Action Research Plan Update

Currently, my action research project has progressed significantly, and we are in the final stages of it. We have created the program, implemented the initiative, checked out books to each classroom, and started the entire O.S.C.A.R. initiative. I have had additional opportunities that have come up as a result of this program. We were able to fund the program through a $25,000 grant we received for our school, and I was on the grant writing team. I have also been the main person to barcode, scan, and check out books to each teacher. ELA teachers were on board from the beginning and started the fifteen minutes of reading every day from the day we received the books. However, we are having obstacles with our Math teachers. They seemed to have a problem with taking 15 minutes a day out of their classroom to read right before STAAR. The administrative team stepped in, and allowed the math teachers to focus on STAAR rather than the reading initiative. That was a disappointment for the O.S.C.A.R. committee, just because we needed our students to have that extra reading time in their classrooms. Instead, they agreed to start reading as soon as STAAR testing was done, which will be next week. I am hoping they see the value and importance of independent reading in their classroom and how it will help their math scores as well if we can develop critical reading skills.

It also seems that other subject areas really want to get involved with this program. Our Science teachers have come up to us and asked if they could be a part of this process. Their department chair had requested they focused on academic reading rather than reading for pleasure. I’m not sure if she has changed her mind or not, but the team seems to be excited about the possibilities.

This project has created our school to be a culture of literacy. Students are carrying books with them everywhere. It is “cool” to be reading. I’m now hoping our STAAR scores will indicate the growth of independent reading in our classrooms and at home. Students will be given a survey at the end of the program to demonstrate their increase in reading.

Discussion with Site Supervisor

I had a discussion with my site supervisor regarding my action research plan. He told me that his main concern was the evaluation piece. With all of the additional action research plans that are being incorporated this year (PLCs, RTI, and Teen Biz) could "muddy" the results. He suggested that I include the lexile scores as an evaluation piece as well as a teacher survey. I had suggested a teacher survey to my department chair a little bit ago, so I am excited to add that component to the plan.

He also suggested that I investigate the data received by a new computer program that is being incorporated mid-year by our district. This was to replace the TMSFA scores. I will investigate the information received from the program and see if I can incorporate that information into the research plan as well.

Action Research Plan

Action Planning Template
Goal: Increase 8th grade Reading STAAR scores
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Analysis of Low STAAR Reading scores	Academic Leadership Team	May 2012	STAAR data, library reading program data, Redistep scores, and any other data determined by administration to use, Readicide by Kelly Gallagher	Reading initiative needed in order raise the scores
Form different committees to address the needs to the creation and implementation of the program.	Dept. Chair and myself	May 2012	Teachers	Formed committees
Create a reading initiative program	Dept. Chair, myself, and committee	May 2012	Teacher from each content area, ideas, and goals	Reading program created
Creating classroom libraries of 30 books/14 titles for all core content classes.	Dept. Chair/ Librarian/ Myself	August 2012 – December 2012	$25,000 grant $15,000 Title 1 funds	Classroom libraries in all core content classes
Implement the reading initiative program O.S.C.A.R. (Our Students Care about Reading).	Reading Initiative Committee	May 2012 – May 2013	Reading Initiative Plan, Books	Successful award ceremony in May
Construct and give student surveys to evaluate the increased amount of reading and levels of joy with reading.	Reading Initiative Committee and myself	August 2012 – May 2013	Questions for evaluation	Increase in the amount of reading based on student response.
Create campus common assessments every three weeks in ELA.	8th grade team	August 2012 – May 2013	Common assessments created every three weeks, District common assessments	Increased data scores from previous year.
Evaluate the new STAAR data	Academic Leadership Team	May 2013 – June 2013	STAAR data	Increase in STAAR reading scores

Week 2

I'm only into week 2 of my action research class, and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the information I'm learning. I've always wondered as a teacher why the principal has so many different projects going on at once, and now I'm seeing why - because there are so many areas that action research can take place!

This week I learned about the nine areas of passion where administrators find their inquiries. I also watched three videos by former graduates of Lamar University that discussed their doctoral thesis regarding action research.

I'm glad I made the decision to pursue my master's degree, so I get to know the "other" side of education. I'm learning more about my passions that will drive me to be a better educator.

Action Research

Action research is the process of active classroom research provided by the inquiries of an administrator or team. The school identifies the problem, formulates a strategy to solve the problem, implements the strategy, evaluates the effectiveness of the solution, and refines the problem. (Dana 5) Action research is a continuous cycle of improvement that specifically focuses on the needs of schools individually and provides active and continuous research from within making the students, teachers, and administrators active in the research process. It can be accomplished through a variety of methods including: college coursework, superintendent/district meetings, leadership teams, and/or professional learning communities.

There are major benefits to action research. The benefits include the administrator has a community of workers to help find and solve the problems, principals become role models for teachers and students within their buildings, and best practices noted in education will increase within the school. 

I intend to use action research through professional learning communities (PLC) and leadership teams I hope to develop within my school. Being part of a PLC has pushed me to be a better educator and has helped resolved the gaps in our department.  My administrators have been incredible role models to guide me to being a better team leader and have helped us collectively identify issues that we could work on as a team. As a result, our students are learning at incredibly rates, and our scores have increased dramatically in comparison with the entire district. 

Leadership teams are equally important because they are the voice of the inquiries. An administrator might have difficulty identifying the major problems that the teachers or students are struggling with. By creating a leadership team, they can have a collaborative group working towards a common goal on a larger scale. 

Administrators can use blogs in a variety of ways. One important way to use blogs is to gather data of how students or teachers think. Very rarely do we think of “thinking” as an evaluative tool because it is so subjective; however the collection of thoughts can be insightful to an active research agenda and help guide the research towards greater solutions. Another way blogs can be used is as a newsletter to teachers. It can be an important tool to share information to faculty and staff and provide a way of receiving feedback or thoughts of information of the school.