Professional Learning Communities

The Fund’s Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a year-long, principal-led peer study group for Chicago’s school leaders.

Launched in 2016, The Fund’s PLC program is designed to help principals collaborate and share best practices and tools to impact school culture and improve student outcomes.

The goals of PLCs are to:

• Provide principal leaders with an opportunity to utilize their expertise and collaborate with colleagues.
• Enable principals to share best practices that have improved student achievement across the system.
• Create a unique cross-district opportunity that will bring diverse principal leaders together for rich cohort learning.

The Fund supported 18 PLCs in the past two years, bringing nearly 120 principals together for a unique, cross-district opportunity for rich cohort learning. PLC topics are developed based on principal interest in the subject, and PLC principal leaders are identified based on demonstrated expertise in each given topic.

PLC leaders developed the curriculum, structure and impact measurement of their PLCs. They facilitated at least four in-person sessions with their groups, in addition to at least two one-on-one meetings with each member. Between sessions, PLC participants worked on implementing changes in their specific topic areas to help improve student outcomes and implement new systems in their schools.