EDLD 5301 Research - Week 3 Action Research Plan

As part of the week 3 assignment , we were to generate our action research plan. My action research topic addresses the new master schedule implemented at my campus. This school year each content teacher has 2 planning periods each day.

My action research question or inquiry question is:

Is the new master schedule at Holub Middle School beneficial to teachers and students?

Sub questions include:

Are the teachers happy about this new schedule?

Does this schedule help to increase student achievement?

What effect does this schedule have on class sizes?

What effect does this new schedule have on the school budget?

Does this schedule allow for more collaborative time for content and interdisciplinary teams?

Action Planning Template
Goal: To determine if the new master schedule at Holub Middle School is beneficial to teachers and students.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Create online survey for teachers to complete that will asses teacher’s true feelings about schedule, and class sizes.	Jennifer Winston will create survey. Site supervisors, R. Morgan and J. Smith will approve final survey before it is revealed to staff.	November 15, 2012- January 4, 2012.	Internet access, a computer, and survey monkey software. **Staff will be instructed about survey via district e-mail, and newsletters.	Online survey is accessible and completed by staff.
Interview Content specialist face-to-face to determine if they have more collaborative meeting time.	Jennifer Winston. Site supervisor, Roy Morgan will set up interview time during a ILT meeting.	January 15, 2012 – January 31, 2012.	Designated time during ILT meeting when all content specialists are together to ask interview questions.	Interview transcript and report.
Interview building principal about budget implications of the new schedule. I will also request hard copies of last year and current year budgets.	Jennifer Winston Site supervisor, Roy Morgan Building principal, Pauline Beckley.	February 1, 2012- February 28, 2012.	Time to meet with the building principal, and hard or electronic copies of 2012 and 2013 budgets.	Report detailing if the new schedule had any impact on budget.
Compare 2012 and 2013 8th grade STAAR results to determine any gains or gaps in achievement due to new schedule.	Jennifer Winston Site supervisor, Roy Morgan Building principal, Pauline Beckley.	May 31, 2012- June 15, 2012.	Hard or electronic copies of current year and last years STAAR results.	Definitive determination and report of which years STAAR results were better.
Dissemination of findings	Jennifer Winston	June 30, 2012	Electronic and hard copy of findings.	Report of findings

Format based on Tool 7.1 from Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools

(Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2010)

EDLD 5301 Research - Week 2 Reflections

During Week Two of my Lamar Research course, I was impressed that both of the scholar interviews I chose to analyze for my assignment, Dr. Johnny Briseño, Principal, Rancho Isabella Elementary, Angleton ISD and Dr. Timothy Chargois, Director of Research, Planning and Development in Beaumont ISD, discussed the various uses of action research. I enjoyed hearing some of their proposed topics of actions research, and I plan to read their dissertations.

After having a hectic week, I was able to meet with my site supervisor to discuss my proposed research topics. I was happy to discover that he like my topic choices. My site supervisor talked with me about the time necessary to do research in my proposed subjects. Due to time, one of my topics was not a good choice. The other two topics were approved, and I am excited to narrow my choice to one topic.

Week 2 was insightful in helping me to realize the various topics and uses of action research. Campus leaders, as well as teachers and specialist can benefit from performing action research.

EDLD 5301- Research- How educational leaders might use blogs.

A key part of action research, as with any research, is sharing the findings of one’s work. The immediacy of today’s ever-changing administrative environment, coupled with the time constraints modern principals and administrators find themselves under, creates a need for a flexible, easy-to-use discourse and feedback tool. Blogs (weblogs) ideally fill this need; as many principals already use blogs to communicate school and professional information, and to keep their colleagues informed, this tool is familiar and informal enough to promote frequent use throughout the action research process. Blogs can be used to clarify and accurately express the action research process, and through the feedback provided by discussion postings to the blog, new questions or unanticipated solutions may arise, refining the research while providing the potential for improved solutions addressing the identified needs.

EDLD 5301 Research- What I have learned about action research.

During the first week of my EDLD 5301 Research course, I have learned to identify several key factors that differentiate action research from research in general. First and foremost, action research can be best characterized as practitioner inquiry; unlike traditional academic research performed by outsiders to the subject or scenario, action research is performed by insiders, educators and administrators who are themselves, according to Dana (2009), “Focused on providing insight into an administrator’s own practice in an effort to make change and improve the school.” As Dana elaborates, practitioner inquiry takes place in typical school and classroom settings during the course of everyday administration, and stems from a desire to better understand and improve a process, or to establish a new process, ultimately designed to improve instruction and thereby improve the school. Traditional research in contrast is generally more scientific in nature, conducted by researchers (scholars, scientists, professional researchers or other “outsiders” to the school) in a controlled and objective setting.

Secondly, action research is also differentiated from traditional research in that it answers a relevant and pressing question or need in the administrator’s specific school or setting, whereas scholarly research, while it may answer a question, is more broad in nature and applied to a larger question on a grander scale not necessarily impacting or improving any specific immediate need in any specific school or setting.

Finally, action research typically results in a synergistic outcome in which current practices are combined with and transformed by the research findings, resulting in an immediate transformative situation improving the school. Action research builds on ongoing feedback as new methods are applied and results observed firsthand; it is both interactive and practical, driven by and responding to the dynamic need and the intervention process itself.



References:

Dana, Nancy F. (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA:Corwin.