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.  .