Improving the Instructional Core at Scale

This case study examines how one school district in California scaled a structured, data-driven approach to teacher collaboration to improve instruction and student outcomes districtwide. Over the last 8 years, Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) has implemented the Professional Learning Community (PLC) at Work model across all schools in the district, strengthening teacher leadership, deepening teachers’ use of student data to inform instruction, and fostering sustained collaboration among educators—all of which have contributed to notable gains in student achievement. The district’s ability to scale the model was anchored by district leadership and their partnership with the teachers’ union, which helped launch and sustain the district’s focus on improving teaching and learning, despite disruptions due to COVID closures and contentious local school board politics. CVUSD applied Richard Elmore’s framework for scaling good educational practice, which identifies four key district-level strategies for systemwide instructional improvement: (a) establishing a coherent framework of effective practice, (b) launching with an explicit scaling strategy, (c) strengthening organizational focus on improving teaching and learning, and (d) building opportunities and incentives for continuous improvement.

    The district:

1. Articulated a shared vision of effective practice anchored in the three key norms for effective PLCs at Work: (a) a focus on student learning, (b) a culture of collaboration, and (c) a results-oriented approach. Educators routinely met in collaborative teams to establish goals for student learning, design assessments, analyze data, and adjust instruction.
2. Designed systems to scale improvements in student learning districtwide, focusing on creating coherent infrastructure. Providing scheduled time for collaboration, sustained coaching, and consistent leadership enabled reliable scaling of effective practices across the district’s 37 schools, which serve more than 25,000 students.
3. Created the conditions to build capacity and motivate improvement, establishing structures, processes, and resources—such as institutes, guiding coalitions, and rubrics for collaboration—to foster peer learning and problem-solving districtwide. CVUSD invested in shared professional development and peer accountability to bring all educators into the work of continuous improvement.
4. Finally, CVUSD institutionalized processes for continuous systemwide learning and adaptation. Through feedback loops and shared data use, the district cultivated a culture of reflection and processes to reexamine its own priorities and strategies. New staff are onboarded with training in the PLC model, and ongoing professional learning is available to support distributed leadership across the system.

As California continues to prioritize learning recovery and equity, CVUSD’s experience illustrates how districts can build coherent systems that strengthen teacher collaboration, enabling educators to work collectively to advance student learning.