WHAT ARE PLCs IN EDUCATION?

As an educator, you’ve probably heard the phrase ‘PLC’ or ‘PLC meetings.’ In other fields, PLCs have other meaning, like in computer programming. But in education, what is the meaning of a PLC, and what is a PLC used for? In education, PLC stands for Professional Learning Community. It involves the entire staff and faculty — the professional community — of a school.

What are PLCs used for in schools?

In schools, PLCs are used to ensure a system that meeting student needs.

So, what is a PLC? A PLC is a process used by the professional school community of educators, to ensure that student needs are being met. Teachers and administrators meet together in teams, or small groups, and discuss groups of students. They examine data, plan out … … and discuss how they will respond to their findings.

Sometimes the term PLC gets used to refer to a lot of education practices that it really isn’t. A PLC is not just a staff meeting with a fancy title, it’s not a piece of software or a specific tool. Again, think of it as an ongoing process.

This is where the meetings come in! A PLC is organized into teams. These teams meet regularly as they work through the process described above. Team collaboration is essential in a PLC. If the entire school is a community, then each member of that community has to work together.

Teams may be organized by department, by grade level, even by school when looking at the process from a district-level. But it can be helpful too to have teams that cross department and grade-level lines to really learn from each other.

What do teams do? Teams are typically assigned student groups. The purpose of a PLC is to make sure all students are successful learners. This is no easy task, and often it’s easy for students to fall through the cracks. When teams are assigned small groups of students, they can take more time to look at each individual student and what they need.

Team Goals