My preliminary action research plan.

1.    Examining the work: Setting the Foundation – What is causing, or why do some students, have an attendance problem within the school day, but show little to no discipline problems otherwise? I began working with a research team January 2013 to address this issue within our school. Through preliminary observations the kids, when at school, were functional and successful within the classroom environment but were at various risk levels of losing credit because of attendance. These seem to be the kids that should have a positive and successful high school career, but are currently on the road to lost credits and possibly not reaching graduation. Since it should be our goal to graduate 100% of our kids at a high level, this is a failure that needs to be fixed within our system.

2.    Analyzing data – The initial data that will be analyzed will be through the student selection process. Because the student population that will be looked at is a very specific population data will have to be used the selection process.

3.    Developing deeper understanding – Once selected, the students will be discreetly observed within the classroom environment to log common activities and actions the student uses frequently and identify a common theme if one emerges. After observations, the students may be interviewed in an attempt to see what their perceptions/reasons are of why their attendance is low.

4.    Engaging in Self-Reflection – After gathering the quantitative and qualitative data of the selected students, and highlighting areas of concern, we as a campus must reflect on what we do that either drives students away from school or brings them in. After identifying the problem areas through our student group, we must decide if and how much we can affect those areas as teachers/administrators.

5.    Exploring Programmatic Patterns – The patterns in data is what is driving this research project. Highlighting a group of students that are lacking in a specific way at our school and attempting to seek out a solution in order to level the playing field for them in some way.

6.    Determining direction – In order to complete this project we will gather a team of teachers and administrators to help observe and analyze data. Though the basic direction is already decided, through a series of meetings the team will collectively decide final direction and facilitate that direction.

7.    Taking action for school improvement – For immediate action we, as a team, will meet with our lead principal and present our findings to determine what is deemed appropriate for us to do at our campus in the short term.

8.    Sustaining improvement – Any short term fix will be just that, an attempt to solve the problem as it stands in front of us. In order to prevent this problem from reoccurring we will need to put it into a presentation model, and be able to use the data collected in future staff development meetings.

Team selection, initial data review, student selection, and one round of observations should be concluded before the end of the 1^st semester of the upcoming 2013-2014 school year. A final model representing the research and its findings should be completed by the end of April 2014. Smaller, more frequent, goals to ensure progress will be set during the team’s first meeting.

In a good place

As I learn more and more about action research, how it is used in education, and what is expected of me in my current college course I am more and more glad I am at the school I am at. The leadership at our school, and our environment, has already prepared me to be able to do this successfully. I am certainly more at ease after two weeks of getting to know what action research actually is.

Administrators using blogs?!

If used right educational administrators and leaders could greatly use the benefits of a blog. One suggestion/piece of advise my site supervisor gave me was to not be afraid to ask for help or advise from other people in similar situations. Principals themselves, through the use of a blog system, could seek out and find others who are or have dealt with a situation close to what they are going through, and get suggestions on how to go forward.

First understandings of action research

As I begin wandering down this road towards a master's degree, it seems a catch phrase that often appears is "action research". Thankfully my second class is all about that subject. Although we, as a class, have only reached the tip of the ice berg I think I can begin to see the picture start coming together. Action research is a term used to describe how a group uses a type of reflective process to learn and correct what they are doing inside of the campus and/or district. In order to get to a point to reflect, data has to be created using various methods to display strength and weaknesses of the current system. This data is most useful when it is created around those that are in the system, and generated with the purpose of growing in mind.

This can be easily used inside of a classroom. We have pieces of data coming at us constantly in the forms of verbal student feedback, written student work, homework, and tests. Using these four as a system of measurement a teacher should easily be able to see if they are lacking in a certain field or TEK, and if something can be modified to fit the need. This is the essence of reflection that makes action research so effective.