The Clear Lake Community School District has been designated a Professional Learning Community at Work school district by Solution Tree.

“A professional Learning Community is an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry in action research to achieve better results for students they serve.  Professional Learning Communities operate under the assumption that the key  to improved learning for students is continuous job-embedded learning for educators.”

“When a school or district functions as a PLC, educators within the organization embrace high levels of learning for ALL students as both the reason the organization exists and the fundamental responsibility of those that work within it”  -Rick DuFour

Our Strengths

• Commitment to ensure all teachers, at all levels and subjects, are included in meaningful collaborative teams.
• Use of multiple forms of data to measure growth in student achievement.
• Unwillingness to settle for being a very good district, and instead committing to ensure the success of all.

The Three Big Ideas That Drive the Work of PLCs

• A Focus on Learning
• A Collaborative Culture
• A Results Orientation

Four Questions that ALL Collaborative Teams Use to Drive Instruction

    1. What do we want the students to know?

    2. How will we know if they know it?

    3. What will we do if students do not learn it?

    4. What will we do if students already know it?

These all work to drive our mission statement: “To Ensure a High Level of Learning For All Students”

AWARDS

• Clear Creek Elementary PLTW Distinguished School Award for implementing the PLTW Launch.  Clear Creek uses the PLTW launch to meet the new Next Generation Science Standards.
• Two of our TLC coaches are master PLTW instructors and are regular presenters at National PLTW Summits.
• Our Superintendent, Mr. Gee was asked to present at the PLTW National Summit in November 2019 on how to grow PLTW programs in a small community.
• Clear Lake also started a new computer science program three years ago and has continued to expand it.  Clear Lake is one of 10 school districts in Iowa that teaches computer science in all grades.  We use the PLTW Computer Science curriculum in the high school and are continuing to expand this in the middle school.
• We have also started a new PLTW Biomed strand in high school.
• Awarded over $30,000 over the last two years for the Iowa Department of Education Computer Science PD grant.
• We started a new Agricultural Science and FFA program in 2019-20 and are extremely successful with over 120 students in high school FFA after two years.
• One of ten schools in Iowa with a Registered Apprenticeship Program and now have two areas: welding and general construction.
• Awarded the Governor's STEM Best Award two years in a row.
• A group of educators was invited to speak at the Governor’s Future Ready Iowa Summit in April 2019 on our Preschool PLTW Launch module.  Clear Lake is the only school in Iowa doing PLTW Launch in preschool.
• Superintendent was asked by the Iowa Department of Education and Governor’s Office to be on a task force to develop a template for continuous learning for schools to use during the COVID-19 Pandemic shutdown (March - June 2020).