Spotlight on Placerville: Building Precision and Rigor through PLCs

As part of the CA Ed Partners P3CC Collaboration, the Placerville School District Team at Schnell is making notable progress in strengthening the math instructional system through a clear, standards-aligned approach. By carefully analyzing how their newly adopted curriculum aligns with the depth and rigor of the California Common Core State Standards, the team is ensuring that daily instruction reflects the level of thinking students are expected to achieve.

Placerville is using Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) as a powerful engine for scaling effective practices. Through structured data discussions and item analysis, teachers are identifying common student errors and adjusting instruction with greater precision. This coherence is strengthened by the leadership of new principal Chris Tillisch, who is helping establish consistent meeting structures and tools to monitor progress schoolwide.

A major driver of this work has been the use of the California Math Framework Math Task Analysis Guide. Teachers have examined the rigor of their assessments and, in many cases, raised expectations—prompting students to communicate their reasoning more deeply and synthesize ideas across lessons. Alongside this, the team reviewed Unit Assessments to identify key concepts students struggled with. These insights flowed directly into Grade-Level PLCs, where teachers designed targeted warm-ups to reteach and spiral essential skills.

Placerville’s focused, collaborative work demonstrates how clarity, coherence, and data-driven decision making can elevate math learning for all students.