Five Keys to Leading PLCs That Analyze and Plan from Instructional Resources

Campus administrators and instructional coaches consistently consider how to make Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) meaningful. The most effective PLCs focus on student learning and use instructional resources as a foundation for analysis and planning.

The five keys below provide a framework for structuring PLCs that are impactful, data-driven, and grounded in professional learning. Each key is supported by research and includes an embedded quote to help you integrate evidence-based language into your leadership practice.

1. Establish a clear, shared focus on student learning through instructional resources.

   
   

Strong PLCs begin with a shared mission around what students need to learn and how instructional resources will support that learning. According to Hanover Research, “establishing a strong common mission is the first important component for creating a framework and instructional culture conducive to effective PLC work.”

In practice, this means teams explicitly unpack standards, review curriculum materials, and align pacing, tasks, and assessments with those standards. Leaders play a critical role in ensuring that instructional materials (textbooks, digital platforms, unit guides) are standards aligned, accessible, and central to collaborative planning. 

Learning List’s Alignment Reports can help educators identify precisely where their instructional material aligns to each of the standards they are planning to teach.

2. Promote structured collaboration around the instructional cycle. 

   
   

Teachers need more than time together. They need a recursive process that leads them from standards analysis to planning, data analysis and reflection. Instruction Partners suggests structuring PLC meetings around these four professional learning strategies: 

• Unit internalization – "Teachers study a unit to deeply understand what students are expected to learn, how students will be assessed, and the unit’s arc of learning unit frameworks.

• Lesson preparation – "Teachers study the lesson to understand what students are expected to learn, then use that understanding to make decisions about how to deliver the lesson content.”

• Student work analysis – "Teachers analyze student work to norm on expectations for student mastery, identify trends in mastery within their classes, and determine how to address students’ needs.” 

• Observation & feedback – "Instructional leaders observe teachers to identify trends in execution, then follow up to support improvement.”

  
  

Leaders should scaffold each step, model facilitation, and ensure agenda fidelity so that resources are not simply glanced at, but become the engine for planning.

3. Use instructional materials as a lens for data-informed decision making.

   
   

Instructional resources should anchor data discussions in PLCs. Rather than reviewing data in isolation, effective teams examine student work tied to specific lessons and units. 

According to Cognia, the PLC model “ensures teams clarify the essential learnings for each course, grade level, and unit of instruction; establish consistent pacing; create frequent common assessments … and agree on the criteria they will use to judge the quality of student work.” (Cognia)

Administrators and coaches can strengthen these efforts by creating shared protocols that link the resource to student work. Encourage teachers to ask:

• Did the resource provide meaningful tasks or questions? 

• How are students responding to those tasks?

• What adjustments to the resource or instruction are needed?

  
  

When PLCs use instructional materials as a lens for analysis, planning becomes purposeful and directly tied to student outcomes. 

4. Build teacher agency through guided leadership and support.

   
   

Instructional leaders must strike a balance between guiding PLC work and empowering teacher-leaders within the teams. Research identifies “shared and supportive leadership; shared values and vision; collective learning and its application; shared personal practice; and supportive conditions” as essential dimensions of PLCs. (ERIC)

For example, instructional coaches might first model how to use the teacher edition of a curriculum resource, then gradually release facilitation to a teacher-leader. Administrators might rotate leadership roles within PLCs to help teachers grow into leadership positions. Shared leadership builds buy-in, strengthens collaboration, and ensures sustained, resource-based planning fidelity.

5. Monitor implementation and refine continuously.

   
   

High-functioning PLCs continuously monitor how instructional resources are used in classrooms. They track fidelity, analyze student outcomes, and make ongoing adjustments. As a recent Frontiers in Education study explains, “continuous collaborative reflection on teaching practices helps teachers refine the implementation of instructional approaches and build capacity for sustainable improvement.”

Leaders can:

• Use walkthroughs or peer-visits to observe how resources are being implemented.

• Build PLC agenda items around “what we learned this week from the resource and what we will adjust next week.”

• Celebrate when teams adjust pacing, differentiate tasks, or refine lessons based on student work.

  
  

Sustainability comes when PLCs become the mechanism for continuous improvement of both instruction and the instructional resources themselves.

Conclusion

For campus administrators and instructional coaches seeking to lead PLCs that genuinely analyze and plan from instructional resources, these five keys provide a strategic roadmap. Start with a shared mission aligned to resources. Build structured collaboration around the resource cycle and anchor data conversations in student work tied to resources. Foster teacher-led yet supported leadership and iterate implementation through continuous monitoring. When PLCs operate this way, instructional resources become living tools rather than static documents, and teacher teams drive deeper student learning.