Learning Together, Leading Together

Increasingly the education world is recognizing that the development of learning communities is an effective means for improving schools without increasing the budget or adding new programs. This indispensable volume offers practical advice gathered from 22 schools (elementary, middle, and high schools) that have successfully modeled or are creating professional learning communities. The right book at the right time, this authoritative volume:

• Clearly defines the professional learning community—what it looks like and how it operates.
• Identifies the benefits that accrue to staff and students.
• Outlines the strategies required to launch, develop, and sustain a community of professional learners that will promote student learning.
• Examines the construction of learning communities, including the roles and perspectives of teachers, students, principals, superintendents, and community participants.
• Focuses on the important part the principal plays in spurring change by building trust with teachers and other staff.

Shirley M. Hord is Scholar Emerita at the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) in Austin, Texas.

"Few books address, in such a practical way, what professional learning communities look like in schools and how they are formed. The authors' desire to create understanding of how these communities are developed in real schools is a very special quality of this book."
—Dennis Sparks, Executive Director, National Staff Development Council

“Principals for tomorrow will require more than a license; they need specific ways to lead their staff to do what is best for students. Shirley Hord's book provides that and more. Being a principal is hard work, and this book can help new as well as veteran administrators improve our craft."
—William A. Sommers, Principal, Eden Prairie High School