Schools that learn to improve student learning: the effectiveness of schools as PLCs

This paper studies the effectiveness of schools as Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). Specifically, it explores whether schools, as perceived by principals to meet the defining characteristics of a PLC, are associated with enhanced student learning outcomes. To answer the research question, the paper integrates two different databases: the data on schools as PLCs are collected by a questionnaire from the lower secondary school principals of the Emilia Romagna Region, Italy. The data on the student’s learning, economic, social, and cultural status and other students’ background characteristics were taken from the INVALSI (the National Agency that administers the standardised tests). After integrating these two databases, we obtained original data from about 6.000 3rd graders students of 61 schools. In this context, a two-level linear model (HLM) was applied to study the relationship between PLC and student learning. The analysis integrates predictors from both within-school and between-school levels. Within-school models account for the effects of student characteristics. Meanwhile, between-school models, which incorporate within-school controls, assess the impact of school characteristics – including PLC – on student learning outcomes. The results show that PLC understood by school principals as a multidimensional construct that integrates personal, interpersonal, and organisational capacities, improves student learning in Maths and English.