Webconference summary from 5397 Week 5 Dr. Borel

For the last time, Dr. Borel went over the seven assignments that are due and the ones that need to be posted to Tk20.  I have had difficulty meeting with my site supervisor in order to discuss the PISE and the Dispositions evaluations; I was concerned about how to do the reflection about both without the meeting.  Dr. Borel answered that question on last week’s conference.  This week, she answered my other question on this matter:  My mentor has not uploaded the forms to Tk20.  What do I do?  She told us to print out the completed forms, get a signature on them, and upload them to Tk20 with our reflections.  I can do that.  What a relief!

Dr. Borel went through all of her PowerPoint slides and even walked one student, Nick, through his search for the log of his participation with his field supervisor and his site supervisor.  That was helpful to many of the participants.

Dr. Borel began the conference by telling many of the students that they had not read the rubric and followed its directives before submitting their Action Research Draft.  I am discovering that many of our younger students have made it through college by doing things quickly, many times without reading the directions.  Why am I surprised when my high school sophomores try to do the same thing?

Summary of Intent for Action Research Plan

Last school year 2011-12 was the first year that our campus administered the STAAR test.  We have conducted remediation and retesting on students who failed the initial Algebra One test.  I am researching our remediation program to include data on the students who failed (previous scores on math TAKS tests and course grades in previous math courses), what was taught/learned during the tutorial sessions, what were the costs of the remediation program (transportation, teachers’ pay, materials).  I am also looking into the possibilities of developing a peer tutorial system to put into effect next year in the algebra one classes and expand to the geometry and math models classes the following year. 

Related to this, I must investigate tutor recruitment, training, and payment.  I will observe a math specialist meeting and see the planning process for STAAR administration and STAAR retesting. I will look at the practices of the elementary schools to see how they prepare students for junior high and at the practices of the junior high schools to see how they prepare students for high school, with a special focus on technology implementation.

I will also create Parent Tutorials for those parents of students moving from 8^th grade into 9^th grade to educate parents on how to make their students successful in math classes at the high school level.  I will investigate other factors that may make the remediation successful, get administrative insight into these changes, interview district PR people, and examine the current policy for parent involvement.

Finally, I will collect current information from articles on remediation programs in this country and related articles on how to increase parent involvement and student buy in.  I will summarize what changes should be made to next year’s program.