Action Research Plan--Revised

The only changes made to my action research plan were dates of assements.  We chose to extend the date in order to have more valis data.

Action Research Plan

Goal:  Develop a one-on-one mentoring program focusing on meeting the psychosocial/emotional needs of our struggling students in order to benefit our academic performance.

 ____- Changes made to original action research plan

Goals and objectives/outcomes of the research investigation	Activities designed to achieve the objectives	Resources and research tools needed for data gathering	Draft timeline for completion or implementation of activities	Persons responsible for implementation of the action research plan	Process for monitoring the achievement of goals and objectives	Assessment instrument(s) to evaluate the effectiveness of the action research study
Recruit mentors for struggling students	Recruit community member to serve as mentors to struggling students.	Fliers, letters, instruction	November 2010	Administrators, Instructional Specialist, Counselor, Community members	Number of mentors recruited	Survey of recruitment activity effectiveness
Identification of students to be mentored	Data analysis	INOVA Data, HOSTS 3rd grade mentoring Data, teacher questionnaires and observations	December 2010	3rd and 4th Grade teachers, HOSTS administrators, Campus Administrators, Instructional Specialist and Counselor	Monitor student achievement through district and state assessments; monitor students behavioral referrals	Teacher surveys, District benchmarks and state assessments, behavioral referrals
Assign students to community mentor	Questionnaires	Student and Mentor Questionnaires	January 2011	Community mentors, Campus Administrators, Counselor, Instructional Specialist, students, 4th grade teachers	Ongoing interviews and questionnaires	Ongoing surveys and interviews with students and mentors evaluating progress in the relationship
Identify academic improvement based on psychosocial/emotional intervention provide by one-on-one mentor	District and State assessments, behavioral office referrals	TAKS tests, district benchmarks, office behavioral referrals, report cards	August 2011 &  August 2012	Camp Campus Administrators, Counselor, Instructional Specialist, students, 4th grade teachers	TAKS tests, district benchmarks, office behavioral referrals, report cards	2011 INOVA data, TAKS performance, Number of office referrals, content area grades(report card)

Action Research Plan

Topic: In what ways can a one-on-one mentoring program focusing on meeting the psychosocial/emotional needs of our struggling students benefit our academic performance?

Rationale:  Through many discussions with teachers, staff, and my principal, we have come to the conclusion that this topic would provide the best results for our students and our campus.  We will be looking at struggling students that have been identified as needing a one-on-one mentor through teacher observation and INOVA data to improve academics.    By implementing a mentoring program,  we will be able to gain valuable information to broaden our interventions from strictly academic to psychosocial/emotional and academic interventions for struggling students.  Fourth grade students and  were chosen as our population for the project based on INOVA data. 

Action Research Question

Below is the action research question I will be examining for my research project.  I am looking forward to working with the community, students, and parents to improve student sucess!

     What can we do to improve student academic performance and student behavioral issues with our low socioeconomic students?

Low socioeconomic or children poverty face many challenges daily.  There challenges
sometimes prevent them from being successful in a school setting.  Action research
pertaining to a mentoring program for these students will help develop a program that
helps these students as well as the community.  Research shows that students that
have some type of support person are more successful academically and behaviorally. 
By implementing an action research project focusing on meeting the support needs by
providing a mentor we can hopefully help these students become more successful in
school as well as life.  As my action research project we are implementing a
community mentoring program.  I have recruited various community members to be
a part of the program.  The goal is to have the mentors and students begin meeting in
January.  The program is going to focus on the psychosocial/emotional needs of the
students.  We believe that if we can meet the psychosocial/emotional needs of the
struggling students they will become more successful behaviorally and academically.  I
am so excited about the possible effects of the program.  I hope the program not only
helps the students, but also the teachers, community members and parents involved.

Week #2 Action Research--Qualitative vs. Quantitative

This weeks readings and videos have been a real eye opener for me. I am a very data driven person.  In my current position as Instructional Specialist I analyze some sort of data almost daily. The teachers and I use the data to make instructional and curriculm changes throughout our campus. Through the  video interviews, I realize that I am focusing mainly on quantitative data.  I use previous TAKS scores, district benchmarks, and other quantitative assessments as the data source for implementing change. Both gentlemen spoke of the importance of using qualitative data also.  I am interested to learn more about quantifying qualitative data and I  hope using the qualitative data in conjunction with the quantitative will help me in improving student success on my campus.

Educators using blogs

Blogs can be very beneficial for educators.  Blogs allow educators to pose problems and collaboratively work with others to brainstorm solutions to the problem.  Ideas and strategies for success in the organization can be shared and critiqued through the blog.  A blog is an interactive meeting place for parties with similar interests to work collaboratively together.

Action Research

Action research is a great tool to use as a leader.  I believe that by identifying relevant needs for your organization is beneficial to the organization and all of the stakeholders.  Action research allows for collaboration between all stakeholders in an organization.  The group works together as a whole to create change for their organization.  The inquiry involved in action research promotes professional growth for leaders.  Action research creates an alternative to traditional professional development.  It allows stakeholders to work towards a specific goal related to their organization. This makes the professional development more meaningful.  Administrators participating in action research become role models for teachers and students in the organization.  We often hear that as leaders we must lead by example.  An administrator participating in action research lead by showing that learning is done by doing and not telling.  The example that they set for teachers and students creates success in the organization by promoting others to take ownership of their learning.  The change provided by action research is a positive aspect of action research.  Traditional research often inquires what improvements need to made to a program, but action research calls for positive change within an organization.  The changes made based on the action research benefit not only the program, but all those involved in the change process.