I'm getting excited about this Action Research Project; at first the topic that was chosen for me seemed dull and boring:  "How effective is our Algebra I STAAR Remediation Program on campus?"  After reading some of the examples in the Harris text, I can see a lot of potential in this project.  I have known for some time that the skill level of my geometry students is way below what it should be.  Our students come to us with lots of holes in their math background.  This year I learned just how serious the problem is:  our students really do not know how to think, how to study, how to retain information, or how to analyze information.  Copying printed phrases from one document onto another is their way of answering questions.  We are failing them.  One of the causes could be that we have expanded the scope too broadly  to effectively cover the material to mastery level in each grade starting in elementary school.  Another could be that we socially pass students in elementary school when they do well in other core classes but not math or science because we don't want our campus numbers to look bad.  Also we might think that eventually they will just "get it" because they are getting older and maturing. 

I am going to address the effectiveness of our remediation program on campus, exploring if what we do really helps students pass the test the next time it is given, or how many times it takes for them to pass it and what did we do to help them pass. I will follow them as they retest in the fall, the spring and again in the summer.  I will analyze not only the pass rates of the students as a whole, but the specific TEKS that they historically have had difficulty with.

I hope this project leads me to research these students' backgrounds in math and trace their skill development from elementary school through high school, seeing what patterns in learning emerge.  Hopefully we can find a way to intercept these difficulties before they leave elementary school.  This would certainly lead to a higher graduation rate and a higher number of students going on to college.

Having students come to high school level teachers with the correct level of skills would help to make teaching fun again and relieve some of the stress on both teachers and students.

New Action Research Plan Template

I ran into some trouble this past week when doing the  Week 3 Assignment.  I scheduled a meeting with my campus mentor early in the week on a Tuesday after school.  He had to reschedule until Friday.  However, when Friday arrived, it was the end of the 3 weeks, grades were due, and inventory was due (he is in charge of inventory), and we rescheduled our meeting for Monday.  My IA granted my extension.  However, when Monday aftrnoon arrived, my mentor was still unable to meet with me due to being involved in an interview process for another position on the campus.  I contacted my district math specialist for advice and she suggested my topic.   Another AP on campus gave me a few strategies.  Below is the result of this interface and the preparation I had made prior to this discussion.  I would appreciate any input from my readers.

School Vision:  "It is the vision of an ideal that inspires people and organizations to make the extraordinary effort and commitment necessary to achieve excellence.”

Goal:  To evaluate the effectiveness of the STAAR Remediation Program offered by Pasadena Memorial High School to those students who failed any STAAR test in their freshman year.

OUTCOMES	ACTIVITIES	RESOURCES/ RESEARCH TOOLS NEEDED	RESPONSIBILITY TO ADDRESS ACTIVITIES	TIME LINE	BENCHMARKS/ASSESSMENT	REVISIONS TO SIP/PIP BASED ON MONITORING AND ASSESSMENTS
Curriculum costs justified?	Determine the district costs of producing the curriculum for each session of remediation and from that determine the cost for our campus.	District Core Curriculum Specialists data to include hours logged by specialists and costs of materials for curriculum development.	Mr. Lee, 10th grade AP and Ms. Peasley, 10th grade counselor at our campus will provide data.	Data from summer session is already available; data from winter session will be available after winter break.  Data from spring will be available early summer 2013.	Data collected on scores of students who failed the original core subject STAAR tests who were freshmen students at Pasadena Memorial High School.
Transportation costs justified?	Determine the bus costs for students attending after school tutorials.	District bus costs records for those charges made to our campus.	Mr. Lee and Ms. Peasley will get that data for me, or I will get it directly from the Asst. Sup of Transportation.	Data from summer session is already available; data from winter session will be available after winter break.  Data from spring will be available early summer 2013.	Data collected on scores of students who failed the original core subject STAAR tests who were freshmen students at Pasadena Memorial High School.  What is a justifiable cost?
Were the costs of paying  professional teachers for teaching the remediation courses justified?  What was the cost of internet instruction vs face to face instruction?  What was the cost of PLATO instruction?	Determine the number of teachers hours logged in on the time charts and submitted to the principal’s secretary.	Time charts used by teachers or data from Payroll as provided by principal’s secretary	Kim Mattingly, Principal’s secretary or Mr. Lee and Ms. Peasley	Data from summer session is already available; data from winter session will be available after winter break.  Data from spring will be available early summer 2013.	Data collected on scores of students who failed the original core subject STAAR tests who were freshmen students at Pasadena Memorial High School.
What are other factors that should be taken into account to determine the effectiveness of the program?	Determine what these factors were, their costs in time and materials.	TBD	Mr. Lee and Mrs. Peasley, participating core subject teachers	Data from summer session is already available; data from winter session will be available after winter break.  Data from spring will be available early summer 2013.	Data collected on scores of students who failed the original core subject STAAR tests who were freshmen students at Pasadena Memorial High School.
What changes should be made to next year’s program?	TBD	TBD	Mr. Lee and Mrs. Peasley, participating core subject teachers. Also include survey results from participating students and parents of those students.	Create survey to distribute to students who pass each session and to their parent; consider giving to all students, including those who fail again.	Data collected on scores of students who failed the original core subject STAAR tests who were freshmen students at Pasadena Memorial High School.

Action Research Topics

This week we learned about the nine common areas of education action research topics.  These topics are:
1.  Staff Development
2.  Curriculum Development
3.  Individual Teacher(s)
4.  Individual Student(s)
5.  School Culture/Community
6.  Leadership
7.  Management
8.  School Performance
9.  Social Justice or Equity Issues.

According to the videos we watched, the topic we choose has to have meaning to the researcher, be useful to the school,  and be doable.  One must remember that the research is not a tool to control others, that it takes time to formulate the question and to do the research.  They gave us tips on how to frame the question.  We must focus on adult or student learning.

Many reading sources were sited that look very interesting to me:
The Reflective Educator's Guide to Professional Development (2008) 3rd chapter
A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Paysh
Lifelong Guidelines for Our Tools in Citizenship
The Principal's Role in Shaping School Culture by Terrance Deal
What Great Principals Do Differently by Todd Whitaker

Currently, I have three topics of interest:
1.  What are some alternative behvior  management plans we could implement in our school in in what ways are they effective for decreasing student tardiness, increasing proper display of ID, having proper supplies in class, doing homework, and increasing learning success?
2.  How can we inform our parents of ways they can help students succeed in high school classes, particularly math and science classes, to include supplies students bring to school daily, homework requirements, homework resources available to students, the use of ISN in class and nightly review of its contents, etc. and how can we make parents effective partners to ensure their students' success in school?
3.  How can we improve our Bridge Program to better inform parents about the transition their student makes from junior high to high school and to better prepare students to be successful in high school?

I realized that it makes sense that my research topic be one of the 38 topics addressed in my internship plan.
 

Blogging and Educational Leaders

The idea of blogging is very exciting.  It is a excellent tool for any educational leader to have.  A leader may use the blog in several ways, or they have have separate blogs designed for different purposes.  A leader may want to use the blog to post their own ideas just for their own personal use, to come back to them at a later time and revise them, or to save them for use on another project.  It could be used like a journal, or it could be used as a personal research tool.  

A leader may use the blog as a way to air out their ideas and gather comments from respected peers.  This is a way of getting different perspectives on one's thoughts.  Sometimes we have a great thought, but don't know where to go with it; ideas from peers may be just the stimulus we need.  Sometimes outside comments will give us the puzzle piece we have been missing!

A leader may want insight into problems they have encountered professional and seek professional advice or research on similar situations.  For whatever reason we want to use the blog, it seems to be an excellent tool that you can use at your own time and in your own place.  If you write it, they will come!

Action Research and Its Opportunities

I just discovered a new phenomenon called Action Research.  It's a systematic way of investigating problems, proposing solutions, researching related data, and implementing the results.  It is much better than traditional research in that the researcher is the person who noticed the problem, the person who collects the data and analyzes it, and the person who evaluates the solution.  So the researcher actually uses previous research and data in addition to her/his current data to solve the problem at hand.  The researcher then shares their results.  Since the researcher is actually doing the work, they are more likely to implement the changes.  Also, this method is not a way of researching research.  It actually uses current data AND past research on similar problems, so we are building our data bases.  

One of the major concerns administrators have with Action Research is the amount of time it takes.  Administrators have a lot on their plate; they have every day routines and every day emergencies to attend to.  They solve site problems or supervise school issues or lead staff or community members daily.  Most administrators agree that the only way to effectively conduct Action Research is to build it into their schedule, much like they build an exercise program into their schedule.  

There are four key areas where this may be done.  One is by taking college classes and doing action research with class members.  Another is by breaking into small groups during Superintendents meetings and identifying areas each administrator needs to research, conducting a year long process, and sharing the results at the end of year meeting with other administrators.  A third area is by styling your Leadership Team Meetings in the form of Action Research.  Collaborative groups share issues, suggest solutions, collect data and implement changes.  Lastly, the principal may join a PLC (Professional Learning Community) where they may meet or blog along a preset structure in a limited amount of time and establish collegial relationships while doing so.  

I am excited about this new concept.  It has introduced me to the idea that other teachers have experienced similar problems and have solved them.  I look forward to solving some of my classroom issues using this technique.  The paramount problem I have is apathy.  Sounds like a real money-maker, doesn't it?

I look forward to using this technique as an administrator because it will help me grow professionally.  It will keep me professionally connected with my peers.  It will also let my staff and my administrators observe me modeling what I expect them to do.  Scheduling it into selected meetings like department head meetings, or Safe and Civil meetings will ensure that it gets done one a regular basis.  

I will also use it when I am considering implementing changes to my campus that need to be made only by me, not from a collaborative group.  A well thought out decision usually stands the test of time over a quickly made decision.  Research brings ideas to the front that we may have never thought of before.  

Sounds like a winner.  I look forward to using it in this course and beyond.