Updated Action Research Plan

Wording that is highlighed in bold is a revision to the original plan. Some action steps of the original plan have been deleted to narrow the focus of the study.

Goal: The goal of this action research is to help at-risk stduents who are behind in their graduation credits, achieve academic success, recover credits and return to being at grade level. This goal will be accomplished by employing mentoring strategies that will answer the question:
How does a low ration teacher-to-student mentoring program for at-risk students, who are lacking enough credits to be on grade level, affect the student's grades, credits and TAKS scores?

Action Steps-- 1. Identify the students that are not at garde level due to lacking credits.
2. Assign each teacher one or two students, matching as much as possible a
teacher's co-teaching time to the subject in which their mentor student(s)
is having trouble.
3. Address the faculty and explain how the mentoring program will work.
4. Call all mentor students to an assembly, explain how the program will
work, and give each of them the name of their teacher mentor.
5. Teachers will meet with their mentor students once a week during their
co-teaching time and implement mentoring strategies.
6. Research and develop mentoring strategies for use in the program.
7. Collect and analyze mentor student grades at the end of each six
weeks.
8. All mentor teachers will conference with the parents of their
mentor student(s) at either an open house, scheduled conference or by phone during the first six weeks of school..
9. Collect and analyze mentor student grades and credits earned at the end of
the first semester, looking for patterns and trends of improvement.
10. Mentor teachers will adjust strategies as needed and indicated by the results of the 1st semester grades.
11. All mentor teachers will conference with the parents of their mentor
student(s) at either an open house, scheduled conference or by phone during the 4th six weeks of school.
11. Anaylze mentor student TAKS results, 2nd semster grades, and total credis earned for the year.
12. Prepare a final report on the effectiveness of the student mentoring program.

Person (s) Responsible--I (Robert Gomez) will be primarily responsible for implementing the steps of the action research. The head counselor will assist me in determining the names of the students who are behind on credits and as a result will be part of this program. The principal will assist me in explaining and selling the program to the faculty. The teacher mentors will be responsible for meeting with their students and adjusting or maintaining strategies as a need is indicated by student grades and credits being earned and recovered. The parents will be responsible for conferencing with the mentor teacher of their child during the first and fourth six weeks of school. I (Robert Gomez)will prepare a final report on the effectiveness of the project.

Timeline--This action research project will start on Monday, August 2, 2010 with the gathering of data on student credits. Teacher mentoring of students will begin during the 2nd week of school. The action research and strategies will continue throughout the school year and culminate on Friday, May 17, 2011. The final analysis report will be turned in to the principal by the end of June 2011.

Needed Resources: Student transcripts, mentor student grades per six weeks, mentor student grades per semester, mentor student credits earned per semester, mentor student TAKS results.

Evaluation--the evaluation of most of the action research steps are simply a check of whether or not the task was accomplished. The evaluation of the effectiveness of the action research and the effects of the project on student grades, credits earned, credits recovered,and TAKS scores, will be determined by what the data indicates.

Draft Action Research Plan

Goal: The goal of this action research is to help at-risk students, who are behind in their graduation credits, achieve academic succes, recover credits and return to being at grade level. By doing so, an improvement in the school's climate and accountability rating is expected. This goal will be accomplished by employing mentoring strategies that will answer the question: What effects does a low ratio teacher to student mentoring program have on at-risk students, and how does it affect the school's climate and accountability rating?

Action Steps: 1. Identify the students that are not at grade level to a lack of
credits.
2. Assign each teach on campus one or two students, matching
as much as possible a teacher's co-teaching time to the subject
period in which the student has traditionally had difficulty passing.
3. Address the faculty and explain the background need for
and how the mentoring program will work.
4. Call all idenitified students to an assembly to explain the program
and give each student the name of their mentor teacher.
5. Teachers meet with their mentor student (s) during their
co-teaching time once a week.
6. Research and develop strategies for use in the program.
7. Develop a student climate survey.
8. Have all students on campus complete the climate survey.
9. Analyze the climate survey and report the results to the Principal.
10. Analyze the 1st semester grades of mentoring students, looking
at patterns and trends of improvement
11. Mentor teachers adjust straetgies as needed.
12. Students complete an end of the year climate survey.
13. Analyze TAKS results, 2nd semester grades, credits earned and
end of the year climate surveys.
14. Prepare a final report on the effects of the student
mentoring program.
15. With principal input, present report of action research study
to the teaching staff prior to the start of the 2011-2012 school year.

Person Responsible: I will be primarily responsible for the action research. The head counselor will help me obtain the data on which students are not at grade level.

Timeline: This project will start on Monday, August 2, 2011 with the gathering of data on student credits. It will be implemented during the 1st six weeks of school with teachers meeting their mentor students. The research will progess throughout the school year and will cumlinate on Friday, May 17, 1011. The final report will be truned in to the Principal by the end of June of 2011.

Needed Resources: Student transcripts, grades per six weeks, grades per semester, start of school climate surveys, end of school climate surveys, TAKS Results and 2010-2011 AEIS Report.

Evaluation: The evaluation of most of the action research steps are simply a check of whether or not the task was accomplished. The evaluation of the research and the effects of the project on student grades, credits, the school climate and the school's accountability rating will depend on the date which will include gardes, credits earned, TAKS results and the school's AEIS report.

Week 2 Learnings

I think one of the things more notable things I gathered from week two came from the discussion board. It seems that my fellow students believe that I will have a hard time selling the idea of one on one mentoring to the teachers on my campus. I agree that there will be reluctanceon their part, but with the backing of the principal, I am going to appeal to our teachers that we have to do something to help these kids. We are on APY Stage 3, level 2. As a school we also have to do something to help ourselves. Besides, as teachers we have a 45 minute block of common planning time that we are not using to meet every day. It is during this time, I will propose teachers go out and seek their mentor students.
As far as the readings and assignments are concerned, I found Part 2 of the assignment tedious but useful. It helped clarify how action research is being defined and used by others around the state and country, and it solidified my desire to focus on students.

Blog Use by Educational Leaders

Blogs can be used by educational leaders for many reasons. They can be used to inform, build consensus, build morale, give and receive feedback and for professional growth.
Annoucements whether daily or weekly or monthly can be made on a blog. For some teachers this may be a plesant alternative to sorting through the countless e-mails that arrive everyday. Keeping teachers informed and giving them an avenue for feedback can build and sustain morale, which is extremely important to any school.
Blogs can be used for professional learning. As a student in the Leadership Master's program, I can learn a great deal from my fellow student's postings. Likewise, teachers and administrators can learn from reading posting and responses from each other on a progessional blog.

Action Research

I have to admit when I first glanced at the course syllabus, I went, "Noooooo! It's summer."
But as I did the readings and assignment this week, the clouds lifted and I got a clearer picture of what action research is about. I have learned that action research is a systematic method that uses research and reflection to to address a paricular problem or issue; in our case, an educational issue or problem. It has many benefits and once practiced can become a valuable tool for professional growth and problem solving for administrators and teachers.
According to Harris et. al (2010) and Dana (2009), Action research involves specific steps:
1. Determining a question of inquiry or examining a specfic problem or issue. 2. Analyzing Data gathered on site. 3. Reading literature relevant to the issue to gain a deeper understanding of the issue or problem. 4. Engaging in Self-reflection to determine if one has the skills or can aquire the skills to deal with the issue or problem. 5. Exploring programmatic Patterns to determine the empact of solutions on the environment (the classroom or school). 6. Determining a course of action or set of strategies, including setting up a timeline. 7. Taking action by implementing strategies. 8. Evaluation of the project to either make adjustments or sustain improvement. This stage also involves informing others of the results.
Action research has many benefits. As a classroom teacher, I can use action research to review my instructional methods, to analyze the effectiveness of my teaching or to help a student or group of students who may not be learning effectively by developing a question of inquiry and plan to determine why they are having trouble and what corrective actions I can take to help the. As an administrator I can use action plans for professional growth, to model to my teachers to facilitate my teacher's use of action research, to aid my teachers in soilving instructional problems, and to buid consensus and buy in for school improvement.
Action research may seem daunting at first, but I supose with anything it becomes second nature after the practioner uses it a few times. It can be a vaulable tool for classroom and school wide improvement.

Reflection Essay # 8

Blogging can be used to comunicate with school stakeholders for a variety of reasons. There aawas a very good example given in the assigned reading regarding the dvelopment of a new school dress code. A blog could be established for the purpose of giving he community stakeholders information about propsed changes to the dress code. Stakeholder could post heir comments and suggestions for changes to the dress code. Other stakeholders could read the posted commenst and agrree diasagrre or modifya nd improve on the suggestions. This would be an effective way to gain public input, be it form students, parenst, teachers or at large community members.
The development of the campus plan is another example of how a principal could use a blog to seek input from all stakeholders and not just a committe of represenative teachers. Such a Campus Improvement Plan blog could be an evolving document that would eventually end up representing the true and realistic goals of the campus. Were all teachers to provide input, it would be the best example of site based decision making.
Blogs can alos be use dto simpkly inporm he public on the ongoing events at the school and allow the publish to post questions or comments. In this case it turns into a living newspaper.
I believe that blogs will come into more frequent use and will help change the face of education.

While blogging has many educational benefits, one of the main concerns to educators is the ability of students to make or recieve contact from persons who would seek to exploit or influence them in unsavory ways. Blogging allows for predators to make contact with students through the posting of comments and the seeking of personal information.
Other issues of concern are the ability to view and post pornographic material on blogs. While schools have firewalls that can prevent students from accessing inappropriate web sites, these same filters may not always prevent students from accessing inappropriate blogs. Students are very resourceful and are finding ways to get around firewalls. The same filters that are protecting students from reaching inappropriate blogs are also preventing them from reaching and interacting with blogs that have educational benefits. Also, once students are taught the benefits of blogs and begin to use and access appropriate blogs at school, there is nothing to prevent them from accessing inappropriate blogs while they are at home. This means parents must also be educated about blogs and the danger they can pose to their children.