Enhancing School Readiness of a Private Basic Education School in Metro Manila for Professional Learning Communities

Professional Learning Communities or PLCs became America’s response to the isolation endemic to its teaching profession in the 1960s. A reform that endured to this day without a universal definition, PLCs are now being integrated in more schools in the United States than ever before as collaborative learning is recognized in US school systems as the main strategy for professional growth. In the Philippines, professional learning community practices in public schools were promoted by the Department of Education as a school-based continuing professional development strategy to support the K12 reform in 2016 (DepEd Order No. 35, s. 2016). At this time, some private schools also introduced professional learning communities as a professional development strategy. As PLCs are on the rise due to its success stories and its connection with professional development, an investigation into its implementation in private basic education schools is timely to enhance school readiness for PLCs. Thus, this study aimed to provide data that could enhance school readiness of a private basic education school for professional learning communities by investigating the perceptions of administrators and teachers with respect to Culture, Leadership, Teaching, and Professional Growth and Development using the Professional Learning Communities School Instrument designed by Raymond B. Williams, Ken Brien, and Janelle LeBlanc (2012). The study used a descriptive methodology, using a survey to describe the characteristics of groups and statistical analysis to establish the reliability of the instrument and determine the significant difference, if any, between perceptions of the groups. v This study revealed that administrators perceived that the school has a learning organization approach in the characteristics of Culture, Leadership, Teaching, and Professional Growth and Development. Teachers perceived that the school has a learning organization approach in the characteristics of Culture, Teaching, and Professional Growth and Development., Teaching, and Professional Growth and Development. The teachers also perceived that the school has neither a learning organization approach nor a bureaucratic approach in the characteristic of Leadership. In addition, the study revealed that there was no significant difference between the administrators’ and teachers’ perceptions on Culture. However, there were significant differences between the administrators’ and teachers’ perceptions in the areas of Leadership, Teaching, and Professional Growth and Development. Finally, the study revealed that the administrators perceived the areas of Culture, Leadership, Teaching, and Professional Growth and Development as strengths while teachers perceived these areas as strengths on some statements that characterized these areas. The administrators and teachers had no barriers to report. While this may be true, it is worthwhile to note that both groups identified items and statements that fell below and were very close to the 60% threshold for strengths and the 30% threshold for barriers with teachers identifying more items than administrators