For more than ten years, students at Bayard Middle School have not demonstrated mastery of the Common Core State Standards based on their performance on the state assessment administered every spring. Regardless of the particular assessment, students have consistently scored at the bottom of the state when compared with their grade-level peers. While there are a number of external and internal factors that have impacted students' performance, this paper explores the characteristics of successful schools and some of the key elements of implementing professional learning communities to determine if monitoring students' standards mastery increases student performance on the state assessments and, if not, what strategies will be implemented during the 2022-2023 school year in an effort to increase student performance. While the research did not definitively show a direct relationship between monitoring students' standards mastery and increased performance, there are several monitoring mechanisms that can be implemented to track student learning. Those recommendations will be summarized at the end of this paper. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]