ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the process of establishing a professional development community. Each school had a high percentage of black students. In each setting, the achievement of the black male students was a particular concern. Efforts are now being made throughout the United States to improve reading achievement in middle schools and high schools. Establishing a professional-development community is not easy to do, but it is important. Creating learning opportunities and organizational structures that provide time for learning and setting them up in a way that improves reading throughout the school are also important. Schools can become storehouses of achievement when focused professional-development communities are established. The key is to identify the interrelated components of professional development that will result in a comprehensive focus on literacy that builds from year to year. Effective professional development communities require effort in three broad categories— implementation, continuation, and evaluation.
