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The Role of Professional Learning Communities in Successful Response to Intervention Implementation

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Handbook of Response to Intervention

Abstract

The authors take an in-depth look at the evolution of professional learning communities (PLCs), professional structures in which teachers, administrators, and educational specialists collaborate to understand a problem, propose, and enact new ideas, and analyze the effects of their teaching on student learning. They outline what the research literature says about PLCs’ effectiveness for improving teaching, student learning, and school productivity. They share characteristics of PLCs and how these correspond to goals and structures within a response to intervention (RTI) process. The authors also describe a data-based meeting that merges principles from the PLC and RTI literature, and present examples of schools that are integrating these two currents in school reform. Suggested resources are provided to guide PLC implementation along with recommendations for future research to enhance the role of PLCs in RTI implementation.

We therefore judge our success in transforming the teaching profession by our students’ outcomes: High levels of student achievement, judged by multiple measures that assess students’ ability to understand and apply the knowledge and skills that matter most to their readiness for college, careers, and citizenship. From Transforming the Teaching Profession Vision Statement (US Department of Education 2012)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA

    Lori Helman & Kay Rosheim

Authors
  1. Lori Helman
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  2. Kay Rosheim
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Correspondence to Lori Helman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, Santa Barbara Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, Santa Barbara, California, USA

    Shane R. Jimerson

  2. University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA

    Matthew K. Burns

  3. Education Research & Consulting, Inc., FAIRHOPE, Alabama, USA

    Amanda M. VanDerHeyden

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Helman, L., Rosheim, K. (2016). The Role of Professional Learning Communities in Successful Response to Intervention Implementation. In: Jimerson, S., Burns, M., VanDerHeyden, A. (eds) Handbook of Response to Intervention. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7568-3_7

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