You may have noticed that students are released early on Wednesdays this year. We want our families and community to know how that time is being used and why we believe it is important for students.

Each Wednesday, our teachers work together in Professional Learning Communities, or PLCs. A PLC is simply a group of teachers meeting regularly to talk about what students are learning, look at student work and assessment results, and decide what needs to happen next.

Teachers are asking very practical questions: What did we want students to learn? Did they learn it? Which students need more help? Which students are ready for something more challenging? Is there something we need to teach differently?

The benefit to students is that teachers do not have to wait until the end of a semester to discover that a student did not understand an important skill. A quiz, writing assignment, classroom activity, test, or other check for understanding can show us much sooner where students are doing well and where they need additional support. Teachers can then adjust instruction, reteach a concept, provide intervention, or offer additional challenges for students who are ready to move ahead.

This time also allows teachers who teach the same or related subjects to learn from one another. If one teacher finds a strategy that is working especially well, the team can discuss it and consider how it might help other students.

Our goal is to create a regular cycle: teach, check student learning, discuss the results, make adjustments, and check again.

That is why we believe Early Release Wednesdays are a good use of our time. Students may leave a little earlier, but our teachers remain at school doing work specifically designed to improve what happens in classrooms the rest of the week.

Ultimately, the purpose is simple: know our students better, understand what they need academically, and help more of them be successful.