In Alberta, Professional Learning Communities are the recommended method of delivering learning to students in K-12 schools.  What this means has been subject to a lot of interpretation, but below are some of the best and most useful descriptions of the practice.  Our school is currently in the process of re-organizing itself to reflect this recommendation and, thus far, the progress is promising.  I think one of the most important things to remember when shifting to a PLC model for your school environment is that much of the stuff PLCs are developed for already happen every day.  The difference between your particular school and a functioning PLC is that, in the PLC environment, nothing happens by accident.  Instead, all of the people who have a stake in the success of the youth take a critical look at what they do well and make systematic efforts to do them on purpose.

PLCs