Improving Student Learning through Professional Learning Communities

This paper aims to understand how the Professional Learning Community (PLC) helps to improve student learning. We refer to a research project conducted in Italy on lower secondary education (Paletta, 2020). The data used to operationalize the theoretical construct of PLC were collected via a questionnaire completed in 2018 by the school principals of the Emilia Romagna Region (in the Northeast of Italy). We also leveraged data from the INVALSI (the National Agency that administers the standardized tests) to capture the students’ learning, their economic, social, and cultural status, and other background characteristics. After integrating these two databases, we obtained original data from approximately 6,000 third-grade students representing 61 lower secondary schools. The results confirm the existing literature, showing that PLC has a small but statistically significant effect on students’ learning in Mathematics and English, even when considering students' socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. The study of PLC in lower secondary schools is particularly relevant in light of the well-known international issue of students suffering learning deterioration when transitioning from primary schools (Rolfe et al., 2021). Based on its results, this study discusses how the organizational traits of a PLC make it an effective model for promoting a quality and equitable education in middle schools.