Draft Action Research Project Progress Report

Before I begin this Progress Report I must say that I have changed my action research project.  So the information below will reflect what my new Action Research Project is.  I changed it after talking with my campus principal and feeling we had more of a need in the Vocational Education area as of right now.

Title

In my action research project, I am trying to determine if vocational education programs provide students that are involved in the vocational programs an incentive to improve academically in core courses and their other elective courses.

Needs Assessment

Seventy percent of our student population on my campus is economically disadvantaged and come from a home environment that either does not have a high school degree and/or do not have formal training to use so they have an opportunity to earn a decent wage.  Ten percent of our student’s population is African American and forty percent of our student population is Hispanic.  The other half of our student population is Caucasian or classified as other.  I do not think this is an ethnic issue since the majority of our students are economically disadvantaged no matter the ethnic breakdown.  I fill the issue really is a geographical issue more than anything.  Where our town is located there are not many jobs that require an advanced degree, however there are a significant amount of jobs where a trade would help our students if they plan on staying in this community.  This is why I feel proving how important vocational education is to our students.

Objectives and Vision of the Action Research Project

The main objective and vision that I have by doing Action Research on the importance of Vocational Education for our students on my campus is to provide data that might show a positive academic trend once students are involved in these Vocational Programs.  The Action Research Project will be a success if the trend is positive and provides great data for our school board and Superintendant to look at that might possible get more Vocational Programs on our campus.

Review of the literature and Action Research Strategy

After looking all over the internet for data about positive trends associated with Vocational Education, I found several articles related to this topic.  Meer’s research from Stanford University best describes Vocational education for high school students by saying, “Kulik (1998) writes that “there is an achievement gap at the start of high school between students who elect different programs.” Some argue that tracking only serves to reinforce these differences, but Slavin (1990) counters that students in different tracks differ too much in aptitude to make any such comparisons meaningful.”  (Meer  2005).  Much like the quote refers to, I feel like every student should have the opportunity to become a productive citizen in society and to do that some individuals might need to learn a trade.  I feel like High School would be a great place to start teaching students a trade, and by doing this Action Research Project I hope the positive data will be able to provide our students with more vocational opportunities.  After speaking with my Principal two weeks ago we felt like this would help our students more than my previous Action Research Project, which is why I changed my Action Research Project.

Articulate the Vision

I am currently communicating the Action Research Project’s Vision.  This is in the infancy because I just changed my action research project.  With that being said, I have spoken with a couple of my coaching friends about how important vocational programs are to our school and our community, and they have agreed with me.  I plan on developing a survey for our staff to take in order to gather more data about their feelings on vocational education.  After I have their results, I am going to survey our parents to see how they see vocational education and what other things they would like us to offer our students on my campus. 

Manage the organization

My main goal with the Action Research Project is to show what a positive effect our current Vocational Education Programs are having on our students, and how new additional programs would benefit our campus and community.  The first thing I need is more academic data about students who are currently in the program.  The academic data needs to be from before they were in the program and then after they were in the program.  I hope to see an increase student achievement once they become part of the program.  My principal will grant me access to the data, but the counselors are who I will work really closely with.   I will interview our current vocational teacher to gather data on how much money, time, materials, and what kind of personnel they need for the programs that they are in charge of.  I will at that time see if any of these programs are possible with our existing personnel.  This is because hiring new personnel is an expense we cannot endure these days.  Once all the data is collected, I will present the data that I have to the school board to see what their take is on implementing other vocational type programs such as JROTC.

Manage Operations

If we are allowed to provide our students with more vocational education programs, I will try to use our existing resources.  These new programs should be run like all the other vocational programs at our schools.  The programs will have a sponsor who is ultimately in charge of organizing activities to get our students actively engaged with the program.   The needs assessment will help us with the data needed to choose the additional programs we might need.  One that comes to mind is JROTC since we do have many of our students joining the military.  These students will need to learn to work together as a unit under the direction of their sponsor.  If the program has any issues occur, they will try to work the issue out.  If anything severe occurs or an issue cannot be resolved, then school administration will be notified.   If the program or programs work together, our students could benefit from the program and quite possible change their lives for the positive forever. 

Respond to Community Interest and Needs

These days all anyone is concerned with in school is academics and academic achievement.   There are not many people who are concerned with students who have a learning disability or students that are not really interested in academics.  Many of those students are good with their hands and will be well suit to learn a type of trade.  If we can teach our students how to develop skills that will make them productive in the workforce, they can go out and make a good living using the knowledge that they gained in high school and/or go to trade school with background knowledge.  Once these students have learned these skills, they can get out in the community and provide a service to the citizens of the community and make a living doing it as well.  Whether it be a carpenter, plumber, welder, electrician, or any other trade you might be able to think of, these students will gain a better self worth and make a living while doing it.

Citations

Meer,  J.  (2005).  Evidence on the Returns to Secondary Vocational Education.  Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.  SIEPR Discussion Paper No. 04-14

Progress on my action research project at the end of EDLD 5326

I have been really busy since the last time I wrote a reflection on our action research project.  After I developed my action research project and had it approved I discovered that there are certain regulations that prevent certain types of foods in the cafeteria.  Therefore the plan to have different ethnic foods is limited.  As for clubs we currently have different clubs for certain student groups on our campus.  The big project that I plan on developing that was part of my action research plan is the culture night.  This will bring different groups together that represent culture and during the culture know each groups will provide certain things to the groups that represent their culture.  This could include types of food, music, historic information and any other thing that might represent their culture.  Toward the end of the summer I met with my campus principal to discuss my intentions with the culture night and we determined that the best time to do this would be one time per semester because of everything that is going on our campus.  We don’t want other programs and organizations to impede on the success that culture night could have.  Right now I am in the progress of nailing down an exact day and time to have culture night.  Once I have done this I will speak with my campus principal to iron out the particular details for culture night.  In order to find groups that would like to set up a booth at culture night I will speak with teachers with different cultural backgrounds about which people I need to speak with so they might provide a booth for our culture night. 

5301 Research for Teachers Final Reflections

5301 Research for Teachers Final Reflections

When 5301 research for teacher began, I had no idea what to expect.  I thought that the class would just teach me how to search for data and write a research paper.  Then the idea of action research/inquire was presented to me.  To be honest I did not know much more about research or inquire then to put an adjective in front of it like action.  I really was wondering what I had gotten myself into.  Once the class began, I developed a greater insight as to what action research really is.  The Dana text describes action research as, “Elliot (1988) describes action research as a continual set of spirals consisting of reflection and action.”  (Dana, 2009)  As I reflect on this course, I will reflect on the weeks throughout this course.  I will discuss the struggles and the successes that I had throughout the course.

When the course began, I watched the Dr. Arterbury and Dr. Jenkins video.  The video provided me with base line knowledge of what action research is.  Once I reflected on the videos, I thought to myself that action research occurs every day no matter what you are doing.  As I read the readings, I developed an understanding of how much more complicated it is than it originally sounds.  The readings helped me understand how action research is different than traditional research.  As I worked on my assignments for week 1, I began to develop a better understanding for action research.  I acquired this understanding through assignments that help us understand why action research is important, how action research works in an educational setting, and showing us action research in action.  The blog that we developed gave us a new avenue n which to share our action research.  The blog will be utilized later in the course.

Week two brought on several educational leader interviews to view.  As I reflected on the interview, which was part of my assignment of that week, I began to develop a better understanding of what action research is.  This is due to hearing about success from leaders who have used action research.  After reflecting on the leadership interviews, we developed a wondering for each action research topic for a school setting.  This helped me gain an understanding on how to develop a wondering for an action research topic.  Dana text says, “Wonderings materialize at the nexuses of the real-world observation, dilemmas, felt difficulties, and passions that you develop in your work as an administrator.”  (Dana, 2009)  Once we developed the wonderings in the nine areas, we had to generate three of our own action research topics.  This was a great activity because you had an opportunity to use your own creativity to help improve your campus/school district.

The rest of the class (weeks three, four, and five) involved developing my action research plan and a strategy to implement my plan.  Of the last three weeks, week three was the most difficult. It took a lot of preparation and thinking to try and develop original ideas to include in my action research plan.  Once the ideas had been developed, I could just go with it.  The last few weeks have been very beneficial through advice from my site-supervisor and colleagues comments on the discussion boards.  The advice I received through the readings and the discussion board is on how to maintain my action research project once it has been developed.  During the final two weeks, the videos alleviated much of my anxiety about the action research plan.  This is because the videos explained that the action research plan is not concrete, it can be adjusted and you can delete things that won’t work for your campus.  I then began to understand how important action research is, but it isn’t worth much if you do not get the research out to colleagues.  The Dana text says, “Principals sometimes prepare different ways and forms of sharing the same inquiry, depending upon which audience he/she will share it with.  However one prepares his/her inquiry, there are two basic forms of sharing: oral and written.”  (Dana,   2009)  One way that I have learned to share on a broad spectrum is through blogs.  This was used during the course, and I have learned how to set up and post on a blog.  I did enjoy the reflection time on my blogs, but I had a concern because I didn’t receive many comments on my blog throughout the course. Hopefully I will receive more comments the longer my blog is available and as I make more posts throughout my action research project.

As I conclude this course reflection, I look back and realize how beneficial this course is going to be for the entire program.  The knowledge that I have acquired provides me an avenue of becoming a lifelong learn.  As I use action research throughout my educational leadership career, the strategies and knowledge that I have gained will allow me to be an effective educational leader that my stakeholders can trust and rely on.

Reference

Dana, F. Nancy (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action

researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Action Research Plan

	Action Research Plan
	Goal: Provide opportunities for students with different cultures to be expressed on our campus.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Monitoring achievement of goals and objectives	Evaluation
Develop clubs representing different cultures found on our campus.	Mrs. Cato High School Principal Michael Stevens	August 2012- May 2013	School sponsors willing to support these clubs.	Increased student involvement in the clubs	Written reports from each club sponsor listing members and accomplishments for the year.
Make ethnically diverse foods available to the students.	Shelly Echols Food service manager Michael Stevens	August 2012- May 2013	Availability of the ingredients to prepare the food.	Positive feedback from students and parents	A summative survey about the food availability at the end of the school year.
Provide cultural videos for teachers view.	Mrs. Cato High School Principal Michael Stevens	August 2012- May 2013	Videos from different cultures, and the librarian willing to provide these to the teachers.	Pro-active involvement on the teacher’s part by being involved in their student’s cultural experience.	A log-in sheet to see how many teachers actually viewed the cultural videos.
Culture night	Mr. Cato High School Principal Michael Stevens	One night in the Fall and One night in the Spring	High School cafeteria after school hours. Teacher/parent volunteers.	Attendance to the culture night increases.	Feedback from the campus stakeholders. If improvements need to be made then we will take action on that the next time there is a culture night.

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

ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT

PROCESS OVERVIEW

Campus Culture the same as our student population?

1. SETTING THE FOUNDATION –

After speaking with campus administrators, identify the key problems that we think our campus has as a campus culture that may not reflect our student population.  Once the key issues have been identified, they will be presented to the site-based decision making committee for discussion.

2. ANALYZING DATA –

Analyze the most recent AEIS report and identify the diversity among students on our campus. Use this data to assemble a focus group that will reflect the diversity within the campus.  Once the focus group has met, take the data accumulated from the focus group and analyze what actions we might need to take to develop a better culture for our students.

3. DEVELOPING DEEPER UNDERSTANDING –

Once the focus group of students has completed their meeting, the information that has been attained from those students will be considered in developing a survey to give to other stakeholders of our campus.  This can be through mail or a survey can be developed and placed on the school website.  Once the survey data has been collected, I will do internet searches to see what resources and ideas I can get for strategies to improve the campus culture. 

4. ENGAGE IN SELF-REFLECTION –

Self-Reflection questions might include:

• Will the campus leadership allow me the time and accessibility to the students who are in the focus group?

• How will the stakeholders respond to the asking of questions about their culture and what improvements might they suggest for the campus?

• Can I gather the data in a timely manner in order to get this action research plan into action so I can try making improvements to the campus?

• Can I develop a survey that is concise but thorough enough for the stakeholders to give beneficial information?  

5. EXPLORING PROGRAMMATIC PATTERNS –

After speaking with my site-supervisor about the action research plan that I am planning on doing, he suggested that I communicate with parents of the students who are part of the focus group.  He also suggested that I do some research into what type of thought provoking questions to ask the students in the focus group.  He said that the questions need to be very open-ended in order to get really thoughtful information.

6. DETERMINING DIRECTION –

-          I’m trying to determine if our campus’ culture promotes our student’s culture.

-          For this action research project to be a success, I must be able to communicate with the focus group and stakeholders of our campus.  Administration has said I can use the enrichment period to speak with my focus group and I have developed a survey on the internet before.

-          Campus administration always knows what is going on when I’m working on some sort of project.  They do give me a lot of freedom, which is why I make sure they are very informed.  When I have issues, I do speak with them to see if they have advice.

-          My timelines are very realistic.  I make sure to give myself a little extra time to make sure I meet my deadlines.  

-          Monitoring this plan will be through active monitoring.  A checklist will be developed to determine if thing are being done properly.  As I monitor things that involve the project, I will use the checklist to determine if it is being done properly.

-          To determine that my plan is a success, I will see how many students are participating with the plan.  If stakeholders get involved in the plan and seem to enjoy it, I would consider it a success.

-          Through active monitoring and stakeholder involvement, I can reflect on what might need to be improved to make the plan more effective.  Once I have developed improvements, I will present them to campus administration.  

7. TAKING ACTION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

Once the plan has been developed, I can begin to take action.  I have come up with several ideas to increase the knowledge of the school culture throughout our campus.  This will include a culture night where students will get to know about different cultures that make up our student’s population.  Another possible action is the development of cultural clubs to help students understand their culture and other cultures.  I also think that having cultural food available for students to eat during lunch will benefit our student’s culture.

8. SUSTAIN IMPROVEMENT

 

Throughout the action research project, I will evaluate the project and reflect back on how I can make improvements to the project as my leadership develops.  As I have success with the project, I am going to share the success with colleagues on-line and at school.  When I have a failure, I am going to share that as well and collaborate with campus leadership to see what I might need to modify for possible success next time.  

5301 Research for Teachers Week Two Reflection

I have learned that action research is an ongoing process that you must undertake to become a better educator.  As you become more experienced and knowledgeable about certain issues that educators face everyday, your action research will be more thoughtful.  As you use action research, you must put it to practical use.  If the research that you are involved in doesn't pertain to your campus/district, don't use it.  You only need to use the research that will lead to the betterment of your campus/district.

Analysis of how educational leaders might use blogs.

Educational leaders can use blogs to keep staff and students informed about current events. Blogs can also be used to provide thought provoking ideas and comments for campus wide discussions.