My Action Research Plan

Action Planning Template Goal: To examine math achievement of students in Special Education and determine what steps the campus can take to increase the progress of these students and close the achievement gap between Special Education and other student groups. Action Steps Person Responsible Timeline: Start/End Needed Resources Evaluation Gather data from TAKS tests and benchmarks from 2009-2010 & analyze results Janet Tracy August and September 2010 Gather data from COMPASS, TAKS reports, Present data to leadership team, then faculty. Review MAP rosters (Math Acceleration Program) from 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 to see which Special Education students received it Janet Tracy MAP program data from 09/2009-05/2010 2009-2010 to be reviewed September 2010, 2010-2011 reviewed October 2010 MAP rosters for grades 3-5 from 2009-2010 Staff Share and Teacher Binders Present data to leadership team Lesson plan checks Laura Holson Veronica Medina Janet Tracy Fall semester 2010 Teachers post lesson plans on share drive, administrators review Lesson plans will be posted and reviewed weekly Walk Throughs Laura Holson Veronica Medina Janet Tracy Math Specialist 2010-2011 school year What to Look For (WTLF) Math and CoTeach form, Flip Camera Feedback on WTLF form, watch video with teacher for formative feedback Collect data from Math benchmarks 2010-2011 Janet Tracy Ongoing in 2010-2011 COMPASS Benchmark reports, class profiles, individual student results After each benchmark, leadership team will review results and discuss trends

Reflecting on Week 2

It was helpful for me to listen to Dr. Briseno, Dr, Chargois, and Dr. Lewis discuss action research. I really connected with what Dr. Lewis said about being a data rich district and how important it is to be able to look at your data critically to make change happen. I work in a large, data driven district. We are focused on teachers knowing their class and individual data as well as principals analyzing campus data.

After completing the reading, I reflected on my proposed action research topics. It helped me to read the examples Dana (2009) presented.

Purpose of My Research

The purpose of this research project is to investigate the impact of general education inclusion and Special Education support on the math achievement of students in Special Education.

What Have I Learned About Action Research?

As I read the Dana text, Leading with Passion and Knowledge (2009), I realized that what I knew as research was not action research. What I have done as an undergraduate and a graduate student that was called a "research paper", was really not true research because all that I did was review existing literature on the topic. I did not extend on what was available and apply it to my practice as an educator.

Action research is a spiraling process "focused on providing the administrator insight into his or her own practice in an effort to make change and improve the school"(Dana, 2009, p.7). Unlike traditional research where the question or issue comes from the researcher, principal inquiry (action research) centers around a question from the principal or leader. It allows the principal to be specific and targeted to the needs of the school rather than being general to education as a whole. For example, instead of asking what professional development strategy is most effective, the action researcher might ask how he as the principal can facilitate the professional growth of the teachers within his school. Action research brings relevance to professional development because it looks at the specific needs of the school. In this way, it makes teachers and adminstrators feel more involved in the professional development instead of feeling like the professional development is done to them.

Action research would be used well in conjunction with the campus improvement plan to determine what the needs of the campus are and go about the inquiry based process to address the needs. As I was working through the week's material, I was connecting action research with Response to Intervention. The idea behind Response to Intervention (RtI) is to critically examine the strengths and weaknesses of the student and then develop research based strategies to address the needs. Educators first do this on their own in TIER I instruction, and then if need be, they take the concern to the RtI committee where a PLC type of approach is used to reflect on what is working for the student and refine our practice to teach the student the skills needed. It is constantly being monitored and adjusted to enhance the learning of the student. As a principal, I also plan to implement PLCs with the faculty. I think this is a great way to involve all teachers in smaller, focused groups that can target specific areas of need. Large groups tend to make it easy for teachers to be less invovled in the meetings, and everyone's input is important to the well being of the school.

How might educational leaders use blogs?

Blogs can be a great way for educational leaders to communicate with their staff members and community in an informal way. Instead of using time during staff meetings for long discussions, leaders can post discussion items and staff members can respond prior to the meeting when they have time. Using a blog to communicate with parents and community members also allows for more stakeholder input into the school. Communication is so important in building relationships.