Action Research Update

As far as my action research I have sat down with principal and came up with implements to select students and do visits home on the first round of parent teacher conferences. The first key in presenting to all stakeholders the importance of parental-community involvement is to clearly outline how it will benefit learning or instruction at school that will ultimately lead to an increase in student learning or performance.  As the leader, you must connect the goals of the partnership to the students.  You must have a logical explanation or proof that the partnership will make a difference in the students learning at your campus.  While other benefits may exist, such as support for the schools or financial benefits to the school, if benefits aren’t tied to or don’t lead to increasing student performance, then most stakeholders will be reluctant to buy into the partnership.  Seeking advice from faculty and parents or any other possible stakeholder concerning the structure or implementation of the involvement opportunities prior to giving the presentation can be crucial in gaining support.  When people feel they have had a say in something they more likely will support it even in challenging times for a new program. 

What do we want to accomplish:

• We want to figure out what motivates those that aren’t currently motivated to perform better in class.
• We must determine why they are not motivated to come to school regularly.
• We need to explore why some students aren’t involved in any extracurricular or school related activities, clubs, or teams.
• We must try to identify any reasons some students become disengaged in their high school years and chose not to be an active part in the school.
• We must analyze the data we receive through surveys from teachers and parents as well as case studies and interviews with various students.

Activities to be conducted to help us reach our goal:

• The PBIS team (Positive Behavior and Intervention Support) will meet to analyze surveys to consider reasons some students feel withdrawn from the school and brainstorm ideas to get them actively involved so they feel like they are an important part of the school community.
• Secretaries, counselors, and campus administrators will meet to gather strategies for monitoring attendance levels throughout the year to see if decreasing apathetic attitudes via getting students involved in a school related activity will increase attendance.
• PBIS team will help set the action plan for reaching students that lack motivation to contribute to the school.
• The assistant principal will monitor discipline to see if referrals decrease as students begin getting involved in the school and find something that motivates them to do their best.
• The PBIS team will meet to evaluate student apathy each six weeks tying discipline, attendance, and student participation with school related activities or teams to student apathy levels.
• PBIS team will make necessary modifications to the action plan as they begin tracking the results of strategies to improve apathy continue to evolve.

Resources and tools:

• Reward systems of other districts with high attendance rates, high student participation, and low discipline problems should be studied.
• Professional journals
• The most important tool will be the student participation reports generated monthly because as students find something that motivates them, they will begin to improve their efforts to be better students.
• Home visits will be an important tool because when parents become more involved and interested in his/her student’s education, the students would most likely become more motivated to contribute in a positive way to the school community.

Timeline:

• Before the start of school we must – identify the characteristics of an apathetic student, meet with teachers to find a select group of students that do exhibit apathetic characteristics that can participate in case studies or interviews, create the PBIS team, analyze last years data on attendance, discipline, and student participation levels in school related activities, clubs, or teams.
• Weekly during the year we must – encourage teachers to be motivators to meet all students’ need for wanting someone to care for them and push them to do better.
• At the end of each six weeks we must – meet as a PBIS team to discuss progress or problems and make adjustments as needed when we feel we aren’t making progress toward creating a positive school climate and culture that captures and motivates all students.
• At the end of the school year – data will be examined to see if better motivation of apathetic students can contribute to attendance issues, discipline issues, and student participation levels with school functions, clubs, and teams.

Person responsible for the implementation:

• The assistant principal will lead the PBIS team and will monitor the halls daily between classes to help do his/her part in making students feel welcome and supported in their day-to-day journey in high school.
• The athletic coaches and club sponsors will determine how to motivate students to want to be a part of his/her team or club to increase student participation in an effort to find something those interests and motivates them to be a better student.
• The PBIS team (not yet selected), led by the assistant principal, will monitor progress throughout the year, will be in charge of interviewing the students identified by teachers as apathetic students, and gather input from parents and teachers concerning student apathy and how to decrease it.

Process for monitoring goals:

• Attendance data and discipline data will be examined each six weeks.
• The percent of students participating in the various school organizations and teams will be reviewed yearly to check for growth.
• The attitude and contributions to the school of each individual student identified by the teachers in department meetings before the year will be examined to help observe growth throughout the year.

Assessment instrument:

We will use the attendance rates, discipline referrals, and student participation percentages to determine success and possible adjustments concerning our ability to change apathetic students into motivated students.

Action Research & What it means to me!

Administrative inquiry is a systematic, site-based approach to improving either yourself as a leader, your school as a whole, or any issue or topic that needs addressing or improving.  Reflection is the key as well as gathering details and facts from all stakeholders.  Teachers, students, parents, office staff, and the community can all be contributors for gathering data.  Data can also be in the form of test scores, attendance rates, graduation rates, or any other statistical data that can be used to focus on improving an identified weakness.  When solutions or action plans are developed and put into practice, they are continually tested and challenged to continually tweak or modify to make better if possible or to go another direction if it didn’t work.  The process is continuous or cyclical, and it is constantly evolving like a living, breathing, constantly learning task.

 First hearing Action Research I felt that it would be doing a lot of research topics which can be very overwhelming for the first week of class. I've always approached research as a subject that is time consuming and but very informative on learning new things and becoming better at researching. Action Research can help find the root of the problem and help find multiple solutions. Having aspirations of being an Athletic Director one day, I started thinking of how research can be beneficial in learning "What it means to be an Athletic Director" or research how in depth athletic directors are in school districts. As an Athletic Director you are a administrator and have to know that Action Research is vital in helping your campus reach goals and succeeding for the students in the classroom. Action Research is also a great tool for districts to analyze data and is vital in critiquing new programs and implementing ideas to programs already in place.

In my view Action Research is a great tool to use as an administrator. You see situations in a different light and come up with a variety of solutions to fix problems.  . 

How can educators use blogs?

Blogs are tools for educators to use for communication and to use for learning opportunities from their colleagues. Blogs are great for people who love to read about and see how similar subjects are being effectively taught by teachers. I know I like to read blogs about new physical education curriculum's being ran and also blogs over athletic programs around the state. I wish to expand my knowledge from blogs that pertain to administration and school board. I feel this area is vital in learning how districts are run and what ideas I can take from them. One very cool thing for educators is having the comment tool to express your idea on the topic or ask questions to further know more on the topic. This being my first time creating my own blog is excited and I'm anxious to see what the future holds!