Increasingly the education world is recognizing that the development of learning communities is an effective means for improving schools without increasing the budget or adding new programs. This indispensable volume offers practical advice gathered from 22 schools (elementary, middle, and high schools) that have successfully modeled or are creating professional learning communities. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Acknowledgments	p. vii
1. Introduction	p. 1
2. Professional Learning Communities: An Overview	p. 5
3. Study Description: Investigating Five PLC Schools	p. 15
4. Principals and Teachers as Continuous Learners	p. 20
5. The Role of Trust Building and Its Relation to Collective Responsibility	p. 31
6. Creating and Sustaining a Professional Learning Community: Actions and Perceptions of Principal Leadership	p. 45
7. Creating Co-Developers: Linking Research and Practice	p. 58
8. Two Professional Learning Communities: Tales from the Field	p. 71
9. Change Diaries: Parallel Perspectives on School Change	p. 84
10. One Principal's Story: Building a Community of Inquiry	p. 96
11. Against All Odds: Reculturing a Troubled School	p. 114
12. The Superintendent's Influence on the Creation of a Professional Learning Community: A Story of School Transition	p. 127
13. Building Teacher Leadership Within a Traditional School Structure	p. 140
Epilogue: Teaching and Shared Professional Practice--A History of Resistance; A Future Dependent on Its Embrace	p. 151
References	p. 163
About the Authors	p. 167
Index	p. 173

Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.