Journal of the Effective Schools Project, Volume 17, 2010 Page: 23
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Establishing an Environment for
Learning
If you drive out into rural central
Texas, past the grazing horses and
the local Dairy Queen, you will
find DeLeon Elementary, an EC
through 4th grade campus with an
average enrollment of 300-310
students. If you are at any entrance
to the school building in the morn-
ing, when all of the families drop
off children, you will probably
meet the morning greeters who
ensure each person who enters the
building begins the school day
with a cheery phrase, "Students,
show me positive!"
This encouraging attitude, accord-
ing to Gibson (2009), derives ex-
clusively from a faculty and staff
who are "totally committed to the
success of each one of our students
by expecting greatness from them;
academically, socially, and physi-
cally." More importantly, DeLeon
Elementary faculty and staff be-
lieves student learning is a shared
responsibility of the whole com-
munity.
Student Achievement is Based
on Collaboration
This study began as a collabora-
tive effort between Judd Gibson,
principal of DeLeon Elementary,
and Ingrid Graves, Assistant Pro-
fessor in Tarleton State Univer-
sity's department of Curriculum
and Instruction. Data consisted of
classroom observations, interviews
with the principal, teachers, and
school staff. Statistics from AEIS
(TEA, 2010) 2009 Accountability
reports were also used to triangu-
late and substantiate academic per-
formance. The purpose of the re-
search was to determine if the use
of professional learning communi-
ties and shared purpose between
the school's faculty and admini-stration contributed to student suc-
cess.
Much of the research into instruc-
tional supervision (Glickman,
Gordon & Ross-Gordon, 2001)
notes how "successful principals
frequently extend autonomy . . .
based on a principals' confidence
and trust in teachers' professional
judgment." Gibson certainly be-
lieves in his educators' ability to
exercise professional judgment;
however, he also believes in a pro-
fessional learning community.
According to Blase and Blase
(2004), the professional learning
community philosophy holds the
potential to positively affect teach-
ers' motivation, self-esteem, confi-
dence, professional discretion,
sense of security, reflection, and
reflectively informed behavior.
Blase and Blase's (2004) asserted
that autonomy resides on a foun-
dation of collaboration wherein the
manner in which the school allo-
cates daily routines allows for col-
laboration. Rettig (2007) also em-
phasized the need for the type of
collaboration found at DeLeon
Elementary. Specifically, he ex-
plained that allowing time in the
school schedule for professional
collaboration such as professional
learning communities facilitates
effective instructional practice and
a powerful mechanism for prob-
lem solving. DeLeon Elementary's
professional learning community
(PLC) has discovered that having
a shared sense of purpose is bene-
ficial for students as they transi-
tion to the middle school. This
shared sense of purpose begins
with a common school schedule.
Creating a Master Schedule.
One of the actions which seems to
support all students at DeLeon Ele-
mentary, was to create a masterDeLeon Elementary's
profession learning
community (PLC) has
discovered that having a
shared sense of purpose is
beneficial to students as
they transition to the
middle school.23
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Tarleton State University. Effective Schools Project. Journal of the Effective Schools Project, Volume 17, 2010, periodical, 2010; Stephenville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth201693/m1/25/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Tarleton State University.