Professional Learning Communities Create Sustainable Change through Collaboration

Huffman and Jacobson (2003) noted, "As visionary leaders, administrators can incorporate the professional learning community model in their schools to increase understanding and communication, improve problem-solving capacities, and develop an organized change process for collectively building 'community' in the organizational structure of the school" (p. 248). [...]Little (1982, 2006), Rosenholtz (1989a, 1989b), and Wenger (1998, 2000) discovered the following common characteristics of successful schools: supportive working conditions, shared values and goals, collaboration among teachers and administrators, and a focus on student learning.\n If the middle school concept as described in This We Believe (NMSA, 2010) is implemented, the barriers to implementing professional learning communities may be avoided.