Action Research - The Heart of It

     Now it is all coming together.  The action planning template has allowed me to see a descriptive outline of what needs to be done.  The template has forced me analyze the goal, steps, timeline, resources, and evaluation process so that I have data to support the needs of the process.  My inquiry project deals with increasing parental involvement in the school system.  The purpose is to build a better working relationship between parents and school staff, in an attempt to create a better learning environment and culture for our school.  The difficult part is knowing if the plan will lead me in the right direction.  I feel as though I have acquired the knowledge and put together a plan that will allow myself to complete a successful and informative journey through action research.  The following is my template and overview.   
 

Action Planning Template
Goal: Increase parental involvement, improve at risk student performance
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Analyze & Evaluate new programs that have been added to improve parental involvement (online grades, surveys, title 1 documentation)	Principal of hs-Kurt Ashmore, principal of jh – Tim Webb, councilor – Ranessa Klink, teachers,& myself	Added programs from 2010/2011 school year and 2011/2012 school year.  Research dates are 9-1-11 until 10-31-12	Title 1 parent documentation, List of newly implemented programs for parental involvement	parent surveys, teacher surveys, collaboration with administration, teachers, parents, & myself
JH science class will perform parent/student energy project	Jamie Richardson who is 7th & 8th grade science teacher, Parents, students, and myself	Months of Oct, Nov, & Dec	Parents have to share the amount of energy used on electric, gas, & water – goal is educate households on energy usage and improve parental involvement.	Analyze data from the project, People responsible are Jamie Richardson and myself
Title I Parent Meeting and Parents night	Principal of HS-Kurt Ashmore, Principal of JH-Tim Webb & myself	October 4th, This is when we will pass out report cards	Parents, Teachers, Adminstration, Report Cards, Documentation of concerns	Parents and teachers will discuss the progress of the students and things that parents can do to help students education.
Parent Meeting for girls in athletics                          Compare results of parents attending school meetings and activities by using the Alert Now Calling Service that has been purchased	Myself and Shannon Brown and Amy Inman who are my assistant coaches                           Administration, Teaching staff, myself	October 22,  Cover expectations of girl athletes after first after school basketball practice                       2011/2012 school year	Parents, Coaches, copy of UIL rules and program rules                          Alert Now Calling Service, Administration, Parents, School Activities	Coaching staff will evaluate the progress of meeting                           Administrators, Teaching staff, & myself will collaborated to evaluate and compare this years results

Format based on Tool 7.1 from Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools

(Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2010)

 

Action Research Project

Process Overview

Increasing Parental Involvement

1.  Setting the Foundation – Through meetings with my site supervisors (Kurt Ashmore, Tim Webb) and interviewing several teachers, parental involvement is an issue that we need to improve.  It is believed that improvement in this area will create a better culture among community stakeholders, improve students’ grades, improve students’ behavior, and students’ attendance. 

2.  Analyzing Data – New programs that have been introduced to improve parental involvement along with documented attendance of parent meetings will be analyzed.  These new programs include: web-based grade books that allow parents to monitor their children’s progress throughout the year, parent surveys, teacher projects, and the Alert Service communication software.  Existing programs will also be analyzed such as: student parent night, the title I parent meetings, parent participation in ARD meetings, and any other data that I can find.  By analyzing these things, we will be able to see if there has been an increase of parent participation and possibly find even more ideas to increase parental involvement.

3.  Developing Deeper Understanding – To gain a deeper understanding of this current issue, parents will be interviewed and surveyed, teachers will be interviewed and surveyed, and administration will be interviewed.  Additional data from internet and journal research will be used to compare results from other research projects that have attempted to gain parental involvement. 

4.  Self-Reflection –This research project is feasible to carry out.  Our school district has designated funding,  the data is available, and the people needed are available.  The most difficult aspect will be getting parents to participate, which is the reason for doing this project in the first place.   The district added programs last year and is has agreed to continue to add new programs in an attempt to improve this part of our school’s culture.

5.  Exploring Progmmatic Patterns – The positive aspects of increasing parental involvement throughout our school is to improve at risk students behavior, attendance, and academic progress.  Negative aspects from parental involvement could be parents trying to influence discipline policies and grading policies.  Parents may also continue to refuse to take an active role in their children’s education, or some of the things that parents suggest may not be feasible for the school district to consider.  This might push parents further away from a positive relationship with the school district.

6.  Determining Direction –

A.   Goals and objective are clear which is:  Increasing parental involvement.  This should increase student attendance, academic success, and cut down on student discipline referrals. 

B.    Skills are in place and resources are allocated.

C.    Teachers and Administrators will be discussing the issues and evaluating the results of the research project.

D.  Timeline is realistic.  Data will be analyzed from the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 school year.  New programs will be added throughout this school year.

E.  The plan is going to be monitored by my site supervisors.

F.  The plan will be analyzed by the administrators, teachers, and myself to determine the levels of success our school experiences.

G.  I will revise and improve the plan throughout the year after collaborative meetings and more data has been analyzed.

7.  I am using the 7.1 template from the Harris text to help implement my inquiry.  More information will be added to this template as revisions are needed.  To see this template look in the above assignment. 

8.  All results will be summarized and reported.  That information gained will be used to continue to implement more programs that might continue to enhance parental involvement.