Here is my action research plan

Goal and Objectives
The goal of my action research is to determine if Tier 2 intervention is more beneficial for student achievement if students are assigned intervention by TEK. Once student shows 70% mastery of TEK they attend regularly schedule class. Therefore, students may rotate through intervention as opposed to being scheduled for intervention class for a semester or year’s length.

Activities design to achieve goal

1. Schedule students who do not show 70% mastery of TEK into Tier 2 intervention.
2. Student receives Tier 1 intervention in class and Tier 2 from intervention teacher.
3. Progress monitoring from intervention teacher will determine effectiveness and mastery of intervention, in a more immediate timeframe.
4. When student achieves 70% mastery of TEK, they then follow original schedule.
5. Math teacher and intervention teacher will meet once a week to discuss student achievement.
6. Collaborative team will help determine plan’s effectiveness during student reviews every six weeks.

Resources and Research Tools needed for data gathering

I will use last years 4th grade TAKS results from my campus, benchmark data (every six weeks), 4th grade TAKS results from current year, from other schools in district. I can obtain last years TAKS data on our grading software. I will obtain benchmark data from my administrator that will generate campus comparative data. Lastly, I will receive TAKS data at the end of the year. I think it is important to reflect and continue to evaluated new resources that may reap better student achievement, as opposed to not making any changes to plan throughout year.

Timeline of implementation and completion

Implementation of this plan will be the third week of the first six weeks of school and will finish approximately May 15, of 2011 when the 4th grade Math TAKS test results are distributed. Every six weeks the intervention teacher and I will examine the math benchmark data.

Persons responsible for implementation of plan

I will work closely with my on-site supervisor and the math intervention teacher. But ultimately, it will be me responsible for implementing the plan. The academic coach at my school is also doing her action research plan currently with Lamar University and I believe she will also be a resource and someone responsible with the implementation of this plan.

Monitoring the achievement of the plan

I will use on-going field notes such as basic checking for understanding. Many quantitative measures such as benchmarks, grades, and standardized tests will be used. Student work will be collected. Lastly, during our student reviews, opportunity will be provided to really examine the effectiveness of the plan with a collaborative group. From Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps from analysis to action, I believe that once the plan is in place, on-going reflection will help determine direction of the plan.

Assessment instruments to evaluate effectiveness

I will evaluate student work, quantitative data, field notes, and our collaboration from student reviews to assess the plan’s effectiveness.
Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps from analysis to action provides the framework to expand on my action plan if I achieve the results I desire and think I will achieve. The eight steps allow me to open up the plan to change the Tier 2 intervention system for the other content areas of our campus.

Learning from the interviews in this weeks videos, I have found out that it is important to research what is important to you or something you are interested in. Lastly, it is important to focus on what actions benefit student achievement.

Administrators can utilize action research in many ways to improve school practice or their own. For instance, improving intervention practices, boosting staff moral, or even improving student motivation.

As a potential administrator I think it is important that the leader of the campus be the "head learner" on campus. It is empowering for those on campus to work with a leader that models what they preach. I think action research when done effectively could be the road to exponential growth for a school. So many times school and the individuals in them recognize the problems of their campus or their individual classrooms and do not take the necessary steps to improve. I think this is a problem because we ask students to do this very behavior, though we do not always model it for them. I think schools are an evolving being in themselves, always changing. If schools do not constantly and persistently adapt then they will not meet the needs of their changing student body. At an elementary school with 750 students and 100 staff members there is constant evolution and change.

Writing a journal or blogging seems like a great way to really focus on and narrow in on specific behaviors or procedures an administrator wants to improve. With journals and blogs, the writer is able to constantly reflect and refine what they write until they get to the specific problem behaviors they may want to change.