Why you should create a community

Making changes to one’s practice is complicated, especially when the catalyst for change comes from outside one’s classroom. Learning communities return power to teachers. Effective communities promote a climate of supportive account­ability. Teachers engaged in them determine their own goals, and support one another in achieving those goals through a process of experimentation, feedback, and revision. A learning community is especially potent for teachers in the arts, who are often the only specialist at their school.

Because its activity is ongoing, the learning community model allows for gradual and examined change. This makes it especially effective in aiding transformations that shift one’s practice through the integration of new concepts or instructional moves. If the community is structured well and is supported by quality tools and protocols, it can function smoothly without adding too much time to a teacher’s schedule.

How to create your own learning community

The most effective learning communities are focused on student achievement and utilize research-based methodologies to support their continuous improvement. 

1. It begins as each practitioner identifies their inquiry or wondering into student learning—what counts.

2. The learning community provides feedback on the practitioner’s research.

3. The practitioner revises and improves instruction as a result.

1. Set a goal.

Action research and reflection on its results should not be haphazard. Before you start, it’s important to identify the who, why, what, and how of what you’re studying so you can make your research visible. 

2. Assess Prior Knowledge.

Where are they now? Next, we gauge our students’ distance from the goal by assess­ing what they currently know and can do. 

3. Formulate an Inquiry

How will I address the gap? Then, we can ask what instructional or formative assessment strategy might best enable students to cross a gap.

4. Design and Implement

How will I address the gap? Now we can design and implement a plan of action. The teacher applies the chosen strategy to their practice.

5. Collect Evidence

How will I address the gap? While students learn through the chosen strategy, we document the process in the best and most appropriate way

6. Reflect & Revise

Did the strategy address the gap? Documentation allows us to examine our own practices, solicit feedback, and make informed decisions about adjustments.

7. Repeat

What do I want my students to achieve? Once we see improvement in student learning, we are motivated to set a new goal, and start the cycle again!

Between 2008 and 2017, Artful Learning Communities (ALC) configured several communities of New York City K–12 arts educators, and saw remarkable results. It is this work that the Connected Arts Networks program was built upon. 

In these learning communities programs NYC PS arts teachers engaged in action research focused on the implementation of formative assessment strategies to improve arts learning. Action research provided a structure in which to ask: Does formative assessment change teacher practice and improve student achievement in the arts? Our teacher research revealed that the answer was a resounding yes!

These educators—more than 200 music, dance, theater, and visual arts specialists— implemented formative assessment practices in economically disadvantaged schools. Like many arts specialists, some of them taught more than 600 students across five grades per week. 

All of the ALC arts teachers reported improvements in their own teaching and increases in student achievement. Most also reported that students had grown more motivated and interested in their own learning processes. Teachers credited much of this to their implementation of formative assessment strategies, but they also noted that the sup- port of their communities was integral to their success.

Formative assessment was new to them, and some were resistant at first. Learning communities broke down their isolation and provided support from experienced peers. The majority of members were also personally accountable to the process because they felt ownership of their research and were committed to their colleagues. The learning community model invested trust in the teachers and engaged them in an action research process that helped them to transform their teaching practice and enhance student achievement in the arts.

The results of this work can be found on our collaborative partner ArtsConnection's Arts Assessment for Learning site.

• 2005 “Art of Teaching”, which was inspired by the new NYC Blueprints for Teaching and Learning in the Arts.

• 2008, NYCDOE launched “Artful Learning Communities.” This initiative, funded by a US DOE PDAE grant, formally established PLCs of arts teachers within the same arts discipline and grade levels from across districts to collaborate and learn from each other.

• 2011 and 2015 “Artful Learning Communities” was groundbreaking and so successful that it led to two additional grants from the US DOE: Artful Learning Communities II, and “Connected Learning Communities” which expanded the model to include virtual PLCs.

• 2010 ArtsAchieve an i3 federal grant along with an Arts Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) that expanded upon previous grant work and focused on balanced assessment, teacher practice and student achievement.

• 2015 “Arts Mondays,” an initiative launched in the Fall of 2015 and supported by the Chancellor firmly established the PLC model across the city and expanded the work of PLCs grounded in inquiry and action research and supporting teacher leadership.

• 2015, the Arts Facilitator Institute was established as part of the Arts Mondays, Connected Learning Communities grant. At its height, over 100 teacher leaders facilitated more than 80 PLCs that met once a month on Monday afternoon, attended by approximately 700 arts educators across the 35 districts of NYC public schools.

• 2017, NYCArts, a virtual professional learning space, was launched to support the work of the Arts Mondays PLCs. This offered Arts Mondays members synchronous and asynchronous professional development, virtual sharing and collaboration opportunities, and recognition of advancement in the form of badging and Continuing Education Credit.