Social Capital in Professional Learning Communities

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate if the social capital of teachers within Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) increases student reading achievement. Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have received little attention in sociology of education research. Drawing on organizational sociology, this research proposes a model of PLC social capital that treats brokerage (external ties) and closure (internal ties) as the key dimensions of team functioning as proposed by Ron Burt (2005). The model brings together insights from the limited research concerning how PLCs increase student achievement, and analyzes how the internal and external ties affect team function. Furthermore, using social capital theory, the model recasts the internal and external relationships within PLC as the building blocks of a unifying theoretical framework. OLS cross-sectional analysis will focus on answering the following questions. * What is the effect of PLC social capital on student achievement? * Where does innovation outside of the PLC come from? * What is the catalyst of successful PLCs? * How does the interaction of the degree of closure and the degree of brokerage foster a PLC's ability to increase student achievement? This research will test the model using survey and student data of more than 7,500 students from a representative sample of 26 elementary schools in a large first-ring suburban school district. Analysis was of 162 PLCs. The analysis not only explores brokerage and closure patterns among PLCs, but examines the effect of PLC social capital on student academic outcomes. Results show a statistically significant increase in student reading performance and can be attributed to PLCs, where teams exhibit high levels of both brokerage and closure.