WASHINGTON — Washington Fields Intermediate School is a nationally designated Model Professional Learning Community School.

“This distinguished designation is reserved for select schools across the country that demonstrate exemplary levels of student achievement and continuous growth over a 3-year period,” in relation to the requirements outlined by Bob Sonju, former principal and current Washington County School District Consultant.

The desired designation originated from Solution Tree, LLC. This company is a leading expert in K-12 education. Through extensive research and studies, the company offers training and workshops to better the results of educational pursuits for students and teachers worldwide.

One of the main concepts of Solution Tree is PLC or Professional Learning Community, which has been verified by research as a highly efficient and successful method of providing better education and student growth.

Washington Fields Intermediate opened its doors to students on Aug. 12, 2019. Immediately the professional learning community national educational movement started allowing for the school to get the national designation in the minimum time possible, three years.

“You have to be open for three years and have to show three years of growth and data,” Sheline Miller, the school’s learning coach, said. “We built that culture from the beginning. We started the process running being a new school and knowing what we wanted.”‘

The professional learning community program is student-oriented, collaborative and data-based. While emphasizing these elements, the following four questions are continually asked while  applying the culture of the concept:

• What do we want our students to really know, understand and learn?
• How are we going to know if they are learning it?
• What are we going to do if they are not?
• How are we going to extend the learning for those students who do know it?

“It’s basically a culture that we have developed, created, and live by,” Miller said.

The designation as a “model PLC school” is not set in stone, though. The staff who worked on the coordination efforts of the concept program, known as the vision team, focused their attention on the mandatory requirement that they maintain professional learning culture and data.

To be considered for the award, the vision team had to submit an application with data that included test scores of both standard and class tests and chosen norms and goals. Written plans for such things as responses to intervention for students who are not seeing growth were also included.

The submission outlines the process they collaborate as teachers and teams, going over all different aspects and plans of action the school had implemented. The submission consisted of about 10-15 pages.

The vision teams is comprised of teachers, staff, the principal, parents, a district administrator and a PTA representative.

“Our staff is top-notch,” Miller said. “Bob (principal Sonju) was able to lead us, but they were the ones on the ground, doing the work, making mistakes, learning from the mistakes and getting better to help our students to learn.”

Vice Principal Jaye Brackett highlighted the competency and productivity of the first-rate staff.

“They were not forced to do it, but they all wanted to do it,” Brackett said.

The PLC culture the school has developed promotes parent involvement in a positive light with a strong communication base has been the main consensus on feedback gathered from parents and the local community.

Language arts teacher and vision team member Maren Powers found the communication between parents and the sustaining of the designation of vast importance.

“Advocacy and the teachers working together to get that growth is a big piece of that PLC,” Powers said. “It truly, really is working together as a team rather than just stand-alone.”

Powers was a 2020 recipient of the Rebecca Burnette DuFour Scholarship, a national award that recognizes 10 women educators for leadership within the community.

The evidence of the growth is prevalent in the numbers. This past year, the students at Washington Fields in language arts, math and science performed 11-28% higher than the state average and 9-21% over the district average.

Washington Fields Intermediate now joins 16 schools statewide with the same national designation, while Washington County School District boasts the following notable PLC schools: Fossil Ridge Intermediate, Crimson View Elementary, Bloomington Hills Elementary, Desert Hills Middle, Panorama Elementary and Lava Ridge Intermediate all have the same designation.

So what’s next for the school? Principal Brad Christensen said among other goals, the staff will focus on student success.

“We are going to continue the work that Washington Fields has done for three years because it is what is important for the kids,” he said. “It is what is right. That’s why we are in education to see that. To see kids succeed.”

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.