Northport-East Northport school superintendent presents new learning plan

By Lauren Feldman

At the Sept. 5 Northport-East Northport Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Dave Moyer and his team presented on Professional Learning Communities, an educational plan that has been under consideration by the board in recent months.

The presentation goals included introducing foundational Professional Learning Community principles, providing examples of teacher collaboration, discussing the role of eduCLIMBER in supporting PLCs, and sharing district plans for year one implementation.

“PLCs are not a program, they’re not an initiative, they’re a culture,” Moyer said.

Moyer began by discussing John Hattie, who performed a study to help determine the most crucial aspects of schooling that affect learning. Hattie identified the top factor as what he called Collective Teacher Efficacy, or a collective belief of teachers in their ability to positively affect students. This is the concept on which PLC is based.

PLC promotes that the purpose of schooling is to unite teachers in student education, not just rely on the efforts of a single teacher. “When teachers share their best strategies with one another, students win,” according to a PLC video that Moyer played for the board. “By sharing strategies, resources and data, teachers create more opportunities for their students to reach grade level and subject proficiency. PLCs give you the opportunity to improve your teaching practice with a team that shares your vision.”

Moyer explained that, crucially, PLC is teacher collaboration based on measurable evidence. “There are things we do in school that we think affect student learning, but in actuality don’t impact student learning,” he said. “Collaboration is critical, and the practice has to demonstrate results.”

PLC collaboration seeks to answer four questions: What is it we want our students to learn? How will we know if each student has learned it? How will we respond when some students do not learn it? How can we extend and enrich learning for students who have demonstrated proficiency?

The superintendent’s team also talked about work the district has done over the summer to begin to implement PLCs in Northport schools. One action is the implementation of a new way to track data, called eduCLIMBER.

This system is designed to provide district data alongside nondistrict data to better inform schools of the status of its students. On a student level, eduCLIMBER can help chart academics, but also attendance, behavioral incidents and interventions. On a district level, the tool can be used to track student, parent and staff surveys, school climate and culture and budget. 

Teachers can then use this data to better inform specific goals in the PLC process.

Moyer also discussed plans for implementing PLC this academic year. During a recent administrator retreat, attendees reviewed concepts from “Cultures Built to Last: Systemic PLCs at Work,” a book by Richard DuFour and Michael Fullan.

The first Monday of every month would include teacher collaboration time: meetings designed to complement and strengthen the work of PLCs, where faculty can discuss what is and is not working in their classrooms.

Principals will also have to assess the specific needs of their schools and provide the district with a focus area for their PLC plan. This will help the district understand what each school is aiming to improve for the academic year.

Members of the board posed some follow-up questions. When asked for data on what other schools have implemented PLCs, the superintendent and his team were unable to provide that information, though Moyer said there are lots of reasons a school may not implement PLCs, including insufficient data systems, or districts being otherwise unable to report on their students.

The superintendent emphasized that PLCs take a long time to implement. In high schools, they may take up to 10 years to flesh out. However, he sees this system as a positive way forward for Northport schools.

The board thanked the superintendent for his presentation, and many members valued the vision of PLC for the district. Northport schools will move forward with PLC implementation, and track student and school progress as the year continues.

The next BOE meeting is scheduled for Sept. 18.