PLC EXTRA SLICE PD
Choose your Data Lens
A story about data analysis, problem solving,and learning from others.
This is Mr. Vega & Ms. Jenkins. They are working together as a PLC this semester. Mr. Vega has been teaching for 5 years, while Mrs. Jenkins is in her 17th year. They both teach the same course and worked together last year as well, focusing on aligning their unit assessments.
This year they have decided to shift to focusing on data analysis. They have decided to give their next unit test on Monday and meet to look at the data on the following Wednesday.
Their PLC Data Norm is: Data is used to identify patterns in learning and instruction, not to evaluate teachers.
Mr. Vega gives the test on Monday and reviews the results before Wednesday's PLC meeting. His overall test average is a 63%. At a glance, the data feels mixed. Some students performed well but others clearly did not. Mr. Vega pauses and decides how to begin making sense of what he's seeing.
What do you think is the first step for Mr. Vega's individual data analysis?
Mr. Vega flags questions, 3, 5, 8, 9, and 10 for low success rates. He brings this to Ms. Jenkins on Wednesday. When she looks at her data, She finds that her students also performed low on questions 3, 8, 9 and 10 but her students did very well on question 5.
What should they do next?
Mr. Vega realizes that while the overall average was 63%, students mastered Standard #2 (78%) but crashed on Standard #1 and 3 (63% and 43%, respectively). When he meets with Ms. Jenkins, they see that her average for standard 2 is even higher (93%), but her averages for standard 1 and 3 are lower (53% and 40%, respectively). What should they do next?
Hello Mr. Vega, Thank you for letting me know. I helped Kevin study, so I'm very disappointed to hear this. Can you tell me exactly what he missed? I was confident he would do well on this quiz. Was this difficult for everyone? Thanks, Kevin's Dad
Mr. Vega identifies 5 students who scored below a 70% on the assessment and emails their parents. A parent emails him back asking for specific things their student missed (shown on the right). Mr. Vega walks into the PLC meeting with this parent's email on his mind.
What should Alex do?
Mrs. Jenkins explains to Alex how she taught the skill relating to question 5. She points out that she used warm ups on the next few days to reloop that content, because she noticed students struggling in class. Mr. Vega did not do this and thinks that's probably where he went wrong.
What do you think is the best solution?
Reflection
Mr. Vega's class retakes the test, but the outcomes are similar to the first time around (and for some...worse!). When Mrs. Jenkins asks about it at the next meeting, Mr. Vega says he feels like that class is just way lower than any of the others. Mrs. Jenkins tries to share a tip or two, but she can tell Mr. Vega has made up his mind about the class.
1. When it becomes clear your classes have performed lower than others, does it feel like a critique of your worth as a teacher, or an opportunity to borrow a proven tool? What would it take for you to feel safe enough in a PLC to say, "I clearly missed the mark on this standard—walk me through exactly how you did it"? 2. When looking at the low performance of students, how can you shift your focus from what you cannot control (prior knowledge, "low" ability, etc.) to what you can control (teacher moves, scaffolds, supports)?
Their PLC slowly crumbles over the semester. At the end of the semester Mr. Vega requests to only teach honors courses from now on and Mrs. Jenkins offers to teach all CP to keep the peace. Mr. Vega says he is just not good with the "low" students like Mrs. Jenkins is. They will not PLC again together next year.
Click to start over
Reflection
After digging into the specifics of the questions and answer choices, their PLC reaches a breakthrough. They realize that on the two low performing standards the questions were DOK 3 and the only questions practiced consistently in class were DOK 1s and 2s. They decide the higher DOKs are worth keeping, and plan to incorporate more DOK 3 questions in reviews as the semester continues.
1. How does shifting the focus from "the students didn't get this" to "the question/instruction was misaligned change the energy in a PLC meeting? 2. This PLC shifted from viewing every assessment as a "verdict" of the class to seeing them as "experiments" on the class. How would this change impact the way your PLC operates? How does having a PLC/planning partner help make this change easier?
Mr. Vega and Mrs. Jenkins continue to meet reguarly for their PLC. They begin co-creating "Check-For-Understanding" mini-formative assessments that mirror the rigor of the unit test to ensure students are prepared for all DOK levels. By the final exam, the gap in performance between Mr. Vega and Ms. Jenkins has nearly closed.
Click to start over
Reflection
Mr. Vega and Mrs. Jenkins decide that standards 1 and 3 are too critical to just move on without mastering. They decide to pause and pivot for the next three lessons. Mrs. Jenkins shares a graphic organizer that she found and will work through on day 1, and Mr. Vega suggests an online resource he found to help on day 2. On Day 3 they re-test just that skill and the students improve!
1. Choosing to reteach often feels like "falling behind" in your content. When you decide to prioritize standards, how do you weigh the risks of being "behind" against the risk of students lacking that skill? How does a PLC/planning partner help you justify that decision? 2. How do you determine if reteaching was a "success"? Is only a modest improvement going to still feel worth the time you gave up? Why or why not?
Mr. Vega and Mrs. Jenkins continue to PLC in this way. Students notice that the classes are doing the exact same thing more frequently, and realize that the expectations are the same regardless of whose clsasroom they are in. Because they shared the workload, the thought of reteaching these important standards doesn't seem as daunting by the end of the semester.
Click to start over
Mr. Vega states that they just don't have time and suggests they just hope the students pick it up as the go. Mrs. Jenkins agrees to this plan and they continue on with the new unit. Unfortunately, the next unit has an even lower average on the assessment because the "cracks in the foundation" has been widening. Mr. Vega & Mrs. Jenkins both encourage students to come to tutoring to get caught up, but keep moving forward in regular class.
Reflection
1. Throughout your courses, pacing is always an issue in one way or another. How do you balance staying on pace with catering to the needs of the students in your classroom? What personal/professional views motivate you to change pacing or not to? 2. Not every standard is equal. Some are essential to students learning while others can be lower priority. What are some ways to triage "middle of the road" content without completely reteaching or completely moving on?
Mr. Vega and Mrs. Jenkins become "fire fighters" in their PLC meetings, meeting quickly to put out "fires" as they appear with student struggles. Mr. Vega continually says he feels like they are fighting an uphill battle and by the end of the semester is worn out, frustrated, and disappointed by student performance. Mrs. Jenkins chalks this up to another year of low students and moves on.
Click to start over
Mr. Vega and Ms. Jenkins spend their PLC comparing the number of students they have who failed. This conversation drifts to which parents were supportive, frustrated, or non-responsive. They lament these students lack of ability and prior knowledge and spend some time talking about how to better alert parents at the beginning of the semester to get these students placed more appropriately. Since "the ball is in the students' court", they move on to planning the next unit.
Reflection
1. Remember, part of this PLC data norm was "data is used to identify patterns in learning and instruction". In this scenario, the pattern in instruction turned into a pattern of people. What are some ways to shift back to thinking of instruction, so the focus stays on things you can control? 2. When a parent receives a notification that their child is failing a unit, what is the most helpful "next steps" a teacher can provide? What does your email home typically sound like?
Mr. Vega and Mrs. Jenkins continue each unit in a similar fashion. Kevin's dad grows more and more frustrated, eventually pulling in an administrator. Mr. Vega grows frustrated and resentful towards Mrs. Jenkins, who seems to have all the "easy" parents this semester. At the end of the year, the conversations happening in their meetings are mainly negative.
Click to start over
Mr. Vega mentioned the email to Mrs. Vega and spends the first few minutes talking about how "distracted" the students seemed this unit. Mrs. Jenkins nods, notiing that her students struggled with vocab in the second half of the test. They chat for a abit about which questoins felt hard and agree that next unit usually goes better. At the end of their meeting they pivot to looking at the next unit and planning for next week's lessons.
Reflection
1. This meeting was supportive and helped make Mr. Vega feel better about the email. What benefits have you seen in having a safe space to share these anecdotal observations with a colleague? 2. This PLC wasn't bad, but it also wasn't stretching either of the teachers to growth. In high-stress semester, what are the pros and cons of keeping a PLC "neutral"? Are some times better than other to attempt to have a "break through" with your PLC practice?
Mr. Vega and Mrs. Jenkins continue to plan throughout the semester together. They already knew they worked well in this aspect, and this semester is no exception. They feel their meetings are productive and helpful for each of them to just get a better picture of their classes in relation to the others'. The PLC continues to stick together next semester too.
Click to start over
Mr. Vega puts this idea into practice in his room, using a "think-aloud" strategy to reintroduce a question on the topic the next day in a warm up and continuing putting a question covering that standard in the warm ups or exit tickets randomly. He puts two similar questions on the next assessment to see if the gap is closing. By the end of the next unit, Mr. Vega's students have grown to nearly meet Mrs. Jenkin's students' original proficiency.
Reflection
1. In this path, you chose to "spiral" the content into warm ups rather than stopping the calendar for a full re-teach. How does this approach help you balance pacing requirements with student mastery? When might this not be enough for students? 2. By adding questions to future assessments, you are treating data as a "long term tracker" rather than a one-time verdict. How does this "long game" perspective change the way you feel when you see initial low scores? How can this help your PLC as a whole?
Mr. Vega is very happy with the results of this change. Their PLC continues to work well together, finding other ways to creatively support students together without it feeling like "extra work" or a complete change of pace. Mr. Vega and Mrs. Jenkins both feel supported and encouraged by their PLC meetings and look foward to continuing their work together next semester.
Click to start over
Choose your Data Lens
Brittany Slaughter
Created on February 27, 2026
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Transcript
PLC EXTRA SLICE PD
Choose your Data Lens
A story about data analysis, problem solving,and learning from others.
This is Mr. Vega & Ms. Jenkins. They are working together as a PLC this semester. Mr. Vega has been teaching for 5 years, while Mrs. Jenkins is in her 17th year. They both teach the same course and worked together last year as well, focusing on aligning their unit assessments.
This year they have decided to shift to focusing on data analysis. They have decided to give their next unit test on Monday and meet to look at the data on the following Wednesday.
Their PLC Data Norm is: Data is used to identify patterns in learning and instruction, not to evaluate teachers.
Mr. Vega gives the test on Monday and reviews the results before Wednesday's PLC meeting. His overall test average is a 63%. At a glance, the data feels mixed. Some students performed well but others clearly did not. Mr. Vega pauses and decides how to begin making sense of what he's seeing.
What do you think is the first step for Mr. Vega's individual data analysis?
Mr. Vega flags questions, 3, 5, 8, 9, and 10 for low success rates. He brings this to Ms. Jenkins on Wednesday. When she looks at her data, She finds that her students also performed low on questions 3, 8, 9 and 10 but her students did very well on question 5.
What should they do next?
Mr. Vega realizes that while the overall average was 63%, students mastered Standard #2 (78%) but crashed on Standard #1 and 3 (63% and 43%, respectively). When he meets with Ms. Jenkins, they see that her average for standard 2 is even higher (93%), but her averages for standard 1 and 3 are lower (53% and 40%, respectively). What should they do next?
Hello Mr. Vega, Thank you for letting me know. I helped Kevin study, so I'm very disappointed to hear this. Can you tell me exactly what he missed? I was confident he would do well on this quiz. Was this difficult for everyone? Thanks, Kevin's Dad
Mr. Vega identifies 5 students who scored below a 70% on the assessment and emails their parents. A parent emails him back asking for specific things their student missed (shown on the right). Mr. Vega walks into the PLC meeting with this parent's email on his mind.
What should Alex do?
Mrs. Jenkins explains to Alex how she taught the skill relating to question 5. She points out that she used warm ups on the next few days to reloop that content, because she noticed students struggling in class. Mr. Vega did not do this and thinks that's probably where he went wrong.
What do you think is the best solution?
Reflection
Mr. Vega's class retakes the test, but the outcomes are similar to the first time around (and for some...worse!). When Mrs. Jenkins asks about it at the next meeting, Mr. Vega says he feels like that class is just way lower than any of the others. Mrs. Jenkins tries to share a tip or two, but she can tell Mr. Vega has made up his mind about the class.
1. When it becomes clear your classes have performed lower than others, does it feel like a critique of your worth as a teacher, or an opportunity to borrow a proven tool? What would it take for you to feel safe enough in a PLC to say, "I clearly missed the mark on this standard—walk me through exactly how you did it"? 2. When looking at the low performance of students, how can you shift your focus from what you cannot control (prior knowledge, "low" ability, etc.) to what you can control (teacher moves, scaffolds, supports)?
Their PLC slowly crumbles over the semester. At the end of the semester Mr. Vega requests to only teach honors courses from now on and Mrs. Jenkins offers to teach all CP to keep the peace. Mr. Vega says he is just not good with the "low" students like Mrs. Jenkins is. They will not PLC again together next year.
Click to start over
Reflection
After digging into the specifics of the questions and answer choices, their PLC reaches a breakthrough. They realize that on the two low performing standards the questions were DOK 3 and the only questions practiced consistently in class were DOK 1s and 2s. They decide the higher DOKs are worth keeping, and plan to incorporate more DOK 3 questions in reviews as the semester continues.
1. How does shifting the focus from "the students didn't get this" to "the question/instruction was misaligned change the energy in a PLC meeting? 2. This PLC shifted from viewing every assessment as a "verdict" of the class to seeing them as "experiments" on the class. How would this change impact the way your PLC operates? How does having a PLC/planning partner help make this change easier?
Mr. Vega and Mrs. Jenkins continue to meet reguarly for their PLC. They begin co-creating "Check-For-Understanding" mini-formative assessments that mirror the rigor of the unit test to ensure students are prepared for all DOK levels. By the final exam, the gap in performance between Mr. Vega and Ms. Jenkins has nearly closed.
Click to start over
Reflection
Mr. Vega and Mrs. Jenkins decide that standards 1 and 3 are too critical to just move on without mastering. They decide to pause and pivot for the next three lessons. Mrs. Jenkins shares a graphic organizer that she found and will work through on day 1, and Mr. Vega suggests an online resource he found to help on day 2. On Day 3 they re-test just that skill and the students improve!
1. Choosing to reteach often feels like "falling behind" in your content. When you decide to prioritize standards, how do you weigh the risks of being "behind" against the risk of students lacking that skill? How does a PLC/planning partner help you justify that decision? 2. How do you determine if reteaching was a "success"? Is only a modest improvement going to still feel worth the time you gave up? Why or why not?
Mr. Vega and Mrs. Jenkins continue to PLC in this way. Students notice that the classes are doing the exact same thing more frequently, and realize that the expectations are the same regardless of whose clsasroom they are in. Because they shared the workload, the thought of reteaching these important standards doesn't seem as daunting by the end of the semester.
Click to start over
Mr. Vega states that they just don't have time and suggests they just hope the students pick it up as the go. Mrs. Jenkins agrees to this plan and they continue on with the new unit. Unfortunately, the next unit has an even lower average on the assessment because the "cracks in the foundation" has been widening. Mr. Vega & Mrs. Jenkins both encourage students to come to tutoring to get caught up, but keep moving forward in regular class.
Reflection
1. Throughout your courses, pacing is always an issue in one way or another. How do you balance staying on pace with catering to the needs of the students in your classroom? What personal/professional views motivate you to change pacing or not to? 2. Not every standard is equal. Some are essential to students learning while others can be lower priority. What are some ways to triage "middle of the road" content without completely reteaching or completely moving on?
Mr. Vega and Mrs. Jenkins become "fire fighters" in their PLC meetings, meeting quickly to put out "fires" as they appear with student struggles. Mr. Vega continually says he feels like they are fighting an uphill battle and by the end of the semester is worn out, frustrated, and disappointed by student performance. Mrs. Jenkins chalks this up to another year of low students and moves on.
Click to start over
Mr. Vega and Ms. Jenkins spend their PLC comparing the number of students they have who failed. This conversation drifts to which parents were supportive, frustrated, or non-responsive. They lament these students lack of ability and prior knowledge and spend some time talking about how to better alert parents at the beginning of the semester to get these students placed more appropriately. Since "the ball is in the students' court", they move on to planning the next unit.
Reflection
1. Remember, part of this PLC data norm was "data is used to identify patterns in learning and instruction". In this scenario, the pattern in instruction turned into a pattern of people. What are some ways to shift back to thinking of instruction, so the focus stays on things you can control? 2. When a parent receives a notification that their child is failing a unit, what is the most helpful "next steps" a teacher can provide? What does your email home typically sound like?
Mr. Vega and Mrs. Jenkins continue each unit in a similar fashion. Kevin's dad grows more and more frustrated, eventually pulling in an administrator. Mr. Vega grows frustrated and resentful towards Mrs. Jenkins, who seems to have all the "easy" parents this semester. At the end of the year, the conversations happening in their meetings are mainly negative.
Click to start over
Mr. Vega mentioned the email to Mrs. Vega and spends the first few minutes talking about how "distracted" the students seemed this unit. Mrs. Jenkins nods, notiing that her students struggled with vocab in the second half of the test. They chat for a abit about which questoins felt hard and agree that next unit usually goes better. At the end of their meeting they pivot to looking at the next unit and planning for next week's lessons.
Reflection
1. This meeting was supportive and helped make Mr. Vega feel better about the email. What benefits have you seen in having a safe space to share these anecdotal observations with a colleague? 2. This PLC wasn't bad, but it also wasn't stretching either of the teachers to growth. In high-stress semester, what are the pros and cons of keeping a PLC "neutral"? Are some times better than other to attempt to have a "break through" with your PLC practice?
Mr. Vega and Mrs. Jenkins continue to plan throughout the semester together. They already knew they worked well in this aspect, and this semester is no exception. They feel their meetings are productive and helpful for each of them to just get a better picture of their classes in relation to the others'. The PLC continues to stick together next semester too.
Click to start over
Mr. Vega puts this idea into practice in his room, using a "think-aloud" strategy to reintroduce a question on the topic the next day in a warm up and continuing putting a question covering that standard in the warm ups or exit tickets randomly. He puts two similar questions on the next assessment to see if the gap is closing. By the end of the next unit, Mr. Vega's students have grown to nearly meet Mrs. Jenkin's students' original proficiency.
Reflection
1. In this path, you chose to "spiral" the content into warm ups rather than stopping the calendar for a full re-teach. How does this approach help you balance pacing requirements with student mastery? When might this not be enough for students? 2. By adding questions to future assessments, you are treating data as a "long term tracker" rather than a one-time verdict. How does this "long game" perspective change the way you feel when you see initial low scores? How can this help your PLC as a whole?
Mr. Vega is very happy with the results of this change. Their PLC continues to work well together, finding other ways to creatively support students together without it feeling like "extra work" or a complete change of pace. Mr. Vega and Mrs. Jenkins both feel supported and encouraged by their PLC meetings and look foward to continuing their work together next semester.
Click to start over