EDLD 5301 Action Research Plan

School Vision: To provide educational programs that will help each child develop academically, socially, politically, economically, and psychologically, thus educating the whole child. Furthermore, the educational experience should provide a curriculum designed to meet each student’s needs while encouraging enjoyment of learning. We believe individuals must be active participants in their learning.


Goal: To establish a recognizable percentage of passing scores on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) End of Course (EOC) test for the 9^th grade English students who participate in an English curriculum integrated with technology.

Action Step(s)	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Setting the Foundation – Establish 9th grade English as target population of action research.	Safirah Ibenana, site administrators and faculty	10/11	Surveys, discussions	During meetings with administrators and teachers, the issue of student writing has been identified as a major weakness on state standardized exams. STAAR test takers (9th grade) will be the focus since TAKS is phasing out.
2. Analyze previous standardized scores, benchmark scores, and various student writing samples.	Safirah Ibenana	10/11	Previous test scores and writing samples	I will look at areas of weaknesses identified by the exam. I will address those weaknesses with various writing exercises.
3. Developing deeper understanding – Interview teachers and students about the disinterest in writing.	Safirah Ibenana	End 11/15/11	Surveys, classroom time	I will poll students after research to see if they felt the curriculum addressed their concerns.
4. Ask self-reflective questions	Safirah Ibenana	End 11/15/11	Students’ reasons explaining disinterest	How will I be able to help captivate the attention of students who have been disinterested thus far?
5. Integrate blogging into the journaling and peer revision exercises of curriculum.	Safirah Ibenana, Ivy Perkins	10/11-2/12	Curriculum guidelines, previous lesson plans	Integration will be evaluated by how well the model is received by students and their responsiveness (successful completion of each weblog activity)
6. Activate weblogs for students.	Safirah Ibenana	End 11/15/11	Computer lab	Ensure that all weblogs are active through monitoring.
7. Activate RSS feeder for instructor.	Safirah Ibenana	End 11/15/11	Instuctor’s desktop	Ensure that we’re continually subscribed to weblogs.
8. Compare/contrast essays from students who blog and students who do not blog.	Safirah Ibenana, Ivy Perkins	11/11-3/12	Students’ work, assessment chart	Using assessment rubric, note growth in writers and determine if blogging was a factor.
9. Exploring Programmatic Patterns – Talk with students’ homeroom teachers and counselors to gather any pertinent information on their backgrounds.	Safirah Ibenana	10/11-2/12	Discussion points	I will monitor writing samples according to writing prompts. Especially the prompts relevant to their lives in order to identify increased engagement.
10. Determining direction – I will specifically work with two 9th grade English sections (1 pre-AP and 1 regular).	Safirah Ibenana	10/11	9th grade English teachers.	Not only will I compare scores of target group with rest of 9th grade, I will also compare scores between the pre-AP target and regular target.
11. Write formative and summative evaluations on the impact of blogging on student’s writing samples.	Safirah Ibenana	3/12-4/12	Data and comments from research, writing samples	In order to take action for school improvement, I will share evaluations with administration.
12. Share research’s impact with rest of the grade levels.	Safirah Ibenana	5/12	Data and comments from research, writing samples, and Microsoft Powerpoint	In order to sustain improvement, I can survey faculty on their thoughts of presentation. I can follow up the following school year to see if the model is adopted.

Process Overview:

1.    Examining the work: Setting the Foundation – During meetings with administrators and teachers, the issue of student writing has been identified as a major weakness on state standardized exams.

2.    Analyzing data – I use previous standardized and benchmark scores. I also use various student writing samples. Findings from electronic searches have shown that I can use technology to encourage disinterested students to write more coherently.

3.    Developing deeper understanding – I plan to interview teachers further as to WHY their students are disinterested in writing. I will poll students on their side of this concern as well.

4.    Engaging in Self-Reflection – I ask myself the question: How will I be able to help captivate the attention of students who have been disinterested thus far?  

9.    Exploring Programmatic Patterns – I will talk with students’ homeroom teachers and counselors to gather any pertinent information on their backgrounds. I will use the information to formulate writing topics relevant to their lives.

10.    Determining direction – I am clear that I specifically want to work with 9^th grade English at this time. I will research how blogging can improve their writing skills. To ensure that the computer lab will consistently be available for the targeted students, I am working with few number of classes. The only collaborative approach established in the curriculum thus far is the peer revision component. I am unsure about the timeline because I have 3 months to note progress. The instructor and I will subscribe to students’ blogs using RSS feeders to monitor their progress. Instructor and I are still determining assessment rubrics for essays. We will customize writing prompts according to students’ progress.

11.    Taking action for school improvement – I will write formative and summative evaluations on the impact of blogging on student’s writing samples.

12.    Sustaining improvement – Proposed positive impact would be shared with rest of the grade levels to assist them with improving writing scores for STAAR exam the following year.

Reflection upon Action Research

My previous entry explained why action research has emerged as a favorable paradigm of research studies and why reflection for an administrator is vital in professional development. As I continually reflect upon the benefits of action research, I'm trying to establish a routine I could exercise in action research once I become an educational technology leader. According to Dana (2009), there are nine different "areas of passion" from where you can construct your action research topic: staff development, curriculum development, individual teacher(s), individual student(s), school culture/community, leadership, management, school performance, and social justice or equity issues (p.30). These areas help me categorize my topics. 


I watched an interview with an elementary school principal on action research. What I learned from his interview was the necessity to research a topic of interest so that you can actively read on the topic daily. That way the readings can be applied and the wheel not invented.  I also watched an interview with a director of research of an independent school district. What I learned from his interview is that all faculty, not just administrators, should be capable of conducting their own action research to obtain the data that they seek instead of waiting for that data. Both interviews clearly distinguished for me action research using qualitative data and quantitative data. Neither research topic was more significant than the other, therefore, I am encouraged to develop topics using both types of data.


Ideally, I would use my faculty to help me address the nine areas. We would regularly confer for reflection purposes and I would ensure a balance of topics using qualitative and quantitative data. 

    

Benefits of Action Research

Before action research, there were two paradigms that dominated educational research for decades. Process-product research requires that teachers and administrators implement curriculums from findings of outside experts like university researchers. Qualitative or interpretative studies requires that the university researcher, himself, gather and evaluate data from the chosen academic setting. These two paradigms are similar in that the practitioner of the research is limited in some capacity. Either the administrator is limited on his own campus because he is using the findings of another or the university researcher is limited because they are not familiar with the environment in which he observes. This similarity in paradigms is what sets them apart from action research. In action research, the practitioner will not be an alien to his findings nor his environment. Action research engages practitioners in an inquiry process in a familiar environment that concerns their own questions, which is an ideal setting for professional development.    


Action research is a systematic approach to inquiry much like a doctor who diagnoses his patient. As you gather and evaluate data from research, each step of the process brings you closer to a conclusion just like a doctor systematically finds a prescription. It is strongly urged that campus leaders find time to reflect upon their findings because the reflection helps with the professional health of the administrator. It builds his expertise by utilizing his experience; and through that experience the administrator acquires and improves several skills to make him a better leader. Blogging would be an excellent professional development tool for administrators. Weblogs can help with time management of reflection of the action research. Their entries can keep them on task with desired results of the inquiry and can be reviewed by other colleaugues who coulld provide an extrospective view of their scenarios. Reflection and peer review will gain further insight into a practical solution to the plight at hand.