Why This Work Matters
Understanding the Process
Solution Tree spends relatively little time on meetings and a great deal of time on culture. The distinction is between a school that does PLCs and a school that is a PLC — one that makes collaborative decisions based on evidence of student learning.
The three big ideas
Strip everything else away and the PLC process rests on three commitments. They are not about holding more meetings — they are about why we became teachers: making sure students actually learn, and getting better at our craft by doing that work together instead of alone.
A focus on learning
The work centers on what students learn, not simply what teachers teach.
A collaborative culture
Teams work interdependently and take collective responsibility for every student.
A results orientation
Teams use evidence of student learning — not adult preference — to improve instruction.
The four critical questions
These questions drive nearly everything teams do.
- 1 What do we want students to learn?
- 2 How will we know if they have learned it?
- 3 How will we respond when they don’t learn it?
- 4 How will we extend the learning for students who are already proficient?
The shift: from PLT Lite to PLC Right
What PLTs should avoid
- Spending the whole meeting on logistics.
- Planning activities without identifying learning targets.
- Looking at data without planning a response.
- Using assessments only for grades.
- Saying “my students” instead of “our students.”
- Moving on because the pacing guide says so.
- Treating intervention as optional.
- Giving extension as extra work.
- Admiring the problem without changing adult practice.
PLC Right look-fors
- Meetings are centered on student learning.
- Teachers bring evidence, not just opinions.
- Teams use common assessments.
- Students are grouped by specific learning needs.
- Intervention and extension are planned by the team.
- Teachers learn from one another’s results.
- The team can explain what changed because of the data.
- Students receive support regardless of which teacher they have.
- The work continues in cycles.
What success looks like by the end of the year
This year is not about perfection. It is about experiencing the full process once, learning where we get stuck, and building the habits that make PLC Right the normal way we work. By June, each PLT should be able to say:
- We selected one essential standard.
- We agreed on what students needed to know and do.
- We created clear learning targets.
- We defined proficiency.
- We created or refined a common formative assessment.
- We used the same evidence to analyze student learning.
- We identified students who needed support and students ready for extension.
- We responded as a team.
- We reassessed.
- We reflected on student learning and teacher practice.
- We know what we would improve in our next cycle.
The goal for this year
The goal is not to look like a perfect PLC by the end of the year. It is to complete one authentic cycle, learn from it, and prove to ourselves that the hard work shows up in what our students learn. Everything before Meeting 13 builds clarity; everything after it is where PLC Right really begins.