IMPROVING LEARNING THROUGH PRINCIPAL PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES

Abstract

This dissertation examines how the creation of a Principal Professional Learning Community (PPLC) including principals at two high performing schools (STEM High and Early College High) and principals at two low performing schools (City Middle and City High) in a southeastern North Carolina school district (SNC) was used to facilitate cross-school collaboration, and to serve as a vehicle for the implementation of strategies which are hallmarks of the high-performing schools at the low-performing schools. The goal was to create a collegial environment where principals shared their knowledge and experience with each other, so as to support the implementation of instructional rounds, personalization, and rigorous instruction at two low-performing schools. Social justice-oriented mixed methods sequential design was utilized as the framework guiding the transfer of knowledge and skills from high-performing schools to low-performing schools. Data collected over the course of this study included meeting agendas and minutes, field notes, participant surveys, teacher reflections, and state and local assessment results. After one year of PPLC implementation, instructional rounds were regularly occurring at both of the low performing schools. City High also implemented several activities leading to an improved climate of personalization. Although both of the low-performing schools experienced increases in student growth, as measured by the North Carolina Education Value-Added Assessment System, neither of the two schools has yet shown significant increases in student proficiency on state end-of-grade or end-of-course testing. While the increases in student growth and strong improvement in other measures constitute noteworthy evidence of the effectiveness of the interventions implemented in this study, due to large reading and math proficiency deficits as compared to state proficiency levels at both of the low-performing schools in this study, the continuation of this approach for several years may be necessary to demonstrate its potential to improve state proficiency levels at the low-performing schools.