense, you are a leader of learning.
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Speaker 2
And so developing that culture on campus that we're all in this together, right? This is a tough gig. I mean, we all know that and our kids are ever changing and we need to be ever changing, too. And modeling that for teachers and being vulnerable and being and trusting that there's this is the process and we're going to get better is important.
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Speaker 2
And I think we talked a lot about like leaders of of learning and being in that role. When you're on your campus, you don't have to know everything. None of us know everything. And it's all about learning and growing together to better meet student needs.
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Speaker 1
So speaking of student needs, what kind of outcomes have student outcomes have you seen since we've started PLC work?
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Speaker 2
I think that, you know, it's it's interesting to see. So when we look at district data, which is a really global view and we've seen some good improvements since COVID, obviously we saw a dip which may be attributed to a policy but may not be as well because we are kind of trying to get back on track. And so we see those those pieces in the district data as improvement.
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Speaker 2
But more importantly, as we're visiting campuses and Angela mentioned visiting yesterday a campus, but we've all been out to campuses and looking at campus specific data and talking to principals, our leaders about specific teams that that where where they see growth as a PLC and then looking at student data and you see those correlations in those connections. So I think as we continue the work and it becomes more systemic and there's more fidelity and we'll continue to see that.
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Speaker 2
And so we can see that sort of in an individual campus basis sometimes with specific courses or specific teams. But our goal is obviously that that all students would benefit. And so we'll continue that journey.
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Speaker 1
And what kind of frequently asked questions. So this is this podcast is directed to our team and I'm sure that you are available for anyone who has questions. But what kinds of questions are you hearing from the field?
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Speaker 2
Okay, I'll start. So I don't know that we hear a ton of questions, but we often get requests from principals or administrators or coaches to really think through strategy for moving forward so they might feel like they're stuck and they don't know what the next step is. And so we we have, you know, we can we go out to campuses and have sort of problem solving conversations or brainstorming conversations.
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Speaker 2
And I have my guiding coalition, but I don't know what the next move is going to be for them to continue this move forward. And so we have a lot of of those kind of conversations. So not a specific question to to your question necessarily, but really just how do I keep this focus, this a focus in this work and a priority to keep it going?
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Speaker 2
I don't know. Angela, what do you hear?
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Speaker 3
Yeah, I was going to add I don't really hear this directly. A lot of times I hear this question second hand is the why do we have to do this? And going back to what I said earlier, it really makes me sad when I hear that on teams because I feel like they haven't yet got to that place of the common goal and the common purpose because like I said, I know our teachers hearts for their kids, so anything they could learn from each other that would help their students grow.
00;16;34;03 - 00;16;58;26
Speaker 3
I know they're hungry for that. So just going back to the tips of if you're a subject area that doesn't have a coach, get with a coach, let them coach your team on. Here's some focus things you can do. You know, find your standards, choose how you're going to know if they met it and what you're going to do when they don't and help them prepare for those meetings so they can come and really maximize their time like you asked about before.
00;16;59;05 - 00;17;08;17
Speaker 3
But again, what you said, reach out if you have questions. We're happy to come out and help campuses make them as purposeful as possible because it's all about growing our kids.
00;17;09;25 - 00;17;14;17
Speaker 1
Right. Any other final thoughts you'd like to add?
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Speaker 2
You know, I've been reading a lot I shouldn't like I don't know if I should go here, but I've been reading a lot about just being vulnerable and being willing to try. And I think when we try something new, it feels weird and maybe we don't know why. Like you mentioned, Angela, or maybe we don't know. Like, this is weird and it's uncomfortable, but I think pushing through that is what I would say is is is important and understanding that sometimes we sort of go through the motions and then it starts to make sense.
00;17;48;17 - 00;18;07;28
Speaker 2
And so I would just I would just say I would encourage anybody in any situation specifically with PLCs today, but in any situations as we learn and grow and students change and we continue to try to meet their needs to be open to new things and try it and see if it helps our students, because that's ultimately the goal.
00;18;08;13 - 00;18;30;25
Speaker 3
And along that line, I've heard so many celebrations lately from PLCs where they figured out the work and they really found their rhythm and they're growing their students. So for people whose PLCs aren't going that well, reach out. Like if you have one on campus, go see what they're doing. And if you don't ask, because we can pair you with somebody who can help you along the way.
00;18;31;12 - 00;19;03;06
Speaker 1
Even on the next IP day go do a little road trip to go visit some other PLC at another campus, which we also did here. I'm was we were at Parr Elementary and that was a fabulous demonstration of how places have resulted in higher student achievement and they could not be more proud of the work that they're doing as a group and just to elevate that across Clear Creek ISD so that people who may not know how to take that step forward can at least see what the end looks like, and then they can make their pathway forward.
00;19;03;10 - 00;19;19;11
Speaker 1
Yeah, that's right. All right. Well, thank you two for joining us today. And this will be available for our employees to download on Clearity on our new employee app, as well as our website. So Susan and Angela, thank you so much and have a great day. You too.