Share Your PLC Story
Tell us how you built shared understanding and commitment to the PLC at Work process, and how you are facilitating a culture of continuous improvement in your school (district).

Westview Elementary is one of the elementary schools in the Platteville School District.  They were looking for a way to improve learning outcomes for all students.  Their journey to becoming a Professional Learning Community began in 2009.  Staff at Westview were introduced to the concepts of team collaboration, norm setting, developing a building mission statement, evaluating data and creating student intervention times.  Staff took part in book studies and were provided articles to read during staff meetings and/or professional development.  The Learning by Doing, 2nd Edition, book study provided the foundational knowledge of Professional Learning Communities and the Raising the Bar Closing the Gap book provided the background knowledge needed when building a system of support including a RTI framework.  A master schedule was developed to have an identified intervention time for all students, along with creating times for grade levels to meet in teams.  However, this time ended up being PLC lite, as the “why” wasn’t provided.  The staff just received the “what” of a PLC.  

In 2012, a new superintendent focused the professional development time around the four questions and standards-based grading was introduced and implemented.  Work was done on identifying student learning outcomes, however, the knowledge of needing to narrow them down was not in place.  Grade levels agreed on these outcomes, but then returned to their classrooms to teach what they wanted.  Eventually, teams were introduced to common summative assessments and began to develop these, but did so without the understanding of why and how to connect them directly to the standards being taught.  Attempts were made to bring this data back to look at, but this information was not used to address student learning needs.  Intervention was determined by universal assessments like MAP and Fountas and Pinnell, rather than on-going classroom assessments.

In 2016, the elementary building was reconfigured.  Coming together as a new school community created many obstacles both in building culture and in team dynamics.  New team norms had to be established.  Staff who hadn’t been part of previous learning had to be introduced to the concept of PLC and team norms.  The journey with the four questions continued, however creating common planning time for grade levels was a struggle and teachers ended up doing this important work after school hours.  

Although the district had been dabbling with PLCs for almost 9 years, the needs of the students were changing and current practices weren’t showing the same results that had been seen in the past.  Something needed to be changed.  With this in mind, the administrative team attended a PLC Institute in Madison, WI over the summer of 2018.  

The administrative team was re-energized and used the 2018-19 school year to build capacity by reading the book, Learning by Doing, 3rd Edition.  This book study provided the admininistrative team with a foundational base, and common vocabulary to use with staff (see resources).

In an attempt to provide teachers with an opportunity to collaborate, Westview Elementary piloted an alternate schedule during the 2018-19 school year.  This schedule  included keeping students at school by providing them enrichment activities while staff would meet on Wednesday afternoons.  This schedule was difficult to staff and encountered many challenges.  Due to these experiences, it was apparent that the master schedule had to change in order to provide time for staff to collaborate across the district without the students present in the buildings.  

A proposal was made to the community to initiate an early release or late start schedule the following school year.  Parents were surveyed to get input on their preference of day of the week, along with time of day. Several community meetings took place to answer questions. Ultimately a calendar was adopted to provide 90 minutes of collaboration on Wednesday afternoons on a weekly basis that would start at 3:00 and end at 4:30pm.  

In April and August of 2019, Solution Tree Associate, Joe Cuddemi, provided professional development around the foundation and the “why” of the PLC.  These professional development sessions provided a common understanding for staff of what meaningful collaboration time looks like and how it’s structured, including team make ups, both horizontal and vertical.  Starting in the fall of 2019, teams met during collaboration time with team developed norms and an agenda to drive the conversation.  Westview staff participated in a book study of Learning by Doing, 3rd edition.  In conjunction with that book study, a new mission and vision statement were established by all staff members.

In addition to the efforts taking place through the book study, Guiding Coalition members participated in a state-wide initiative driven by the Department of Public Instruction or DPI entitled, Leading for Learning.  This was scheduled to be a four part series with presentations by Chris Jakicic, Angie Freese, Anthony Muhammad, and Mike Mattos, however “Safer at Home” canceled the  Mike Mattos presentation.  As the district navigated the murky waters of the pandemic, they participated in the Mind the Gaps series provided by Solution Tree/Mike Mattos in 2020-21. The Mind the Gaps format was utilized by grade level teams at the end of the 2019-20 and during the 2020-21 school year. 

In December of 2019, principals, the school psychologist, and the Westview Elementary Tier 3 reading interventionists attended the RTI at Work Institute in Madison, WI.  The team evaluated the current RTI system and identified areas for improvement based on the knowledge gained through that learning opportunity.  More specifically, the team gained a clearer understanding of the distinctions between Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 instruction as well as the individuals responsible for each tier and the skills to focus on in each tier.  

Given the work that had been started with Joe Cuddemi to develop an understanding of a PLC and to answer Question 1, the teams turned their focus to the next steps.  During the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years, Westview participated in August professional development led by Solution Tree Associate, Angie Freese.  She provided information and support as the staff members continued their work on identifying essential standards and creating assessments that aligned with the rigor and expectations set by the collaborative teams.  

Staff continue to review and revise their Essential Learning Outcomes/ELO’s to narrow them down to learning targets.  In addition, unit planning was started which included working on summative assessments, getting clear on expected outcomes, and developing common formative assessments.  Grade levels continue to work on creating a scope and sequence for each subject area and are tight on what will be taught and assessed. During collaboration time, our specialist teams (e.g. Art, Music, PE) also identified essential learning outcomes and completed unit planning documents as K-12 teams.  This meaningful collaboration was a direct result of reading the book, Singletons in a PLC at Work.  Singletons identified an “on-ramp” to use with their team for meaningful collaboration.   

As a building team, staff have worked to identify gaps in resources and have adopted new resources in math, reading, writing, social studies and science over the course of the last 7 years.  Staff also continue to seek out learning opportunities to keep up to date on best practices and share their learning with their colleagues.

During the 2021-22 school year, Westview began a book study of RTI at Work.  In addition, more focus was put on the “will” side of the pyramid and a student concern system was established.  Grade levels teams added more targeted SEL practices into their weekly routines, in addition to an additional SEL class being added every other week, opposite guidance.  Teachers also can submit student concern forms which are reviewed with the SEL team to put together support plans for students struggling in areas outside of academics.

Staff members continued with their Taking Action book study during the 2022-23 school year to gain a universal understanding of Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 as well as the accompanying support and responsibilities at each level.  A team of staff members toured a Nationally Recognized Model PLC elementary school during the 2022-23 school year.  Prairie View Elementary in the Beaver Dam School district opened their doors.  The tour was very informative as it provided some great ideas and also validated many of the steps that had been taken to that point.  

Several staff members and the building leader attended the PLC Institute in Lincolnshire, IL in the summer of 2023.  The energy that this group brought back to the August inservice was infectious and jump started the entire Westview Elementary Building.  During the 2023-24 school year, the staff assembled the essential learning outcomes by grade and content area.  The staff understands that these documents are a work in progress, however the plan is to post these essential learning outcomes to our district website.  This document constitutes the guaranteed and viable curriculum that the staff members have identified and an example is in the resources tab.  The district also identified the importance of the vertical conversations around scope and sequence.  One Wednesday a month was set aside for this work and the “Power of Going Vertical” document was created by using the Taking Action book as a resource.  

During the 2023-24 school year, the guiding coalition at Westview Elementary is now meeting twice a month.  In the preceding years, there were only monthly meetings.  The meetings twice a month have provided this important leadership team an opportunity to build momentum. 

In 2022-23, Westview piloted iReady as a benchmark assessment tool.  During the 2023-24 school year, all grades will be fully implementing iReady as a benchmark assessment as well as the teacher toolbox which provides additional resources for student learning.

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

Teacher teams identify essential learning outcomes, create user friendly, “I CAN” statements and have common understandings of what mastery looks like for each ELO identified.  This work was initially started with our training from Solution Tree Associate, Joe Cuddemi and was continued with Solution Tree Associate, Angie Freese.  

Given the work that had been started with Joe Cuddemi to develop an understanding of a PLC and to answer Question 1, the teams turned their focus to the next steps.  During the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years, Westview participated in August professional development led by Solution Tree Associate, Angie Freese.  She provided information and support as the staff members continued their work on identifying essential standards and creating assessments that aligned with the rigor and expectations set by the collaborative teams.  

Staff continue to review and revise their Essential Learning Outcomes/ELO’s to narrow them down to learning targets.  In addition, unit planning was started which included working on summative assessments, getting clear on expected outcomes, and developing common formative assessments.  Grade levels continue to work on creating a scope and sequence for each subject area and are tight on what will be taught and assessed. During collaboration time, our specials teams (e.g. Art, Music, PE) also identified essential learning outcomes and completed unit planning documents as K-12 teams.

In 2021-2022, Westview Elementary switched to the Independent Reading Level Assessment or IRLA toolkits which are implemented throughout the instructional process.  There is a use of common formative and summative assessments at each grade level, and common planning with shared resources completed around essential learning outcomes for all subject areas.

During the 2023-24 school year, the staff assembled the essential learning outcomes by grade and content area into a district template.  The staff understands that these documents are a work in progress, however the plan is to post these essential learning outcomes to our district website.  This document constitutes the guaranteed and viable curriculum that the staff members have identified and an example is in the resources tab.  The district also identified the importance of the vertical conversations around scope and sequence.  One Wednesday a month was set aside for this work and the “Power of Going Vertical” document was created by using the Taking Action book as a resource.  Please reference the resources tab for an example of the “Power of Going Vertical” document.

2. Creating systems of intervention to provide students with additional time and support for learning.

At Westview Elementary, the master schedule provides each grade level with a universal 30 minutes of Tier II intervention time, 5 days per week.  Teachers use common formative assessments prior to the end of the unit to identify students with unfinished learning.  The students are grouped by area identified on the formative assessment and are retaught skills.  Following the reteach, students are provided another opportunity to demonstrate their learning on the essential learning outcome.  An additional 30 minutes, 5 days per week is set aside in each grade level for intensive Tier III intervention.  

Students are identified for Tier III intervention when they demonstrate gaps in foundational skill knowledge on formal screening data.  More specifically, when students score at the 19th percentile or below on the district’s iReady screener, the Tier III interventionist in that subject area (reading or math) provides an additional screener to the student to further assess their foundational skill knowledge.  At 1st grade, students receive the FastBridge Early Reading or Early Math Composite.  Each of these assessments are administered 1:1 with the student.  Early Reading gathers normative information about the students skills in letter sounds knowledge, phonemic awareness, phonics, and oral reading fluency.  The Early Math gathers normative information about a student’s number sense.  For reading in grades 2-4, students’ oral reading fluency is assessed through FastBridge.  For math in grades 2-4, students’ computation is assessed through FastBridge.  Students are identified for Tier III intervention when they continue to demonstrate performance below the 19th percentile in comparison to their peers on these additional screening measures.  Students who are identified for Tier III intervention receive instruction for 30 minutes, 4 days per week, with weekly progress monitoring. 

With this additional detailed information, Tier III interventionists can make data driven decisions about the most appropriate intervention strategy for that individual student’s needs and they can group them with other students demonstrating similar needs.  Students’ progress is monitored weekly using the FastBridge CBM that aligns the closest with the students area of need and the focus of the intensive intervention.  Once students demonstrate sufficient progress, which the team has defined as 6-10 data points above the 25th percentile, the student can be dismissed from Tier III intervention.  

Throughout this process, it’s essential that the Tier III interventionist is in close communication with the classroom teacher to ensure that efforts are aligned to help support these students with the highest level of need.  These efforts are made by sharing data with the classroom teacher and sharing information about the skills and strategies focused on in Tier III intervention.  

Training is provided to grade level teachers in the areas of phonics instruction, phonemic awareness, math instruction, along with training for interventionists on specific intervention programs and progress monitoring.

3. Building teacher capacity to work as members of high performing collaborative teams that focus efforts on improved learning for all students.

During the summer of 2017, staff took part in a book study of the book entitled, A Mindset for Learning.  This book study focused on SEL needs and growth mindset in classrooms.  Teams worked vertically to identify read-alouds that would be used for each mindset.  Within our school we shape our Positive Behavioral Support System (PBIS) of respect, responsibility and safety around the premise of being a “Bucket Filling School.”  PBIS helps us build procedures and practices throughout the building that help create consistency for students for behavioral expectations, the concept of being a “Bucket Filler, not dipper” allows us to help students learn and understand how their actions impact the feelings and emotions of others. Within classrooms, teachers embed their instruction with lessons around acceptance, diversity, cultural awareness and inclusion.

The administrative team attended the PLC Institute in the summer of 2018 and over the 2018-19 school year built capacity on their understanding by completing a book student of Learning by Doing, 3rd Edition.  The entire staff participated in a Learning by Doing, 3rd Edition, book study during the 2019-20 school year.  

In December of 2019, principals, the school psychologist, and the Westview Elementary Tier 3 reading interventionists attended the RTI at Work Institute in Madison, WI.  The team evaluated the current RTI system and identified areas for improvement based on the knowledge gained through that learning opportunity.  More specifically, the team gained a clearer understanding of the distinctions between Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 instruction as well as the individuals responsible for each tier and the skills to focus on in each tier. 

Throughout the 2019-20 school year, the district participated in a state-wide initiative driven by DPI entitled, Leading for Learning.  This was scheduled to be a four part series with presentations by Chris Jakicic, Angie Freese, Anthony Muhammad, and Mike Mattos, however “Safer at Home” canceled the  Mike Mattos presentation.  As the district navigated the murky waters of the pandemic, they participated in the Mind the Gaps series provided by Solution Tree/Mike Mattos in 2020-21.  

The book study of Taking Action was started during the 2021-22 school year and finished during the 22-23 school year.  This provided understanding and clarification around the teacher teams and school teams responsibility.  The idea of supporting student learning through the “Will” and “Skill” lens was also a byproduct of this work.  

The district has been working in collaboration with CESA#6 Center For All since the 2021-2022 school year, focusing on equity, diversity and inclusion.  

Collaborative teams continue to identify options for students at Westview to participate in cultural and learning extensions.  Students take part in programs such as multicultural lyceums, parent and community presenters, Opera for the Young, and performances by high school students. We celebrate diversity by integrating within our curriculum topics that focus on areas such as black history, indigenous peoples, autism awareness, and women’s history.

 As a building, the physical development of our students is a priority and is viewed as key in helping students improve gross motor skills and mental focus.  In addition, we value students’ need for sensory, movement breaks.  We provide these opportunities through physical education classes, two recesses each day, access to sensory movement paths within the school, an open gym before school starts, flexible classroom seating, and outdoor field trips in the community to parks and walking trails. Westview partners with the University of Wisconsin-Platteville for a yearly “Wellness Day” that promotes physical activity for our students.  We have also begun participating in Global Play Day in which students are encouraged to play, without technology, for at least a portion if not the entire day.

Grade level collaborative teams in Reading and Language, use whole group and small group instruction to engage students.  In reading, the primary focus is to instill a love of reading within our students.  Mentor texts are used as read-alouds to teach reading comprehension strategies and students practice these strategies when reading assigned or self-selected texts.  High interest fiction and nonfiction texts are used.  Literacy circles are used to engage students in higher level thinking.  We also explicitly focus on reading foundational skills in grades 1-3 through the use of University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) Foundations and Heggerty to teach phonics and phonemic awareness.  Grammar usage and knowledge are embedded into instruction, along with a focus on building students’ use and understanding of vocabulary. To integrate literacy, we engage students in narrative, opinion, and informational writing at all levels.  In 23-24, reading fluency began being assessed and monitored by each grade level teacher utilizing iReady.

The goal in math is to ensure our younger students have a strong foundational understanding of number sense which can be built upon each year.  Our math curriculum is closely aligned with common core state standards, providing a linear progression of skills.  Math concepts are taught through the instructional approach of “build it, draw it, write it.” This approach emphasizes the need for students to first use manipulatives to construct problems, then use pictures to represent their thinking, and finally write out the problem and explain how they achieved their answer.  It also allows teachers to see at which stage students are learning and may need remediation.  Exit tickets, scheduled formative assessments and summative assessments are planned by each grade level and utilized to determine student needs for intervention, reteaching and enrichment.  Students also utilize on-line resources such as Zearn, Prodigy, Dreambox, MobiMacs and Xtramath to provide additional practice and enrichment. 

As a result of many new hires at Westview Elementary for the 2023-24 school year, there was a PLC presentation during the mentor/mentee week.  This training was implemented in an effort to bring the new staff up to speed by providing condensed versions of previous presentations.  Those presentations included many of the foundational presentations provided by Joe Cuddemi in 2019.  The presentation is closed by watching Timebomb.  This further emphasizes the urgency of our work and how it's essential for each and every student and teacher in a professional learning community to be engaged in the 3 big ideas and 4 critical questions. Staff who attended the PLC institute in August share their learning with their colleagues during inservice days, and once a month during staff meetings.

The district has purchased 10 licenses for Global PD teams and are available for staff who would like to continue their learning using this product from Solution Tree.

Achievement Data Files

• westview-trends-based-on-wisconsin-forward-results.pdf
• wv-data--irla-fastbridge.pdf
• iready--map-comparisons--2022-23.pdf
• wi-forward-wv-trends--3-yrs.pdf
• wv-data-template.xlsx

Additional Achievement Data

Westview Elementary School Report Card has shown growth over the last 3 years:  
2020-21:  78.0 - Exceeds Expectations
2021-22:  80.7 - Exceeds Expectations
2022-23:  86.7 - Significantly Exceeds Expectations

Westview Trends Based On Wisconsin Forward Results

ELA

Math

 

Westview Elementary received the Blue Ribbon Award in 2021.  

Westview Elementary School Report Card has shown growth over the last 3 years:  
2020-21:  78.0 - Exceeds Expectations
2021-22:  80.7 - Exceeds Expectations
2022-23:  86.7 - Significantly Exceeds Expectations

Westview Elementary received a "Bronze Level" for the Wisconsin PBIS Network in 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19.  

Files

• WestviewElementary-RTIPyramid(MTSS).pdf
• grade-2--1st-semester-assessments--rubrics-23-24.pdf
• 2nd-grade-weekly-agenda-doc_example-2626.pdf
• 4th-climb-reading-toolkit-groups-3030.pdf
• westview-end-of-year-essential-learning-outcomes-11-27-23-9715.pdf
• music-2021-2022-2023-report-card-elo-32.pdf
• music-scaffolding-general-music-grades-1-4-9965.pdf
• common-language-plc-implementation-2018-revisited-in-2022.pdf
• ela-23-the-power-of-going-vertical--vertical-articulation-template-6490.pdf
• plc-graphic--intervention-4489.pdf
• examples-of-smart-goals-driving-collaborative-team-meetings-4669.pdf
• plc-graphic--tier-2-interventions-1854.pdf
• plc-judicial-analogy.pdf
• guiding-coalition-one-page-job-description-application-reflection-final-4373.pdf
• plc-graphic--sharing--modeling-1515.pdf
• plc-four-pillars--wv--11-8-22.pdf
• plc-graphic--current-generation-of-educators-4922.pdf
• plc-graphic--assessment-7578.pdf
• plc-graphic-9-28--doing-the-right-work.pdf
• district-and-wv-mission-statement.pdf
• platteville-district-mission-statement.pdf
• plc-graphic--chart-5033.pdf
• plc-graphic--team-decisions.pdf
• plc-graphic-collaboration.pdf
• plc-graphic--assessment.pdf
• signs-of-positive-school-culture.pdf
• plc-graphic-4-questions-1578.pdf
• plc-graphic--3-big-ideas-888.pdf