PLS Classes

PLS Classes sells graduate courses for working K-12 teachers. The home page headline is "Graduate Courses for K-12 Educators", followed by the line "Learn it Today. Use it Tomorrow.", and the site describes its courses as "flexible, affordable, and engaging" and designed with the working K-12 teacher in mind. The company behind it signs the site as PLS 3rd Learning. A stats strip on the home page gives 40+ years, 75+ instructors, 35+ courses and 5+ course formats.

The reader here is a teacher who needs credit: the site's "Why PLS Classes?" panel reads "Work toward your graduate degree. Move up the salary scale. Meet recertification requirements." Courses earn graduate credit through partner universities, and the same company runs longer programs, from master's degrees to endorsements and micro-credentials, for teachers who want more than a single course.

The courses

The catalog panel invites teachers to "Choose from 35+ courses to continue your education and earn graduate credit", and elsewhere describes them as "designed to engage you in interactive instruction and discussion with personal assistance from experienced master facilitators". A downloadable course catalog lists the full range, and the site has a "Find a Class" search, published syllabi and a list of concentrations.

Three courses are featured on the home page under "Popular Courses", with the note that they offer "practical strategies that can be implemented in your classroom right away":

• Professional Learning for Teacher Effectiveness, which explores strategies for applying a school's teacher standards and/or the Danielson Framework "to maximize effectiveness in instruction, classroom environment, and professional responsibilities". It runs as a 7-week online class and as a remote learning class.
• Social Emotional Learning: Essential to Student Success, a newer course that "focuses on the importance of supporting academics with social-emotional learning", with classroom strategies and activities for building a social-emotional culture. It runs as a 7-week online class.
• Successful Teaching for Acceptance of Responsibility, which investigates how students develop self-responsibility and covers strategies for "anchoring personal power and mental model". It runs online over 7 weeks and as remote learning.

Course formats

The section headed "Graduate Courses in Multiple Formats to Fit Your Schedule and Learning Style" sets out four ways to take a class, and the stats strip counts 5+ formats in all:

• On-site. Hands-on activities, "lively discussions, collaborative projects, and interactive instruction" while teachers discover research-based strategies for their classrooms.
• Online. "7-week or 4-week online asynchronous classes, taught by master educators with years of experience and practical knowledge."
• Remote learning. Synchronous sessions and virtual learning in a collaborative setting, built around experiences teachers can use with their own students.
• Self-paced. "Work at your own pace with a dedicated facilitator. Courses are offered on a rolling basis year-round and generally take 45 - 90 days to complete."

That range matters for a working teacher. The 4-week online option suits a summer push, the 7-week option spreads the load over a term, remote learning gives live contact without travel, and self-paced study with a facilitator lets a teacher start at any point in the year.

Graduate credit and programs

PLS does not grant the credit itself. The partnerships section reads "Earn Graduate Credit Through Our Partners" and adds "All of our partners offer courses for graduate credit and some offer full degree programs!" The partners named are Andrews University, Indiana Wesleyan University, Mercyhurst University, The College of New Jersey and Wilkes University. A teacher who needs the credit for a salary step or a recertification therefore takes the course with PLS and receives the credit through one of those universities.

Beyond single courses, the programs menu lists:

• Master's programs in Teaching Excellence, Special Education & Disability Studies, Online Teaching, Effective Teaching, Educational Development & Strategies and International School Leadership.
• An International Doctor of Education.
• An Instructional Coaching Endorsement and an Online Instruction Endorsement.
• An Instructional Coaching Micro-Credential.
• Certificate programs.

The programs page describes them as "created to be flexible, affordable, and customizable to fit your unique professional goals". The site also has pages for K-12 schools and districts and for colleges or universities that want to partner with PLS.

Prices and offers

The home page shows no course price; the site has a "Payments & Guidelines" page under its class experience menu. What the home page does show is a run of offers. A referral program reads "Give a $100 Gift Card. Receive a $100 Gift Card." Recent blog posts announce seasonal promotions: for Teacher Appreciation Week, registrants could choose $100 off a course or a $100 Amazon.com gift card, and a back-to-school post offered a reward of the same size to anyone enrolling in late August. A Cyber Week promotion is also announced. These are time-limited, so a teacher should check what is running when they enroll.

What participants say

The home page quotes six participants. Lisa Martineaus, a repeat participant, writes: "The instructors were intelligent, interesting, and kind. The classes were well-organized, and I have used a great deal in the classroom." Alyssa B. writes: "PLS made it possible for me to complete coursework for my masters program while teaching full-time. I had a collegial online cohort. We supported each other and learned from each other throughout." Dawn Plestina says "The curricula lends itself to be used immediately in the classroom, and the instructors encourage us (their students) to apply what we have learned with our students." Jennifer Osorio names an instructor: "Kathy Holloway is amazing. I am not sure if I would take as many classes as I have taken if it weren't for her!" Sara Angeloff and Tiffanie Garman describe challenging but well-paced courses whose content they used in their own classrooms.

Resources and support

Alongside the courses, the resources menu offers a blog, Steve Barkley podcasts, free printables, a PLS Store and a page of free online resources for teachers, a list of outside tools for K-12 educators, parents and students. Support runs through a contact page and an FAQ, and there is an About section covering the instructors, the team and the top reasons to take a PLS class.

Who it suits

PLS Classes suits a K-12 teacher in a district that rewards graduate credit with a salary step, or one who needs credits to renew a certificate, and who wants courses built around classroom practice. The mix of formats lets that teacher fit the work around a school year, and the testimonial from a master's student shows the courses can feed into a degree. Teachers interested in instructional coaching or online teaching have endorsement and program routes as well.

It suits less well a teacher outside K-12, or anyone who needs the credit from a specific university not on the partner list. It is also not a platform for schools to build their own courses: districts can partner with PLS, but the content is PLS's.