Houston County School District recognized for raising student achievement

Houston County School District has been recognized by Solution Tree for increasing student achievement by implementing Professional Learning Community (PLC) at Work practices.

It is one of only three school districts in the state and one of 500 schools and districts throughout the United States and Canada to achieve this status.

The certification was granted to Houston County earlier this month by Solution Tree, a professional development company that publishes educational materials and provides workshops, conferences, consultations, and online courses.

The PLC at Work method is described by Solution Tree as a way in which educators are able to raise student achievement, including test scores, by implementing three main ideas.

“The first one is a focus on learning, and that is for the adults and the students,” said Lazunia Frierson, Assistant Superintendent of District and School Effectiveness in Houston County. “We’re all learning in order to meet the needs of students and to establish a growth mindset in our students so that they’re achieving at their highest levels.”

The second guiding principle of a PLC at Work is having collaborative culture and collective responsibility.

“We emphasize and allot time for teachers to collaborate,” Frierson said. “Nobody works in isolation; everyone works as a team to ensure the success of our students. So they’re not your students or my students, they’re everybody’s students.”

The third core concept of a PLC is a results orientation.

“Which is probably one of the most important because sometimes in education we focus on our actions, but we have to focus on the results of those actions and practices,” Frierson said. “A Professional Learning Community focuses on the data to determine ‘yes, we introduced the students to the content in the curriculum, we taught the content in the curriculum, but did the students learn it?’”

How Houston earned its accolade

In order to be recognized as a PLC at Work, the school district had to submit an application to the PLC Review Committee that demonstrated its practices, structures and culture. It also had to show that the district’s implementation of PLC concepts has improved student learning by providing data and assessments.

“For a district to be recognized as a model PLC at Work district, we have to provide evidence of practices that have been pervasive throughout the district,” said Frierson. “So in every school in our district, there is a commitment to the PLC process.”

Data on student achievement must be updated every three years and show positive student growth in order to maintain this certification.

Houston County, Bartow County, and Catoosa County are the only three school districts in Georgia that have this recognition. Of the three, Houston is the largest with over 30,000 students.

Though Houston County Schools were just notified of this recognition on April 5, becoming a PLC district has been in the works since PLC practices were first implemented in district schools in 2016. Since then, the district has invested in sending teachers to PLC institutes and conferences in and out of state, as well as bringing Solution Tree presenters to Houston County.

Frierson told the Telegraph that in the years since the district has applied PLC principles, it has seen improved student testing scores and overall achievement.

“All of our learning is focused on our mission, vision, values, and goals for the district,” Frierson said. “And our mission is to produce high achievement for all through continuous growth.”