THE PERCEPTIONS OF ADMINISTRATORS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES: A CASE STUDY IN AN OKLAHOMA SCHOOL DISTRICT

Abstract

In January of 2002, President George Bush implemented the No Child left behind act that required all students to be proficient on state standards by the year 2014. One way a school district in Oklahoma met these new requirements was through the implementation of the principles of a Professional Learning Community.

This case study was designed to investigate the perception of elementary principals in implementing professional learning communities (PLCs) in one school district's school-wide initiative. The PLC program initiative was implemented in June of 2006 as a way to build collegiality and collaboration among the staff through discussions about student learning and best instructional practices. Two schools were selected based on specific criteria. Although both schools began implementing PLC principles at the same time, one was fully implemented and the other was still in the initial stages. The study assessed the perceptions of the elementary school teachers and principals through the use of the Professional Learning Community Assessment Revised (PLCA-R), individual interviews with two elementary principals, and document analysis. The five domains of the PLC- shared and supportive leadership, shared values and vision, collective learning and application, shared personal practice and supportive conditions -relationships, and supportive conditions-structures (Hord 1997, 2004; Huffman & Hipp 2003), were used as the framework to examine this case. Four additional themes that emerged from this study were student needs, principal's role, components for sustainability, and obstacles.