My action research project was first suggested to me by my principal as an after-thought, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted answers! Our school has had a long-standing tradition of offering after-school tutoring. I've wondering (and so have MANY others on campus) how effective this really is. Our students are tired in the afternoon, some teachers do not put their heart into the opportunity, and some students simply do not take it seriously.
My assistant principal told me that all of our students in after-school tutoring are labeled “at risk”, and that most of these students are a part of our 64% of free and reduced students. She said that she was very interesting in seeing the effects of after-school tutoring, and has been collecting data to draw conclusions as well. She collects attendance records, the students’ pre- and post- tutoring grades, and behavior reports (both major and minor infractions). She has noticed that of the students that have many behavior-related trips to the office, tutoring has not proven to be very effective.
My action research project will concentrate primarily on the minority male and economically disadvantaged subgroups. This is where our campus, and district, is not being successful. My principal wants me to look in to other ways than after-school tutoring that will motivate our minority males who are performing so low on the TAKS test.
I am reading literature, collecting school data, and generating surveys to help with this project. The results of this project should be a benefit to our campus and the teachers who are investing their time!
Friday, August 6, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Action Research Project - WEEK 3
Action Research Project
“What is the effectiveness of afterschool tutoring on student achievement, primarily that of minority males and economically disadvantaged students?”
1. Setting the Foundation – Setting the foundation begins with a discussion with my principal on the results we are seeing from our after-school tutoring. So far, we are not seeing the results we would like to see from our tutoring attempts. Students that fall in the minority and economically disadvantaged subgroups are still not making much gain in improvement. Our school was given a Recognized Rating this past year, with Acceptable ratings in years past. Despite our efforts to narrow the gap between the performances of our students, we continue to fail at raising the achievement level of these students in minority subgroups, especially males. We need to take a look at the effectiveness of after-school tutoring, and discuss different options, or change some of the components of after-school tutoring to make it more effective.
2. Analyzing Data – Data needed to begin this project will be a list of students that received after-school tutoring help and their results on the TAKS test. This data will help us chart out a correlation between tutoring and TAKS results. The data will need to clearly show the results of subgroups such as African American males and economically disadvantaged. This is the point where I will need to search for patterns and compare data. I’ll also look for progress made from the beginning to the end of the tutoring process by comparing grades and benchmark results. This data will provide the take-off point for discussing tutoring, with a focus group of teachers, for the 2010-2011 school year.
3. Developing Deeper Understanding – This is the point where I’d like to meet with a selected group of teachers and hear their thoughts on the effectiveness of after-school tutoring. I want to ask questions that will help gain insight on where the problem is with after-school tutoring and what we can change to help tutoring become more effective. I will conduct interviews from teachers and students before, during, and after the tutoring process for the 2010-2011 school year. This will help me in my observations throughout the year. Surveys collected in August 2010 will help guide any changes needing to be made. Questionnaires will be given to tutoring teachers to gauge effectiveness of tutoring during and after the tutoring process. Also, I want to gather information about what each teacher is doing during their tutoring sessions and weigh that against the results of their tutoring to see if that plays a part in the effectiveness.
4. Engaging in Self Reflection – Self Reflection is engaging in my thoughts, goals, and beliefs. My belief about my job as a teacher is that everything I do must make a difference. I don’t believe in doing things just because they are required or because I’ve always done it that way, In saying that, I want any attempts I make toward student achievement to matter and make a difference. So, if after-school tutoring is not working, it is important that we, as a campus, stop and take an inside look at it so we can make changes and improvements. Taking these classes toward my graduate degree has challenged me to expand my knowledge about student achievement and take risks to make my campus an exemplary school. I have a passion for reaching students that are economically disadvantaged and students that are not given the chance they deserve.
5. Exploring Patterns – Asking the right questions is going to be important to extract the needed information that will help me see why after-school tutoring is or is not being effective. This is more than just asking one or two surface questions, but instead, the questions need to delve deep into the issue and give teachers a chance to search their own methods. And the questions need to lead us to statistics and data that will help us clearly evaluate the effectiveness of after-school tutoring. Exploring patterns will help me see if there are any biases among our tutoring that would account for the low achievement among subgroups.
6. Determining Direction – Determining direction begins first with my discussing with my principal. Then I want to gather a focus group of teachers that will collaborate on after-school tutoring data, issues and suggestions. Creating consensus on the after-school tutoring project will help teachers buy-in to the significance of the action research project and will provide more accurate results throughout the year. Meeting with these teachers will help me gain insight into what they believe are the advantages and disadvantages of after-school tutoring, what effects they wish to gain from after-school tutoring, and what changes they believe need to be made to make the tutoring more effective. Teachers will come up with a plan to gather information and data throughout the 2010-2011 tutoring process, so we can compare it with our data from last year and the results we will get from the TAKS test in April and May 2011.
7. Taking Action – The template, Tool 7.1, from the Harris text (included in Part 2 of this assignment) will guide me toward collecting my data and conducting my research. Having a plan written out will help me stay focused and keep the project on task. There might need to be changes made to the action plan as we move along with the action research project. At the end of the 2010-2011 school year, my principal and focus group of teachers and I will need to meet to see if the project was successful in gathering data to compare to TAKS results. The ultimate goal is to see if after-school tutoring is indeed successful toward student achievement on state standardized tests. I’ll also compare that to a couple of teachers that will be trying a different form of tutoring.
8. Sustaining Improvement – Because there will always be the need for remediation, tutoring will be an area that will continue to be looked at and examined of its effectiveness. Teachers in the focus group will continue to discuss new and better ways to tutor students and raise student achievement. We can use the CARE model (Harris, 2009) that allows teachers to list their concerns, affirmations, recommendations, and evaluations about issues such as after-school tutoring. Harris, S., Edmonson, S., & Combs, J. (2009). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 9 steps from analysis to action. Larchmont, N.Y.: Eye on Education.
“What is the effectiveness of afterschool tutoring on student achievement, primarily that of minority males and economically disadvantaged students?”
1. Setting the Foundation – Setting the foundation begins with a discussion with my principal on the results we are seeing from our after-school tutoring. So far, we are not seeing the results we would like to see from our tutoring attempts. Students that fall in the minority and economically disadvantaged subgroups are still not making much gain in improvement. Our school was given a Recognized Rating this past year, with Acceptable ratings in years past. Despite our efforts to narrow the gap between the performances of our students, we continue to fail at raising the achievement level of these students in minority subgroups, especially males. We need to take a look at the effectiveness of after-school tutoring, and discuss different options, or change some of the components of after-school tutoring to make it more effective.
2. Analyzing Data – Data needed to begin this project will be a list of students that received after-school tutoring help and their results on the TAKS test. This data will help us chart out a correlation between tutoring and TAKS results. The data will need to clearly show the results of subgroups such as African American males and economically disadvantaged. This is the point where I will need to search for patterns and compare data. I’ll also look for progress made from the beginning to the end of the tutoring process by comparing grades and benchmark results. This data will provide the take-off point for discussing tutoring, with a focus group of teachers, for the 2010-2011 school year.
3. Developing Deeper Understanding – This is the point where I’d like to meet with a selected group of teachers and hear their thoughts on the effectiveness of after-school tutoring. I want to ask questions that will help gain insight on where the problem is with after-school tutoring and what we can change to help tutoring become more effective. I will conduct interviews from teachers and students before, during, and after the tutoring process for the 2010-2011 school year. This will help me in my observations throughout the year. Surveys collected in August 2010 will help guide any changes needing to be made. Questionnaires will be given to tutoring teachers to gauge effectiveness of tutoring during and after the tutoring process. Also, I want to gather information about what each teacher is doing during their tutoring sessions and weigh that against the results of their tutoring to see if that plays a part in the effectiveness.
4. Engaging in Self Reflection – Self Reflection is engaging in my thoughts, goals, and beliefs. My belief about my job as a teacher is that everything I do must make a difference. I don’t believe in doing things just because they are required or because I’ve always done it that way, In saying that, I want any attempts I make toward student achievement to matter and make a difference. So, if after-school tutoring is not working, it is important that we, as a campus, stop and take an inside look at it so we can make changes and improvements. Taking these classes toward my graduate degree has challenged me to expand my knowledge about student achievement and take risks to make my campus an exemplary school. I have a passion for reaching students that are economically disadvantaged and students that are not given the chance they deserve.
5. Exploring Patterns – Asking the right questions is going to be important to extract the needed information that will help me see why after-school tutoring is or is not being effective. This is more than just asking one or two surface questions, but instead, the questions need to delve deep into the issue and give teachers a chance to search their own methods. And the questions need to lead us to statistics and data that will help us clearly evaluate the effectiveness of after-school tutoring. Exploring patterns will help me see if there are any biases among our tutoring that would account for the low achievement among subgroups.
6. Determining Direction – Determining direction begins first with my discussing with my principal. Then I want to gather a focus group of teachers that will collaborate on after-school tutoring data, issues and suggestions. Creating consensus on the after-school tutoring project will help teachers buy-in to the significance of the action research project and will provide more accurate results throughout the year. Meeting with these teachers will help me gain insight into what they believe are the advantages and disadvantages of after-school tutoring, what effects they wish to gain from after-school tutoring, and what changes they believe need to be made to make the tutoring more effective. Teachers will come up with a plan to gather information and data throughout the 2010-2011 tutoring process, so we can compare it with our data from last year and the results we will get from the TAKS test in April and May 2011.
7. Taking Action – The template, Tool 7.1, from the Harris text (included in Part 2 of this assignment) will guide me toward collecting my data and conducting my research. Having a plan written out will help me stay focused and keep the project on task. There might need to be changes made to the action plan as we move along with the action research project. At the end of the 2010-2011 school year, my principal and focus group of teachers and I will need to meet to see if the project was successful in gathering data to compare to TAKS results. The ultimate goal is to see if after-school tutoring is indeed successful toward student achievement on state standardized tests. I’ll also compare that to a couple of teachers that will be trying a different form of tutoring.
8. Sustaining Improvement – Because there will always be the need for remediation, tutoring will be an area that will continue to be looked at and examined of its effectiveness. Teachers in the focus group will continue to discuss new and better ways to tutor students and raise student achievement. We can use the CARE model (Harris, 2009) that allows teachers to list their concerns, affirmations, recommendations, and evaluations about issues such as after-school tutoring. Harris, S., Edmonson, S., & Combs, J. (2009). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 9 steps from analysis to action. Larchmont, N.Y.: Eye on Education.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Picking an Action Research Topic
Initially I chose to do my action research project about motivating minority males. However, I felt this topic was a bit too broad for my first action research project, so I decided to choose a topic that my principal suggested. The topic is "What effect does afterschool tutoring have on the improvement of standardized testing". Our school earned a Recognized rating this past year, but our goal is Exemplary. Beside RtI, afterschool tutoring is our only other intervention to help our at-risk students academically. I have wondered many times in the past years if the effects of after-school tutoring are significant and worth the effort. My opinion is yes, but I think that the tutoring results vary according to several factors. I want to see if time of day changes the effects of the tutoring. I also want to look at the results of our minority males, in particular, because this is the subgroup that has been performing lowest on our standardized tests.
Friday, July 16, 2010
How Can Educational Leaders use Blogs?
Educational leaders are on the forefront of investing technology into the daily school activities of our media-driven, technologically-native students. So why do we, as educational leaders, hesitate to instill technology into our own daily processes? Blogs are a great way to incorporate technology into the role of an administrator. One such way is to use a blog to conduct a book share. Book readers can post their thoughts and comments as they read. Another way to use a blog is for administrators to share with teachers announcements that need to be made, such as calendar updates and changes, meeting dates, and school event information. Blogs can be used to engage parent involvement, such as attaining parent feedback after a school event. These are just some of the ways that blogs can be used to make an educational leaders life a little more productive!
For an example of a blog, check out: http://administratorblog.sjbrooks-young.com/
For an example of a blog, check out: http://administratorblog.sjbrooks-young.com/
Sunday, July 11, 2010
What is "Action Research" and how can I use it?
Action research requires the systematic collection of data and information along with its use to solve a problem or learn more about a particular issue. Research, the collecting of information, is much like putting the pieces to a puzzle together. The more pieces that are joined together, the easier it is to see the big picture.
Action Research requires coming up with a systematic plan. This plan begins with a question. This question is usually linked to current needs, issues, or problems on a campus. Next comes gathering information and inspecting data. This could lead to more questions and more investigation.
You can think of Action Research as an approach similar to the scientific method or an inquiry-based teaching model. Asking questions, formulating hypotheses, collecting data, and making observations! Action Researchers are advised to use data from more than one source. Action research differs from traditional educational research because the administrator and/or teacher is the "researcher", whereas the traditional form of research involves the implementation of findings from another researcher. In action research the findings are relative, unique to the situation, and meaningful to the administrator/teacher doing the research.
Action Research can be used in a variety of scenarios. For example, action research can drive the collaboration of a Professional Learning Community. Members can decide on a question of interest, and use action research to generate information and data on this topic. Action Research is also used by Leadership Teams to research topics of inquiry as they make decisions that affect the growth and change of a school campus. Action Research can even be used by a solitary member to guide their professional development in a way that enriches a teacher's instruction or an administrator's leadership abilities.
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