Oaklawn STEM selected for PLC cohort project

Oaklawn STEM Magnet School was selected for the fifth cohort for the Arkansas Professional Learning Communities at Work project.

Each school and district in the fifth cohort will receive 50 days of training, coaching, and support to build and sustain a strong culture of collaboration that will enhance student learning, according to a news release.

“To be selected for the PLC cohort five is such an honor. This was our first year to apply for this cohort, and to get it on the first try was an awesome feeling,” Utana Newborn, Oaklawn STEM Magnet principal, said.

“The schools and districts will create action plans that focus on increasing student achievement through aligned curriculum, formative assessments, and proven instructional strategies,” the release said.

“During the second year, the schools and districts will deepen their understanding and focus on implementing multitiered systems of support, followed by strengthening their systems and sustaining the process in year three,” it said.

The school talked about applying for this project for several years and jumped at the opportunity, Newborn said, noting they knew no time would be better than now.

Newborn talked to a couple of other principals in the district who have already received this honor, and they said it’s the best work they have ever had.

Newborn said this honor had turned Main Street Visual and Performance Arts and the Hot Springs Junior Academy around, noting she felt the school was selected because it was their time.

They had been trying to implement this process back in 2018, she said. The district allowed some of the school officials to go for training in Rogers to hear about the PLC process and the things that go with it.

“We know it was the right work to do. The district has allowed more time for collaboration; students go home every Wednesday at 2 (p.m.), which allows time for teachers to come together and collaborate and really look at what our essential standards are and pick out those essential skills that students must learn in order to move to the next skill or maybe to the next grade,” Newborn said.

The school was also selected because the district is very supportive, she said, backing up other schools in the district that are in the cohort.

“They are encouraging us to make sure we learn this process, and we follow the process because study shows it’s the right work and we want to do what’s best for our kids, and our students and their success is our top priority,” Newborn said.

The cohort will benefit Oaklawn STEM because they will have a coach come in and guide them through the process, she said, noting it will benefit the teachers because they’re going to

know what to do. They know it is not the time to go into their classroom and work individually.

“Now you work as a team, and you collaborate, you talk about what’s the most important thing that a student needs to learn, how we should go about teaching it, and what strategies we should use,” Newborn said.

It will benefit the community because as the teachers teach their students, they will grow up to be productive citizens of society and within the community, she said.

With collaboration, teachers could talk about all the expectations they have of themselves, the expectations of their students, and then the expectations of the building as a whole, she said.

Teachers don’t have to make tests on their own anymore or look at data by themselves, she said.

“It’s important that you allow time for teachers to come together to have that collaboration. We have built that into our master schedule, and the district has built it into theirs,” she said.

“We are the third school within the district to be selected, and we just want to become a PLC model school as Main Street (and the Junior Academy) has. I’m pretty confident that all of our schools within this district will reach that goal and that status,” Newborn said.