Action Research Project

SCHOOL VISION:

District Goals as stated in the Comprehensive School Improvement Plan: II. What will we do to meet student-learning needs? District Long-Range Goals: 5. All students will experience a safe and productive learning environment Evaluation:  We will also compile data and analyze it, based on the goals of the PBIS committee and compare the data to the goals those goals.  We will work collaboratively to revise the action plan and reset goals, to meet the needs of students, and develop strategies in order to decrease the number of disciplinary actions and tardies.  The other goals linked to student achievement will also play a role in newly revised activities towards the successful implementation of PBIS, while increasing students’ achievement and overall sense of community at our school. My site supervisor and I will collaborate by meeting and conferring about data and results and interpretation of the data for the school.    This might be done by blog as well. Then, we will produce new wonderings from results and try to draw conclusions and answers that will target data-driven decisions that will most likely be implemented and will help us gather more data about current implementation of PBIS and most likely will lead into further discussions, about current intervention programs as well, such as At-Risk.  As far as, sharing my findings, the details about that process can be found in Part 4 below. Sharing results:  In order to share my findings for my action research project, I will make sure to include the four critical tasks outlined by (Dana, 2009): 1)    Providing background information 2)    Sharing the designing of the inquiry (Procedures, Data Collection, and Data Analysis) 3)    Stating the learning and supporting statements with data 4)    Providing concluding thoughts This will most likely be done in the beginning in by writing a report and sharing it with my site supervisor, who will then analyze it, and develop new wonderings related to the current implementation of PBIS, then if significant findings are found, we will develop other plans of inquiry and gather more data and analyze it, to try to reach concluding ideas and thoughts about the implementation of PBIS at its success and needs for revision.  If significant findings are found then these will be communicated to the PBIS committee and through collaboration we will develop revisions and plans for revision in order to remodel our implementation strategies to best meet the needs of the school and its constituents.  If new implementation is needed, I might use a Power Point presentation of some kind to share our findings, and implement the revisions during a staff development. GOAL:

OUTCOMES	ACTIVITIES	RESOURCES/ RESEARCH TOOLS NEEDED	RESPONSIBILITY TO ADDRESS ACTIVITIES	TIME LINE	Benchmarks/ ASSESSMENT
To assess the implementation of the PBIS program in the Jr./Sr. High School To assess how the the implementation of PBIS has affected Iowa Assessment Data for the Jr./Sr. High School To assess how the implementation of PBIS has affected tardy, referral, and suspension/expulsion rates for students.	To gather data on how the current implementation of PBIS has affected: 1. office referral rates 2. tardy rates 3.  suspension/expulsion rates 4. Iowa Assessment Scores After assessing this data, with the help of the site supervisor and PBIS team, we will find ways to revise our implementation of PBIS and develop methods that are data driven to try to produce new wonderings and conclusions.	Data from Power School for: # of office referrals issued since 2009-10 school year-Present # of tardies issued,  since 2009-10 school year-Present Suspension and expulsion data from the IS3 index Student, teacher, parent, administrator survey data Iowa Assessment Data from 2009-Present school year	Site supervisor: High School Principal PBIS committee members Myself Curriculum Director	April 2013- May 2014	State of Iowa Educational Leadership Standards and Criteria: Standard #2 An educational leader promotes the success of all students by advocating, nurturing and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional development. (Culture of Learning) Standard #3  An educational leader promotes the success of all students by ensuring management of the organization, operations and resources for a safe, efficient and effective learning environment. (Management)

Week 2 Insights & Learnings

In week 2:
I have learned of the 9 passions that drive the action research inquiry process.
I have found that the readings have been both insightful and appreciative of my educational leaders from the past and present.  There are many facets to education that take a village to master, and
have proven to be helpful in driving America's educational institutions forward to a more efficient, enriching, and diverse experience.
I will use these readings in my future career as I carefully and thoughtfully reflect and inquire in on-going discussion with colleagues on  solving the problems specific to each school that I am apart of.

Lastly, the main topic that I will be focusing on in my action research as of now, is the methodologies and implementation of PBIS at our school, and what ways it is improving student achievement, attitudes, and active participation in producing a positive learning environment at our school.

Cheers!
To an exciting journey ahead.....

HOW ADMINISTRATORS CAN USE BLOGS FOR ACTION RESEARCH?

Administrators can use blog to stimulate on-going discussion between colleagues, members of committees, professional development teams and in-services, communicate and stimulate discussion with community members and students about a particular topic of interest, etc.  Administrators can keep a journal that they can share with other colleagues 1,000's of miles away as well, in order to help them reflect and turn their ideas into productive realities that help form and shape the success of their school, their attitudes and pedagogies on matters, and their future careers.  This collaborative, reflective process has proven to be very valuable for reflection and collaboration with colleagues and other professionals world wide.  Overall, it is a good way to involve stakeholders and develop workable models and solutions to the every day problems that administrators face this day and age in education.

WEEK1 ACTION RESEARCH AND USES

I have learned through my assigned readings on action research that the benefits of action research, allow administrators to build a community within and around a school that lead to more efficient and better leadership practices and a more stimulating, positive, and productive learning environment for faculty, staff, and students within the school setting.   For instance, research from Bracewell, in 2008 demonstrates better practices can be investigated and effectively utilized in a school setting such as the new-implemented inclusion model and how it affected regular education students and ESE students alike.  It also provided an opportunity to break isolation between teachers, by allowing them to co-teach and utilize one another’s expertise in the classroom setting.

Based on the current research, the benefits, applications in educational settings, and the positive outcomes associated with action research, it far outweighs the traditional approaches of research in the school setting and provide a much more effective and enriching experience for principals to work with all constituents involved in solving the problems that exist in a school, while forming a long-term systematic and collaborative approach to finding solutions to better ensure the success of all of the students in a school district or school;  and ultimately allows administrators to become “head learners” and proactive versus reactive, working with all parties involved in making a school function at its highest potential day-to-day.

I think I can use action research to do these very things. Right now, our school district is using it in the PLC's among teachers teaching different disciplines and in some ways in the leadership and technology committees.  Furthermore, other ways of using action research in my internship and profession would be to: get more involved in administrative implementation of action research in our school and school district, revising administrator and building leadership meetings to include some of the examples outlined in the readings, that involve reflection and collaboration of one's administrative practices, and to involve all constituents in solving some of the issues that our school district and school are focusing on in the days ahead.