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Participants

Launched in 2008, the CVLN community of practice was a collaborative of five district leadership teams consisting of the superintendent, central office administrators, school site administrators (principals and vice-principals) and an external coach/facilitator per participating team working in concert with a Network coach/facilitator. District teams ranged from seven to eleven members. The superintendent selected participating members and determined team size, however, the size of the district influenced the availability of participating members. Team configuration changed over the three years as superintendents expanded the size of their teams including more site level leaders. By year three, 41 leadership team members from five districts, five external district coach/facilitators and one external Network coach facilitator comprised the Central Valley Leadership Network participants. The five districts serve approximately 30,000 students in the central region of California which is home to some one million children - 20% of the state’s total population - and has one of the highest concentrations of poor families in the country and many small underfunded and underperforming schools, with few resources and economies of scale to support their improvement efforts.

Professional learning model - the pt plan: six inter-locking components

The PT PLAN model provides educators at multiple levels of the system (school site to the central office) with a networked approach to high quality professional development and on-site coaching and skilled facilitation follow-up. The PLP/CVELI Partnership provided participating educators through PT PLAN access to the latest in research-based knowledge and practice and ongoing guidance and support to institute fundamental changes needed over the long-term in their districts. The partnership played a critical role in research knowledge utilization as external intermediaries, partner consultants.

The professional learning model (Figure 1) adheres to the NSDC Context Staff Development Standards in which (a) adults are organized into learning communities whose goals are aligned with the participating districts, (b) the primary focus is to build capacity of skillful leaders who guide continuous instructional and organizational improvement, and (c) resources are provided to support adult learning and collaboration.

Figure 1. Professional Learning Model