Collaboration in education has become an integral part of increasing student achievement over the past decade. We have seen an increase in the research on creating professional learning communities with Rick DuFour leading the way. Unfortunately, we have not seen the support for collaboration through funding by state and local education agencies to the extent that is necessary. Dufour (2004) writes, "Despite compelling evidence indicating that working collaboratively represents best practice, teachers in many schools continue to work in isolation" (p. 9). I concur with this as existing in most schools. Administrators must build the capacity and train people to work together. Collaboration does not happen by accident, it must be created. Teachers must recognize the importance of collaboration and administration must build capacity for this to occur. As an administrator, I cannot expect my staff to just get together and have it result in significant instructional effectiveness. I must build a community of learning that is expected. As DuFour (2004) writes, "The professional collaboration that characterizes professional learning communities is a systematic process in which teachers work together to analyze and improve their classroom practice" (p. 9). I feel strongly about the need to collaborate for us to take the next steps in education and to meet the challenges of the future. For far too long teachers have been islands in a vast ocean and they need to move to form a continent.
What has your school, district, and state done to support collaboration? What outcomes have occurred as a result of your experiences in collaborating?
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Imagine that…teamwork. As an administrator, one of the biggest aha’s for me was the amount of teachers that do not want to collaborate with one another. Veteran teachers, at times, feel that the neophytes should figure things out the way they had to. Teaching is a challenging profession, why should be go at it alone. Collaboration is the key to success. Teachers are not the only ones that have a difficult time collaborating. The author has found that administrators do not collaborate with one another, as they should. How are we going to get better if we don’t share successes and failure?
Professional learning communities is an avenue for educators to collaborate with one another, at a set place and a set time. As a school leader, on of my responsibilities is to build capacity among member in the organization. One way to assist with this task is to develop and monitor professional learning communities.
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