OUR STORY

“What is the OBSERVABLE impact of our PLC time and professional learning?”

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As a district leader, school leader or classroom teacher, if you find yourself contemplating this question, you would not be alone. Thousands of districts across North America have spent time, effort and resources over the last two decades to create embedded time within the school day for educators to collaborate. And while the RESEARCH behind professional learning and educators collaborating to improve their teaching is clear, the PRACTICE and the IMPACT of professional learning and collaborative time can be foggy for educators at all levels of the system. At the Learner FIRST Center for Observable Impact, we help educators connect their collaborative work and professional learning to OBSERVABLE IMPACT, the changes in practice that students, educators, district staff and community members can OBSERVE in our schools and classrooms that lead to positive outcomes for ALL students.”.

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The Observable Impact Model is based on the books “PLC 2.0 - Collaborating for Observable Impact” and “The PLC 2.0 Toolkit” by Cale Birk and Dr. Garth Larson. We help educators and leaders to build collective teacher efficacy by connecting their actions to classroom impact using the guiding questions of the Observable Impact Model:

• What’s our co-created, observable vision?  

• What’s our evidence-based reality? 

• What’s our learning?  

• What’s our action?

• What’s our observable impact on our vision?

• What is our customized support?

Jenni Donohoo, world thought leader, expert and author of Collective Efficacy has said this about PLC 2.0 and the Observable Impact Model:

“Collective efficacy is strengthened when teams see the result of their combined efforts, and they will do so by engaging in the PLC 2.0 process. PLC 2.0 is the impetus needed to collectively move districts, schools and PLCs to observable impact.”

The Learning FIRST Center for Observable Impact empowers collaborative team leaders, school leaders and district leaders to develop the capacity of their PLC teams to connect their actions to impact where it matters the most--in classrooms with students and educators.  And now, the tools and protocols of the PLC 2.0 Toolkit and the Observable Impact Model are being used by districts from New Mexico, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Florida, Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Texas and Hawaii along with British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec to transform their leadership and collaboration focus from ‘action’ to OBSERVABLE IMPACT.

MISSION

The Learner FIRST Center for Observable Impact empowers educators to connect their actions to impact that can be observed by anyone and make the difference for everyone that they serve in their school communities.

VISION

When we: 

• Co-create a vision that is accessible and observable by all members of our community; 

• Use this vision to guide us in developing a deep, empathetic understanding of our current, evidence-based reality;

• Transform the challenges that stand between our vision and our reality into the learning that our community needs us to do next;

• Apply this learning by collaboratively designing, implementing and observing promising practices and the patterns of impact that those practices have on closing the vision-reality gap for each of our diverse learners; 

• Move from a focus on ‘action’ to a focus on ‘connecting our actions to impact on each of our learners’ 

Then we will see educators building their collective efficacy by consistently examining the impact of their actions on each learner and demonstrating practices that close the vision-reality gap and can be observed and be articulated by our school community

Our Team

Garth Larson

Cale Birk