Action Research Plan

Goals and objectives/outcomes of the research investigation
Goal 1 – Decrease the Amount of Time At Risk and Low Income Students are removed from class for disciplinary action, including In School Suspension and Alternative Education Placement.
Goal 2 – Find Alternative Disciplinary Consequences to maximize time spent in the classroom by students in Target Population.
Goal 3 – Improve student success in classroom work and on benchmark exams by students in Target Population
Goal 4 – Create a program that encourages Teacher Buy in/Support from 85% of the staff on our campus.

Activities designed to achieve the objectives

v  Survey Staff on ideas for need and types of alternative discipline ideas

v  Start of committee to come up with solutions to keeping Target Population kids in the classroom maximum amount of time.

v  Disaggregate Data to share with committee to show need for Action Research Plan in this Area

v  Self Reflection to identify Biases that may affect the outcomes of our research

Resources and research tools needed for data gathering

v  List of At Risk and Economically Disadvantaged Students in 7^th through 10^th Grade

v  Quantitative Measures: 6 week Report Cards, Benchmark Scores, and TAKS Scores

v  Interview Students in Target Populations

v  Interview Focus Group of Students not in Target Populations to see how negative student behavior affects their learning in the classroom

v  Survey Staff and Parents regarding beliefs about school cultures/climate with focus on student behavior and discipline

Draft timeline for completion or implementation of activities

v  February 2012 – Select Sample Size of Target Population by disaggregating data of ECD/At Risk Students with multiple Discipline referrals resulting in time spent in ISS or AEP.

v  March-May 2012 – Look at data to chart grades throughout year in regards to time spent out of classroom serving disciplinary action in ISS or AEP.

v  March-Math 2012 – Interview students, Survey staff and parents and form Action Committee to address needs.

v  August-December 2012 – Implement Alternative Forms of Discipline with ISS being reserved for severe behavior, as agreed upon by the staff.

v  January – February 2013 – Benchmark Data obtained

v  February 2013 – Review Data to see if interventions have been successful. Revise Action Plan as necessary or continue if results show progress.

Persons responsible for implementation of the action research plan

v  Assigning Discipline – Assistant Principal

v  Brainstorming Alternative Discipline – Shawn Adkins, Marquelle Adkins and the Action Committee

v  Data Disaggregation – Shawn Adkins and Marquelle Adkins

Process for monitoring the achievement of goals and objectives

v  Compare report card grades from previous year

v  Compare benchmark scores from previous year.

v  Compare number of referrals written to previous year.

v  Compare time spent out of classroom to previous year.

Assessment instrument(s) to evaluate the effectiveness of the action research study

v  Qualitative – Benchmarks, Report Card Grades, Time Spent in ISS/AEP, and Number of Discipline Referrals

v  Quantitative – Teacher survey, Parent Survey, and Student Interviews.

References

Dana, N. (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher.

             California: Corwin

Well, I finally feel like I am getting the hang of this! I have my list of students who are Economically Disadvantaged and At-Risk for 7th and 8th grade and have identified my first target population. Later this week, I will speak with my Assistant Principal to have her print the number of discipline referrals for the students I have identified. I will also interview her to gain her perspective on the students I have selected to see what students she feels would benefit the most from targeted behavior improvement and alternative discipline. Though I will keep her perspective in mind, I will also use the qualitative data of the number of referrals, days spent in ISS, Report Card Grades over time, Benchmark scores, and TAKS scores.

After much discussion with my husband, we have decided to exclude students with excessive write ups and AEP placements. This will hopefully open the door to more teacher buy in from the start of our inquiry. We are also going to survey the teachers to gain their perspective on our school climate/culture and our student discipline procedures. We have a new Assistant Principal and I have heard some negative feedback on the opinion of how discipline is handled, but I do not know if this is an overall consensus or just the grumblings of a loud few. The survey will help us to get a grasp on the pulse of the staff. Next, we will survey the parents to see what their perspective is on school culture and climate, as right after teacher support we feel we will need parent support for this program to be the most affective.

Ah, so much to do, but so exciting to think about what we can learn and the difference we can make! Hope you all have a terrific week! Come back soon to see what adventures my inquiry brings me to next! Research ahead!

This week has been very productive! Though I was only able to meet with my site supervisor briefly, we were able to discuss my three topics for possible research. I will admit that I was quite intimidated by this "project" at the end of the last course, especially since it was left rather up in the air upon completing the course, but now I am starting to get an idea of what we are doing! I will also share that this course is much better organized and clearly explained than the last course, which helps to ease my worries and stress. 

      Since my husband and I teach at such a small school and essentially teach on the same campus, my site supervisor suggested that we work together on the same research inquiry. We did a lot of research online this week and spent a lot of time discussing where we really felt our time was best spent to affect the most change for our school. In the end, we decided to research: 

1. What is the effect of time spent serving In School Suspension (ISS) or Alternative Education Program (AEP) on academic success? 
2. How can we motivate these students to improve their behavior?
3. What alternative consequences could we assign that would keep these kids in the classroom, but also evoke an improvement in behavior?
4. How can we encourage staff buy-in, especially with veteran teachers?
5. What number of the students assigned ISS and AEP are labeled At-Risk?

    We feel this is an area of great need for our campus, as we service a large population of Low Socioeconomic and Minority students. The research we have found so far has shown a correlation between the amount of time spent in ISS and AEP and an increased dropout rate which can have large economic effects on our town, state, and country as a whole. With the demographics already putting our students at risk due to poverty, it is even more important that we be proactive in helping these students feel part of the school community to help them stay in school. My husband and I both feel very strongly that if we are not part of the solution than you are part of the problem. We want to be part of the solution. We are very excited to do more research and see what we can find and what has worked at other schools, but also nervous, as this has larger implications for our most important "customers" our students. We truly want to be able to affect a change and are most curious to find ways to get teachers to buy in to this research inquiry to try some alternative forms of discipline. We will need most if not all of them to be on board for this to be truly effective.
Interesting Study on Race, Discipline & Human Capital Effects

Building a Blog on Action Research: Week 1 part 3 Assignment

Starting Course Two working toward a Master's in Educational Leadership. I am amazed at how much I have learned in such a short time.

Action Research is a way to affect change in my school from the inside. The most effective part of Action Research, in my limited opinion, is that it involves the school staff in the current issues that need to be resolved. They are the ones who will be most affected by changes made and as a principal, I will benefit from gaining the value of their insight, as well as buy in when they feel a part of the change. Action research also allows me to work with my staff to form leadership teams to help me identify areas of concern and brainstorm solutions to these problems. These leadership teams will help me to create goals that we can work toward attaining. Upon reaching these goals, we can celebrate our successes and reevaluate areas that need to be addressed. Action Research will also allow me to show myself as a "head learner" and lead by example to encourage my staff to also see themselves as lifelong learners.

The readings have further enforced the value of collaboration in the decision making process for leaders, as was emphasized in our first leadership course. As leaders we need to seek out our teachers' expertise and insights to gain knowledge and ownership by the entire school. With this type of leadership, the teachers will feel an integral part of a larger learning community and that they are valued as an important part of the learning family.

I think blogs would be a good way for principals to communicate with staff to keep them up to date important events and evoke discussion. I also think this would be a good way for them to share information with principals in other districts across the country.