Exploring Action Research
Friday, August 6, 2010
My Revised Plan
My revised plan
Action Planning | ||||
Goal: To increase student achievement through increased parental involvement | ||||
Action Steps(s): | Person(s) Responsible: | Timeline: Start/End | Needed Resources | Evaluation |
Increase the amount of information going home (email sign up lists, posting on the web, letters home through students and through the postal system, and utilizing the automated phone caller) | Administration, office staff, campus technology staff | Start: 2 weeks after school begins (Sept. 6th) End: two weeks after the last day of school (June 16th) | Materials: Paper, envelopes and stamps
Server space for parent email sign up Webmaster to post information Automated phone service | Pose questions on teacher, parent and student surveys regarding information sent home. |
Set up a parent night to ask them for suggestions on how they can increase their involvement and discuss different options they may not realize are considered parental involvement. | Administration, PBIS team | This should be done during the first full week of September (6th-10th)
This is a one-time only event. | Lecture Hall Snacks and drinks (cups and plates) Administrator PBIS Team members Power Point Presentation to show different types of parent involvement Sign-up sheet | Immediate feedback from attendees through question and answer session and a confidential survey at the end of the presentation
Collect data on how many participated and how they heard about the meeting. Figure out the percentage of parents that participated vs. how many letters were mailed. |
Set up a monthly calendar for teachers to post important dates and assignments that parents can sign up to receive information about. | PBIS team Campus technology staff Freshman teachers | This should be implemented by the third week of school and should continue throughout the school year. | Server space Google or yahoo group that will be shared with freshmen parents | Pose questions on teacher, parent and student surveys regarding the shared calendar. Collect data on parent participation. |
Depending on areas of need, offer parenting classes such as how to deal with teenagers, getting your student ready for college, etc. | Counselors | Start: First week of October (4th-8th) and continue once every quarter until the end of the year | This will depend on the session type but there will always be refreshments available | There will a confidential evaluation survey at the end of each session and questions will be added to the end of the year teacher, parent and student survey Collect data regarding parent participation. |
Set up specific times parents may come to the campus and make use of our library and all of its resources. | PBIS Team Librarian Administration | This will begin right after the first meeting with parents in September and will continue throughout the school year | Stipend for the librarian and the extra hours that she may incur | Questions will be added to the end of the year teacher, parent and student survey. Collect data regarding parent participation over time. |
Include a general session at the beginning of Open House night so that PBIS can talk about parent involvement and other important topics. | PBIS Team Teachers Administration | This will occur September 20th and is a one-time event | Refreshments Posters Mailers Automated phone calls | Questions will be added to the end of the year teacher, parent and student survey
There will also be a sign up at the end of the night for parents to sign up for an automated survey to be either done over the phone or through email
Collect data on parent participation |
Offer crash course nights for parents to learn what their kids are doing in class so that they may assist their kids at home. | Freshmen teachers | Offer once a quarter throughout the school year | Take home materials for parents Refreshments | Informal evaluations done through questioning from the teacher Surveys at the end of the year from teachers, parents and students Collect data on parent participation and student achievement |
Offer childcare during parent events | PBIS team Student clubs/organizations | This will be offered at all parent events starting with the parent information meeting in September and continuing throughout the school year | Each club will provide their own activities for the children | None required |
Recruit a parent liaison to help get information back and forth to parents | PBIS team | This can be accomplished at the first parent information night | Mailers about parent information night
Flyers for parents about being a parent liaison | Feedback from the parent liaison in the form of an informal interview or questionnaire |
Friday, July 30, 2010
Preparing for Parental Involvement
Action Planning | ||||
Goal: To increase student achievement through increased parental involvement | ||||
Action Steps(s): | Person(s) Responsible: | Timeline: Start/End | Needed Resources | Evaluation |
Increase the amount of information going home (email sign up lists, posting on the web, letters home through students and through the postal system, and utilizing the automated phone caller) | Administration, office staff, campus technology staff | Start: 2 weeks after school begins (Sept. 6th) End: two weeks after the last day of school (June 16th) | Materials: Paper, envelopes and stamps Server space for parent email sign up Webmaster to post information Automated phone service | Pose questions on teacher, parent and student surveys regarding information sent home. |
Set up a parent night to ask them for suggestions on how they can increase their involvement and discuss different options they may not realize are considered parental involvement. | Administration, PBIS team | This should be done during the first full week of September (6th-10th) This is a one-time only event. | Lecture Hall Snacks and drinks (cups and plates) Administrator PBIS Team members Power Point Presentation to show different types of parent involvement Sign-up sheet | Immediate feedback from attendees through question and answer session and a confidential survey at the end of the presentation Collect data on parent participation |
Set up a monthly calendar for teachers to post important dates and assignments that parents can sign up to receive information about. | PBIS team Campus technology staff Freshman teachers | This should be implemented by the third week of school and should continue throughout the school year. | Server space Google or yahoo group that will be shared with freshmen parents | Pose questions on teacher, parent and student surveys regarding the shared calendar. Collect data on parent participation. |
Depending on areas of need, offer parenting classes such as how to deal with teenagers, getting your student ready for college, etc. | PBIS Team Administration | Start: First week of October (4th-8th) and continue once every six weeks until the end of the year | This will depend on the session type but there will always be refreshments available | There will a confidential evaluation survey at the end of each session and questions will be added to the end of the year teacher, parent and student survey Collect data regarding parent participation. |
Set up specific times parents may come to the campus and make use of our library and all of its resources. | PBIS Team Librarian Administration | This will begin right after the first meeting with parents in September and will continue throughout the school year | Stipend for the librarian and the extra hours that she may incur | Questions will be added to the end of the year teacher, parent and student survey. Collect data regarding parent participation over time. |
Change Open House night to more of a parent social event where there would be food and drinks for the parents and they would have the opportunity to meet their child's teacher in a more relaxed setting. | PBIS Team Freshmen Teachers Administration | This will occur September 20th and is a one-time event | Refreshments Posters Mailers Automated phone calls | Questions will be added to the end of the year teacher, parent and student survey There will also be a sign up at the end of the night for parents to sign up for an automated survey to be either done over the phone or through email Collect data on parent participation |
Set up ride service for parents to come to the school for events such as open house, parent classes and the library times. | PBIS Team Administration Durham Transportation Central Administration | This will begin with the first parent information night and will continue throughout the year as needed | Depending on how many people need the service, we would need either a bus from Durham transportation or use of the two Suburbans from central administration Liability waivers would also be necessary | Collect data on parent participation and add questions to the end of the year surveys |
Offer crash course nights for parents to learn what their kids are doing in class so that they may assist their kids at home. | Freshmen teachers | Offer once a month at the beginning of the school year and continue throughout the school year | Take home materials for parents Refreshments | Informal evaluations done through questioning from the teacher Surveys at the end of the year from teachers, parents and students Collect data on parent participation and student achievement |
Offer childcare during parent events | PBIS team Student clubs/organizations | This will be offered at all parent events starting with the parent information meeting in September and continuing throughout the school year | Each club will provide their own activities for the children | None required |
Friday, July 23, 2010
Further along the exploration
Identifying the 9 common topics was very informative and helped me start to think about how to break down ideas into categories so they are easier to interpret. The interviews were also quite helpful because I could literaly see action reasearch in action. They discussed how effective the action research was and how it had helped each of their situations. The most interesting to me though (and ironic because it is supposed to be more interesting; that's the whole point!) was develping my own topics for action research and conducting an email dialog with my principal about those topics. I found her insight to be quite helpful and an interesting perspective because she has primarily worked in a reform type setting. She made some interesting points that I had not considered and I look forward to talking with her again about my plan. Which, by the way, is In what ways can I contribute to increasing parent involvement on my high school campus?
Friday, July 16, 2010
Blogs and Educational Leadership
What is Action Research?
I am currently the chair of our Positive Behavior Intervention Strategies (PBIS) team and one of our goals is to decrease the amount of referrals written by teachers. We could use an action research plan to evaluate our current referral data, analyze the types of referrals being written, and create a discipline action plan that addresses our needs. After the first semester, we could use the action research inquiry to evaluate the effectiveness of the discipline action plan we developed.