Date of Award

January 2012

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Sherryl Houdek

Abstract

Do teachers assigned to specialized areas, such as special education, Title I, counseling, or other unique assignments feel empowered by efforts to implement professional learning communities (PLCs)? The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine differences in teachers' perceptions of PLC implementation in the Minot Public School District. The study addressed teachers' overall perceptions of PLC implementation; based on their assignment to general education or specialized teaching assignments, based on demographics, and based on which dimensions of PLC implementation may require more attention.

The Professional Learning Communities Assessments-Revised (PLCA-R) instrument was utilized to measure teachers' perceptions. Originally, the Professional Learning Communities Assessments (PLCA) instrument was developed by Olivier, Hipp, and Huffman. Later, the instrument was revised and renamed the PLCA-R (Olivier, 2009). The PLCA-R is used to measure teachers' perceptions of PLC implementation. The PLCA-R is an instrument, which has a Likert-like scale to measure six dimensions of PLCs. It includes opportunities for participants to offer comments, along with rating scales.

The study found there were not statistically significant differences in perceptions of PLC implementation between general education staff and those in specialized assignments. There were statistically significant differences in the perceptions of high school teachers and teachers at other grade levels, and in the perceptions of teachers with sixteen or more years experience and less than five years experience.

Keywords: PLC Implementation, PLCA-R

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