Each All Things PLC blog post author has been personally invited to contribute by the All Things PLC committee. All contributing experts have firsthand experience successfully implementing the PLC at Work™ process.

Dave Wedlock, principal, Frances Howell High School, Missouri

October 14, 2014

What Does It Mean to Be a Viking?

Dave Wedlock's "What Does It Mean to Be a Viking? Collaboration and the Commitment to Continous Improvement as Core Values" is reposted here with permission from the author.

In a recent radio ad, I heard the speaker talking about how important the concept of continuous improvement is to the success of any business or organization. To apply this concept to the school setting, as one example, I reviewed the comments of Donald Rollie in the preface to the 2006 book Keys to Effective Schools: “Increasingly, educational researchers and policy analysts agree that the organizational structures and cultures of schools can either enhance or hinder their effectiveness. There is growing recognition that quality teaching and conditions that support it, such as supportive leadership that builds learning communities within schools and communities, evidence-based decision making focused on student learning, and collaborative problem solving and action, are essential foundations for continuous school improvement” (Rollie IX).

Rollie’s argument here appears to be that continuous improvement relies on structural and cultural supports within the school to achieve the outcomes school communities seek. In applying this claim to FHHS and examining the results over the last ten years, interesting outcomes appear. I chose the ten year mark for two reasons: 1. it seems to be an appropriate length of time to measure results and 2. FHHS began developing formal learning community teams approximately ten years ago. At that time, teachers began working in small, department specific, teacher led groups; focused on what we wanted students to know and how we would determine if they could demonstrate those things; and developed plans for what we would do if the students could not meet the achievement benchmarks we expected them to meet. Once we started this process, results came early as the school was named to the state’s top ten most improved schools for 2004 and again in 2005. Since that time, however, has this collaboration and support continued to create the improvement the school community pursues? Let’s take a look at the results:

	2004	2014
Attendance	94%	95.70%
Dropouts	1.70%	.001%
Percentage of Proficient or Advanced scores on state math exams	21.3	67.4
Percentage of Proficient or Advanced scores on state communication arts exams	37.4	87.3
ACT Composite for FHHS	21.9	23.6
# Students taking the ACT	264	380
# of AP Exams Taken	32	629
% of students scoring a 3 or better on an AP exam	47%	71%
Detentions	3184	899

Over time, the results of the school community’s collaboration and commitment to improvement among students, parents, teachers, and staff have become core elements of what it means to be a Viking. We celebrate these qualities in our community, the gains we have made together, and the future opportunities we have to continue this partnership. Go Vikings!

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