At Aspen Elementary, collaboration is producing measurable results for students.
Aspen Elementary teachers and staff were recognized August 14 for earning the PLC Promising Practices designation after years of strengthening how educators collaborate and respond to student learning at their school. Hillary Cooper, Solution Tree director of educational partnerships for the West Region, joined faculty members at the school to celebrate the achievement and recognize their commitment to students.
“We are thrilled! We have worked hard the past four years, and each year we made a significant step towards becoming a stronger Professional Learning Community (PLC),” Principal Julie van Dijk said. “I'm proud of my teachers, our aides, our PLC coach, and our staff for the ways they have made a difference in our students' lives.”
The Promising Practices designation recognizes schools that demonstrate a commitment to the PLC at Work process and provide evidence that those practices are improving student learning. Only a select few Utah schools have earned this designation. At Aspen, that improvement is visible in the school’s data.
A Focus on Student Learning
Schoolwide student achievement data showed growth during the 2024-25 school year, increasing from 68.6% at the beginning of the year to 73.9% at the end — a 5.3 percentage-point gain.The percentage of multilingual learners making adequate progress also increased from 25% to 66.7%.
“Working in a PLC has changed collaboration from simply coordinating schedules to deeply analyzing student data and working together to improve learning,” fourth-grade teacher Earlet Meiners said. “The PLC process has made our teaching more intentional, collaborative, and responsive to individual student needs.”
Aspen has made several intentional changes during its PLC journey. The school introduced Eagle Time in 2023-24, providing dedicated intervention and extension time with support from four trained aides. Teacher teams also strengthened their use of student learning goals and data.
Last school year, Aspen added a master schedule with 120 minutes of literacy instruction, including protected time for core classroom instruction and additional targeted support for students who need it. Forty percent of students with IEPs made typical or increased growth during the year.
“Our collaboration is focused on student learning,” van Dijk said. “We talk about data. We plan how to help those students who have not mastered an essential standard. We also plan for the students who have already mastered the skill.”
Collaboration in the Classroom
Third-grade teachers Brittany Smart and Kennedy Van Komen saw that process in action when their team identified student retelling skills as an area for improvement. They added a daily retell routine to phonics lessons, modeled the skill, provided sentence frames and helped students set personal goals.
“Students practiced retelling with partners each week while we continually monitored their progress,” said Smart.
“This helped us identify students who needed additional support and adjust our instruction.” Van Komen said.
For first-grade teacher Brooke Wall, the result has been clear.
“I think the biggest difference we have seen is student progress,” Wall said. “Looking at the data and targeting needs really built their confidence and we saw it in the test scores as well.”
A Commitment to Continuous Improvement
Cooper said the designation reflects the work required to build both stronger student achievement and a more collaborative school culture.
“It really shows that the teachers teaching your students are dedicated to them and to doing whatever it takes to make sure that they are learning,” Cooper said.
That commitment aligns with Aspen’s school vision: becoming a model professional learning community that continually improves practice for student success.
“I know how much is on my teachers' plates, but all through this process, they have stayed committed to doing what was best for kids,” van Dijk said. “So, I am most proud of my teachers' unwavering commitment to student learning.”