Professional Learning Communities

All of the schools in the Northfield District are utlilizing the Professional Learning Community model, a staff development process rooted in research and best practice. All staff members meet in collaborative teams every Wednesday during the first hour of the school day.  During this period, students are not on campus (unless they choose to go to KidVentures child care at each elementary site).  For more information about your child's Wednesday schedule, please contact the school your child attends.

Professional Learning Communities are comprised of teams of teachers who share the same content and/or students and, on a weekly basis, work collaboratively to analyze student data, promptly identify student needs, identify and implement best practice strategies, evaluate the impact their teaching has on student learning, and make changes in their practice to better meet the needs of all students.  They do this by answering the critical questions of learning:

1.  What knowledge and skills do we expect our students to learn?

2.  How will we know our students have learned expected outcomes?

3.  How will we respond, individually and collectively, when our students have difficulty learning expected outcomes?

4.  How will we respond, individually and collectively, when our students have already learned expected outcomes? 

5.  How can we use the evidence of student learning to inform and improve our practice?

For more information about Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), please click on the links above.