Abstract
Student growth in reading and mathematics has declined steadily at a small rural elementary campus in East Texas, particularly in grades 4 and 5, even as achievement scores have remained near state averages for grades 3 through 5. This gap between proficiency and progress, compounded by the expiration of pandemic relief funding and increasing state accountability pressure, created an urgent need to evaluate whether existing campus structures were functioning as intended. The purpose of this study, which used an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, was to examine how variation in professional learning community (PLC) implementation was associated with differences in student achievement and growth outcomes in grades 3 through 5 reading and mathematics, and how teacher perceptions of PLC processes helped explain those patterns. Grounded in Improvement Science, the study viewed existing PLC routines as change ideas whose effectiveness depended on how well they fit local campus conditions, not simply on whether they existed. Quantitative data included PLC collaboration ratings from the Teacher Collaboration Assessment Rubric (TCAR) administered across the 2024–2025 and 2025–2026 school years, along with grade-level student achievement and growth data from the Texas Academic Performance Report (TAPR). Qualitative data were gathered through open-ended EVALUATION OF PLC IMPLEMENTATION teacher survey responses to explain and contextualize quantitative patterns. Teacher perceptions of PLC conditions improved across the study period, with the largest gains in structural conditions and shared norms and values, and PLC implementation varied across grade-level teams in ways that corresponded to differences in student growth. Findings are interpreted as descriptive associations and patterns rather than causal effects, and are intended to inform future improvement planning at this campus and offer a replicable evaluation framework for similar rural elementary settings facing comparable accountability pressures.
Date of publication
7-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Language
english
Persistent identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/5142
Committee members
Yanira Oliveras, Ph.D., Jennifer Lane, Ed.D., Woonhee Sung, Ed.D.
Degree
Doctorate in School Improvement
Recommended Citation
Hines, Barbara B., "AN EVALUATION OF PLC IMPLEMENTATION, TEACHER PERCEPTIONS, AND ACHIEVEMENT AND GROWTH IN A RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL" (2026). Education Theses and Dissertations. Paper 50.
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/5142