My Action Plan

2010-07-30T13:05:00.000-07:00

Goal:
Pursue an inquiry into the following two questions: "What is the correlation between the number of discipline referrals a student receives throughout the year and their academic performance, particularly focusing on those students who receive 10 or more referrals, their course failures (if any), and their success (or lack thereof) on TAKS? And, what interventions might be successful in reducing the number of referrals and, by corollary, improving their academic success?"

Activities:

Gather discipline/academic data on incoming 9th grade students who had 10+ discipline referrals during the 2009-2010 school year to use as a tool for making comparisons at the end of the current study
Gather discipline/academic data on rising 10th grade students who had 10+ discipline referrals during the 2009-2010 school year and for whom no specific interventions were tried to use as a control group for the purpose of comparative study
Monitor discipline activity through the first six weeks of the 2010-2011 school year to determine which students will be targeted for specific interventions throughout the remainder of the school year
Conduct research to determine the most appropriate and feasible intervention strategies to use with targeted students
Implement interventions for and monitor the discipline activity and academic achievement of targeted students for the remainder of the school year
Conduct interviews of targeted students, cooperating staff and participating administrators to gauge personal reactions to the intervention strategies that were implemented
Gather year-end data on control group 10th graders and research group 9th graders to compare data, assess the effectiveness of the interventions and formulate a revised plan for the following school year

Resources:

Use of online "Administrator Dashboard" to gather data on leading and lagging indicators affecting targeted and control group students
Use of INOVA to gather TAKS achievement profiles for targeted and control group students
Use of "View-It" to monitor discipline activity and academic performance of targeted students
Internet and library research to find related literature and research-based intervention strategies

Timeline:

The initial study will be conducted throughout the 2010-2011 school year with the initial data gathering occurring at the beginning of August; implementing and monitoring of the process throughout the year; and a culminating assessment, recommendation, and revision process occurring in June.

Persons Responsible:

I will primarily be responsible for the bulk of the process but will enlist the aid and support of my site supervisor as well as other administrators, teachers, and, of course, students

Process:

After the initial discovery of our target group through a study of the data and appropriate interventions are selected, the process will mostly be a matter of implementing those strategies while seeking the cooperation of staff and students throughout the school year.

Assessment Instruments:

The primary assessment will be a data-based comparison between the control group who were freshman on our campus during the 2009-2010 school year and for whom no specific interventions were implemented and the target group who will be freshman on our campus during the 2010-2011 school year and who were subject to specific interventions strategies. Some additional assessment will be done using interviews that gauge the impact of the interventions at a personal level for students, administrators, and staff in an effort to gain deeper insight into the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the strategies.

Why we should blog...

2010-07-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

Blogs offer a way to provide a constant stream of timely communication and can be used to foster discussion among stakeholders that is not bound by the constraints of time, scheduling, or physical meeting place. Encouraging stakeholders to comment on blog posts creates a forum in which everyone has a voice.

Action Research: what it is..

2010-07-18T21:25:00.000-07:00

What I have discovered about "action research" this week is that it is accessible and familiar to anyone who seeks to improve their craft. If you have ever questioned why you do something the way you do it, wondered if there might be a better way and then sought out the answer to your "wondering," then you have engaged in action research. Action research is a valuable tool that simply gives a structure to the process of inquiry and reflection that people use everyday in the attempt to improve their educational practices. When a person bumps into something in their practice that doesn't "feel right" or that causes anxiety or stress, action research can be a way to inquire into that issue until a possible solution is discovered. Of course, the primary components to successfully conducting this kind of inquiry are (1) making time for reflection, (2) finding the resources that will be necessary for implementing potential changes in practice, and (3) gathering and studying the data to determine if the change in practice has been worthwhile. Action research is personal, cyclical, and can be highly motivating given that the practitioner holds the key to that satisfying feeling that comes from making authentic improvements and being responsible for the successes that will follow.

"You look like a teacher"

My Action Plan

Why we should blog...

Action Research: what it is..