Final Reflection EDLD 5301 Week 5

Prior to this course, I was not aware of what action research actually was. I just thought it was a new term given to the traditional research that I grew up doing. After the first week of this class, I realized that action research is a way for educators to perform research in their field of work in order to answer questions and deal with issues that are on a more personal level. In other words, you are researching an area within your school and trying to make it a better place for staff and students alike. Action research is done in order to bring change or make something better. Dana stated, that action research, “focuses on the concerns of practitioners (not outside researchers) and engages practitioners in the design, data collection, and interpretation of data around their question.” (Dana, p. 5, 2009)

During week 2, I had to think about a wondering that I wanted answers to. If you think about it, there are always things at school you stop and ask yourself, “I wonder...” A few of my wonderings were: 1. How does tardiness affect student achievement? 2. What affects do long term In School Suspensions (ISS) assignments affect student achievement? 3. Can same gender classes benefit student achievement? After talking with my site supervisor, we decided that #3, How do same gender classes affect student achievement? All of these are still topics that I would like to know more about, but for now, I will focus on the same gender class topic. During the video interviews, I realized that action research is more interesting to do because the topic relates to your situation. (Dr. Kirk Lewis, Superintendent of Pasadena ISD).

Another insight I gained through this course is the importance of reflection. By creating a blog and posting thoughts for others to see is and will continue to be a great help throughout my action research. It is a great feeling to have a whole support group to bounce things off of and to gain their knowledge on their experiences with the topics.

All in all, this course has been very insightful. I look forward to my continued research and reporting the conclusions to my co-workers and administrators. Through it all I hope that my findings will move toward an improvement for my school.

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

My Action Research Plan

Action Research Plan

Goal:  Through action research, determine if same gender classrooms can benefit student learning.

Action Steps:	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline : Start/End	Needed Resources:	Evaluation:
Request list of students	Jan Cowan Jana McClane	March 2011	Counselor’s time to generate list	Feedback from counselor
Segregate list for different middle schools	Jana McClane Carla Williams	March-April 2011	Counselor’s time	To assure proper separation of students
Research data from TAKS scores in 6th grade	Jana McClane Carla Williams	April 2011	Time Access to past records	This will provide data on the gender year instruction
Pull test scores from previous years TAKS	Carla Williams	April - May	DMAC program provided by school district	To assess scores before same gender classes
Check benchmark scores from current school year	Carla Williams ELAR teachers	May – June	Staff time to access records	To check progress
Receive TAKS writing scores from the state	Carla Williams Laurie Perry	May - June	DMAC program Staff	To compare past results to current
Receive other subject TAKS scores from the state	Carla Williams Laurie Perry	May - June	DMAC program Time Staff	To compare past results to current
Select students not in same gender classes to compare data	Jana McClane	June – July	Staff Team Members DMAC Time	To compare student’s scores
Pull scores from non-gender class students from 6th grade 2009/10	Carla Williams Laurie Perry Jana McClane	July	DMAC program Time	To compare scores from gender to non-gender groups
Collect scores from previous TAKS and current 7th grade TAKS	Carla Williams Laurie Perry	July	DMAC program Time	To compare past results
Use data acquired to compare same gender classes to non-same gender classes	Carla Williams	August – September	Access to data collected Microsoft Excel	Comprehensive presentation

5301 Week 2 Blog

During this week's assignment, I listened to 3 interviews of leaders from three different school districts talking on the subject of action research.  All three had interesting points and examples of action research that they had been involved in.  Also this week, it was interesting to read about the different examples of the nine areas of schools that one might perform action research.  The many examples in the text were interesting and made me think about issues in my own school that could use some action research. 
I visited with my site supervisor about possible topics for an action research that would benefit my school.  The three that we narrowed it down to were: 

 1. How does tardiness effect student achievement and scores on standardized tests?
2. Can same gender classes help with student achievement?
3. What affects do long term In School Suspension assignments effect student achievement?

All of the activities this week brought about some "wondering" on topics that might be interesting to do action research.