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INTRODUCTION

Accidental Friendships

Titles, especially titles for books that are autobiographical in nature, can be tricky. Gore Vidal thought Palimpsest was the perfect title for his 1995 memoir. Curious to learn more about the word, I turned to the dictionary: “Something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form” (“Palimpsest,” n.d.). Since my professional life has taken any number of distinct—and often unexpected—twists and turns, always retaining elements of previous events, people, and experiences, palimpsest provided a strong possibility for my title.

But, alas, W. Somerset Maugham provided another possibility. In 1938, Maugham’s The Summing Up was published. At sixty-four years of age, after a career that had earned him widespread critical acclaim as a playwright, novelist, and writer of short stories, Maugham (1938) undertook to sum up his reflections about writing, his career, influences on his work, and to some degree, the journey of his life.

After a career in education that has spanned almost half a century, I can relate to Maugham’s desire to sum up what one has learned and come to believe. And, like Maugham, I recognize that my beliefs and what I’ve learned have been shaped by events, experiences, and especially people I’ve encountered. As I approach the end of my professional journey, it seems natural that I sum up what I have come to believe and know about teaching, effective schools, and school improvement. So, A Summing Up it is!

I must admit, however, a feeling of trepidation. There is something inherently narcissistic about a book that is, even to a small degree, autobiographical. Although my overarching intent with this effort is to provide readers with information and insights regarding what I’ve learned about school improvement, instruction, and student learning throughout my professional journey, I believe context matters. So, I am placing what I’ve learned within the context of my life during various stages of my professional journey.

And, there is always the risk associated with not providing appropriate recognition to those who have helped along the way. I have never believed in the idea of the self-made man. Each of us has received support in one way or another, and my goal is to put what I’ve learned within the appropriate context of those who helped me, supported me, taught me, and in many cases, became my dearest friends. However, I acknowledge it is impossible to recognize everyone. Any errors of judgment in this regard should not be viewed as a lack of recognition and appreciation.

I have been blessed with a wonderful and fulfilling personal life. That being said, I have chosen to write about my personal life only to the degree that there is a direct connection to what I have learned professionally. I would be remiss, however, if I did not recognize that in a few cases it is impossible for me to separate my personal and professional lives; this is especially true regarding Rick DuFour.

Rick was my professional partner and close friend for nearly four decades. Our friendship and our professional lives became intertwined and inseparable. Readers will quickly discover that a summing up of what I’ve learned and come to believe is, to a great extent, a summing up that includes Rick. There have been both high and low points in my personal and professional journey. Certainly, the death of Rick in 2017, followed by Becky’s passing in 2018, was a staggering loss—not only for me, but also for the countless number of people whose lives they touched. After the losses of Rick and Becky, my journey has continued, but it will never be quite the same. A huge part of me is missing.

A Few Caveats

A few caveats are in order. Since attitudes and beliefs are a result, in part, of experiences, I fully recognize that what follows is based on my own unique history—both personal and professional. Others who have had different experiences may have entirely different views. This is perfectly understandable. While I acknowledge that people have differing views, I also think that one’s beliefs (and the resulting practices) must be measured against the standard of what works. When it comes to improving learning for all students, I have tried to filter my ideas through the prism of Does it work, and is it doable? In retrospect, I think this pragmatism behind an evidence-based way of thinking and ultimately doing explains, to a great extent, the popularity of the Professional Learning Communities at Work® (PLC) approach.

In short, for me, the proof was in the pudding; the value of ideas was found in the impact they would have on school improvement and student learning. Few things influence the attitude and behavior of others as much as evidence of results. Seeing results in actual classrooms and schools certainly had a deep impact on my commitment to action research, especially within a culture reflective of a PLC. While I recognize others have had different experiences and, therefore, see the world of education differently, it comes down to this: everyone has a right to an opinion, but all opinions do not hold an equal promise of effectiveness.

Upon reflection, I realize that, to a great degree, my ideas for improving schools are interconnected. For example, collaboration, a sharp focus on learning, assessment, time and support, passion, commitment, persistence, and a myriad of other best practices must be brought together, maintained, and supported by effective leadership at all levels for long-term, systemic improvement. Each individual aspect of effective schooling is enhanced by its connection to the larger whole. In this sense, we must become students of best practices and understand how each effective practice is connected to and enhanced by other concepts and practices. We can learn much from organizations outside the arena of public education. It is my hope that readers will conclude that my professional career reflects such a record.

Any summing up of what I’ve learned and come to believe about improving student success is deeply influenced by what I learned from research findings during each stretch of my professional journey. As I moved to new and different research interests, my thinking regarding earlier research was never fully erased. Traces of each stage of my professional journey can be seen in each successive step along the way. (Palimpsest!)

I mention this because I believe there is a tendency, particularly in the social sciences, to dismiss any research findings viewed as dated. More than one editor, I’m sure, has encouraged writers to avoid older research and emphasize more current findings. But I’ve found that research findings, like life’s experiences and personal discoveries, are usually built on earlier foundations. All legitimate research, even that which becomes overwritten later, fuels the drive to move forward and keep searching for new and better answers. I’m sure Stephen Hawking did not dismiss Einstein, nor did Einstein dismiss Newton. I make no apologies for referencing research that might seem dated to some but formed the basis for those things I was learning as I moved forward.

A word is also in order about what this book is not. Although the concepts and practices that I have come to value are research based, this book is not intended to be a synthesis or meta-analysis of research findings regarding effective teaching, effective schools, or organizational development. As a professor for over four decades, I have certainly valued research and have learned a great deal from it. That said, what follows is grounded in my experiences—the result of my attempts at using research findings to improve student learning.

Last, I want to recognize up front that I do not claim these ideas as my own. Obviously, my thinking has been influenced greatly by several people, and many are included in this summing up. And as I pointed out earlier, it is impossible to separate my ideas from those of Rick DuFour. During our decades of working and writing together, it was a rare week when we did not communicate by phone, text, or email. (At times, I felt we communicated simply by thinking about the same things, usually in the same way!) We viewed the world of education through the same lens. Many of our ideas about teaching and learning, school improvement, and ultimately the PLC at Work process were serendipitous.

The Professional Learning Communities at Work Movement

The ideas that form the framework for the PLC at Work concept and practices were not the result of a sudden flash of insight. In many ways, the PLC at Work process was an umbrella under which best practices that were found in highly successful organizations, both within and outside the arena of public education, were connected—especially proven strategies that had a positive impact on learning, school and district improvement, organizational culture, and leadership. Rick and I viewed our thinking as more than a synthesis of what works. The PLC at Work process was also the result of our personal and professional relationships with others.

The Birth of a Friendship

Each summer, Jerry Bellon—who in the late 1960s served as chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville (and my major professor for my doctoral studies)—led a leadership conference for educators from across the United States. Most participants were from the suburban areas of Chicago or Long Island since Jerry was consulting with many school districts in those areas.

In 1979, I was making a presentation at one of Jerry’s leadership conferences and in the audience was a young principal from Chicago—Rick DuFour. After my session, Rick introduced himself to me, and we agreed to have dinner together. I have often thought about how different my life would have been had Rick decided he was simply too busy to spend three days in Knoxville that summer. Both of our lives were changed by Rick’s decision to attend that conference.

The topic of my presentation that day was linking the clinical supervision model that Jerry Bellon had helped pioneer with the emerging findings from the research on effective teaching being undertaken primarily at Michigan State University and the University of Texas. As improbable as it might seem today, in the late 1970s, research on the topic of specific teacher behaviors that impact student learning and behavior was relatively new. Rick immediately saw the importance of this research and asked me if I would present these early findings to his faculty at West Chicago High School.

I can’t recall the exact date I visited West Chicago, but I do remember that it was a cold and rainy Friday afternoon. Rick had offered to take me to dinner in Chicago that evening, but after my presentation to the faculty, Rick told me he needed to speak to a faculty member and it would be a few minutes before we could leave for dinner. As I stood in the hall waiting, I noticed he was talking to this faculty member rather intensely. After a few minutes, Rick joined me. Since the conversation was rather intense, and the faculty member didn’t seem happy about it, out of curiosity, I asked, “What was that about?” His response, I later came to learn, was pure Rick DuFour. He said that he had noticed that the faculty member was sitting in the back of the room during my presentation glancing through a magazine. Rick simply told the faculty member, clearly and directly, that at West Chicago High School this was unacceptable—not the way things were done—and it must not happen again.

I distinctly remember thinking that in my experience, most principals overlooked such behavior. After all, the presentation was well received, and most faculty were very professional in their behavior. In the car driving into Chicago for dinner, I asked Rick why he made a big deal out of one teacher slacking off. “What’s important isn’t what that one specific teacher was doing,” he said, “or what I said to that specific teacher. What’s important is what that teacher will say to others.”

Obviously, the teacher was not happy that Rick had confronted his behavior, and he would voice his displeasure to others often and loudly. This was just what Rick wanted. He wanted the word to spread: “Hey, Rick is a serious guy, and he pays attention. He is not willing to turn his head and let things go.” That theme of “monitoring and paying attention to what we collectively have said we value” would recur in our writing and presentations for almost four decades.

At that point in my career, I was beginning my professorship at Middle Tennessee State University and was heavily engaged in consulting with school districts, primarily through my work with Jerry Bellon and increasingly with Larry Lezotte, a pioneer in the effective schools research movement. As our friendship grew deeper, I also began to partner with Rick to assist schools and districts in their efforts to improve student learning.

Rick moved from West Chicago High School to become the principal at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. It doesn’t do justice to simply say that Rick was an innovator. He led Stevenson from being viewed as an average school at best to the high school that the U.S. Department of Education would later describe as the most celebrated and recognized high school in the United States. And, as Rick’s reputation at Stevenson grew and my involvement with Larry Lezotte and effective schools research increased my national profile, Rick and I were increasingly asked to present in various districts or at state or national meetings—especially at summer leadership institutes hosted by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and summer leadership conferences sponsored by the Tennessee Department of Education.

Rick suggested we begin to coauthor articles. The resulting effort led us to being asked to write our first book, Fulfilling the Promise of Excellence (DuFour & Eaker, 1987), which we followed up with Creating the New American School (DuFour & Eaker, 1992).

Both books gave increased impetus to our work with schools and school districts. Meanwhile, Rick was embedding truly innovative initiatives at Stevenson High School. Additionally, he was becoming heavily involved with educational organizations such as the National Staff Development Council (what is now Learning Forward) and ASCD. I continued my work with districts on implementing findings from the effective schools research. Both Rick and I were asked to be fellows with the National Center for Effective Schools Research and Development, an organization founded by Larry Lezotte. This increased exposure culminated in our decision to write Professional Learning Communities at Work, published in 1998—a turning point in our careers.

Another turning point was soon to follow. In 2002, Rick married Becky Burnette. Obviously, marrying Becky changed Rick’s personal life significantly, but it also had an important, and positive, impact on our work with the PLC at Work process. Both Rick and I had experience at the high school level, and I was working in higher education. What was missing in our experience base was a strong elementary school perspective. Enter Becky. Becky had served in roles ranging from elementary teacher to central office staff, but when she married Rick, her most recent experience was as principal of Boones Mill Elementary School in Franklin County, Virginia, where she had successfully implemented PLC at Work concepts and practices.

Becky completed the team. In addition to being a highly successful practitioner, she proved to be a solid thinker, presenter, and writer. Following the marriage of Rick and Becky, further refining and promoting the PLC at Work concept became the work of the three of us.

Who Is That Guy?

It’s safe to say that without Jeff Jones, there would just be a warehouse full of PLC at Work books somewhere in Bloomington, Indiana. Jeff Jones and his partner, D. G. Elmore, purchased National Educational Service (NES) in 1998. The company name was changed to Solution Tree in 2005. While Rick and I developed the basic conceptual framework for embedding PLC at Work concepts and practices in school districts, schools, and teams, Jeff Jones provided the business acumen, marketing skills, and vision that moved the PLC at Work ideas off the page and into schools and districts all over the United States and, eventually, around the globe. Jeff and his wonderful wife, Margaret, took the financial risks involved in purchasing and growing a company to support that work. The PLC at Work movement was a collaborative team effort involving Rick, myself, Becky, and Jeff. Importantly, in addition to our professional teamwork, we developed a very close personal friendship with Jeff and Margaret.

Just as the beginning of my friendship with Rick was serendipitous, so was our association with Jeff. The second book Rick and I wrote was Creating the New American School (DuFour & Eaker, 1992). It had been published by NES in Bloomington, Indiana. With the success of the book, coupled with the increasing work that Rick and I were doing with school districts, ASCD, and the Tennessee Department of Education, NES began to plan for a few small events, we labeled institutes, during which educators could spend two or three days gaining our insights on how schools could improve student achievement.

The impetus for these institutes was twofold. First, Rick and I had conducted a couple of small, relatively successful workshops for educators in the western suburbs of Chicago. Second, Rick’s reputation as a principal was gaining momentum, and my reputation gained increased national exposure as a result of an interview that had appeared in the Phi Delta Kappan (Duckett, 1986).

In 1998, NES planned an institute to be held at Mont-Tremblant, a resort area near Montreal. Rick and I planned the agenda, while the associated activities and logistics were handled by NES. When Rick and I arrived at Mont-Tremblant the evening before the institute was to begin, we were casually informed that the company had been sold to a person named Jeff Jones and his business partner but that the people and the day-to-day operations would be unaffected. In a very brief visit, we were introduced to Jeff. And just like that, the handoff was complete.

Rick and I were somewhat taken aback by the change in ownership. In the movie classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Foreman & Hill, 1969), as the Pinkerton agents relentlessly chase Butch and Sundance, Butch keeps observing the pursuit and rhetorically asking, “Who are those guys?” Watching Jeff at the Mont-Tremblant institute, Rick and I joked that we were just like Butch. We kept asking each other, “Who is that guy?” Little did we know, that guy would change our lives—and our families’ lives—in ways that would be both positive and dramatic.

Shortly after Jeff purchased NES, our book Professional Learning Communities at Work: Best Practices for Enhancing Student Achievement (1998) was published. When writing the book, Rick and I wanted to accomplish a number of things that we thought were unique. First, as we represented two different professional worlds—Rick offered a practitioner’s perspective, while I brought higher education’s insights and research focus—we believed we could create a research-based, effective approach to improving student learning that preK–12 practitioners would find both doable and appealing.

Second, we both felt strongly that our study of best practices should not be limited to those from the field of education. We wanted to highlight best practices from business, medicine, and other professions.

Third, we wanted to present a framework for embedding these practices in schools by capturing the power of the basic principles of the learning community “at work” concept. Rick and I never claimed that we were the first to use the term professional learning communities or the first to propose that professional learning communities held promise for improving schools. What we were proud of was that we developed a framework of processes, practices, and procedures that educators could use to reculture schools into highly functional professional learning communities and, as a result, positively impact student achievement. We saw Professional Learning Communities at Work as a how-to book for school practitioners.

To say that Professional Learning Communities at Work was a success would be an understatement. Due to Jeff’s business and marketing innovations, coupled with Professional Learning Communities at Work Institutes, the book quickly gained momentum and proved very successful, not only for us, but also for those who used the book to help guide their school improvement efforts. Jeff was very innovative in his vision for growing Solution Tree, initially through marketing the PLC at Work process. His brilliance was connecting book sales to PLC at Work Institutes and ultimately connecting both to high-quality professional development services. This vision of publishing books and offering institutes and professional development—much like a three-legged stool—proved to be highly successful, and as a result, our books and attendance at our institutes and professional development activities grew quickly, with each leg of the stool enhancing the others.

The concepts and practices of the PLC at Work process have been endorsed by virtually every major educational organization in the United States and have been supported by researchers and practitioners alike. Districts and schools that have successfully embedded the PLC at Work concepts and practices can be found in every state and province in North America—and increasingly, around the world.

I often meet people who believe my thinking and ideas about systemic initiatives to improve student learning began with the publication of Professional Learning Communities at Work (DuFour & Eaker, 1998). In actuality, the PLC at Work process was the culmination of many years of collaboration with a number of people who had a significant impact, not only on my thinking, but also, in fact, on my life. And although I have continued to refine my thinking since 1998 (and hopefully, I will continue to do so), my serious thinking around enhancing student achievement began in the early 1970s, when I was a doctoral student at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and was influenced enormously by Jerry Bellon.

So, with an appreciative nod to W. Somerset Maugham, what follows is my attempt, after almost half a century as a professional educator, to sort out my thoughts on how to create the kinds of schools and classrooms for all kids that we would want for our own children.