action research

sorry my blog does transcribe my chart so it kind of runs together sorry guys.

Goal
What instructional and organizational management strategies can our staff employ to reduce our Hispanic non-completion rate to less than 3% by May 2012?



2008-2009 AEIS report for Tascosa high school http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/2009/campus.srch.html
o The AEIS report shows the rapid growth of our Hispanic population from 17% last year to 25%
o We also have a 22.4% (4 year) drop out rate for Hispanics
Actions
Supporting Evidence
Time line
Start/stop
Needed
Resources
Persons
Responsible
Evaluation
Data Research
Our first and primary action is to analyze ongoing data about our Hispanic students. Our population sample will be our entire freshmen class of students who were registered by their parents and checked the “Hispanic” box on the ethnicity question on the registration form. During the first semester we will be compiling research about these students attendance, grades, participation in extra curricular activities, parent attendance of school events, and common assessments in the core classes. We will be looking for patterns for what makes some students successful and hopefully find comparative data that may help us to see why so many of our students are dropping out of school. This data will be the primary guiding data for our following actions below. As we monitor this data throughout this year we will make modifications to our action plans which will come into effect during the second semester when we should have a stronger understanding of the factors leading to our high Hispanic drop out rate. We will continue to monitor data and our subsequent action detailed in this plan to find our optimal capacity to encourage Hispanic student retention.

August 2010- May 2012
o Access to students’ personal data kept on school servers
o Information from teachers and coaches about student and parent participation in extracurricular activities
o Common assessment info from core subject teachers.
Bria Galt (assistant Principal)
Micah Timmons
Sherry Jensen (chair counselor)
Are we gathering data for all freshmen Hispanics from all teachers every sixweeks? If not we may need to modify how we communicate with these teachers and methods by which we get the data needed.
Is the data showing support for our intervention plans? If not we need to modify them to better fit what the data is telling us. Not the other way around.
Parent Contact/Home visits
Parent contact will be made when a student exceeds five absences during a sixweeks. If contact via phone is not made then our staf will make a home visit.
Home visits are designed as an intervention and follow up on students who have stopped attending school. Our research has indicated that attendance plays a large role in a student’s success and their commitment to education. As a secondary purpose the home visits will allow us to first hand view the living conditions of these students and conduct interviews that may help us to better understand the causes of our drop out rate being so high and thus give us the capacity to intervene where possible. This is also an opportunity for us to share with the parents the expectations, opportunities, upcoming school activities, and resources our schools can provide for their student. Discussions about their child’s performance should be the main purpose for these visits with encouragement for their children to receive a good education. We should be looking to inform and be informed not criticize their beliefs and living conditions.
Schargel, F.P., (2003). Dropout prevention tools. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.

December 2010- ?
o Visiting staff needs access to student data and contact information so that meaningful discussions with parents can take place
Counselor (yet to be determined)
Micah Timmons
Bria Galt
Are students that we are visiting returning to school? And are their parents becoming more involved with the school activities after learning about the opportunities and resources for them and their children?
After visiting with parents what new data do we have that may influence how we communicate with them in the future and how will we modify our actions to make them for applicable and effective for their student?
Student Engagement.
Teachers will create a Spanish club with an emphasis on educating students about the Spanish language and culture. The focus for this club is to help Hispanic students become more engaged in learning and participate in extracurricular activities that are relevant to their background and futures. These teachers will be responsible for preparing students for language competition, planning field trips, teaching students in and out of the classroom the values of education, and they are to help provide entertainment, advertisement, and other help for various community events. The emphasis for the program is to recruit students to participate in school activities and make learning relevant to all students but especially to Hispanic students. Teachers should communicate often and effectively with parents soliciting their participation so that events can be planned with efficiency and so that all events hosted by the Spanish Club have the involvement of parents.
Finn, J. D., (1993) School engagement and at risk students. national center for education statistics, Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED362322.pdf

December 2010-?
o Teachers will need training for managing student organizations
o They will also need financial support so they can sponsor and advertise events and field trips.
o
Spanish Teachers
The effectiveness of the club will be based upon the number of students and parents in participation with their activities. The club activities and recruiting strategies should be monitored to find the best strategies for involving as many Hispanic students as possible.
Parental involvement
Local organizations in conjunction with the school will host community events, language classes, citizenship classes, festivals etc… at the school in the evenings and weekends. The purpose of these activities is to make the school a more useful part of the Hispanic community by opening its doors to community functions. By allowing parents access to the school for various functions and activities the school presents a welcoming face to the community and its staff becomes more comfortable with our Hispanic population as well as less intimidating to our Hispanic parents. These types of activities will help parents and teachers to create better working relationships. Also by hosting language classes and citizenship courses the school can improve its communication with parents and become a step up instead of a bump in the road of new immigrants’ transition to the United States. Schools can help students and parents alike adjust to the new lifestyle, language, and culture of the U.S. These courses are intended for all community members, including teachers. Teachers can take classes on basic Spanish language and culture which will help them to better communicate with students and parents while Hispanic parents are able to take classes in English language and American Culture and History so that they can better adjust to the American way of life, communicate more effectively with the school, and help their children with homework.
Schargel, F.P., (2003). Dropout prevention tools. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.
December 2010 - ?

o Local community leaders using the school for activities will need keys to the necessary parts of the building.
o The school may have to pay higher utility bills for the use of the building on weekends and evenings.
Jonathan Lloyd (assistant principal)
Spanish Teachers that lead the Spanish club
Are more parents attending the school activities and engaging in meaningful communication with staff members as a result of their familiarity with the school and participation in community activities at the school?
The school and community organizations should meet at the end of every semester to evaluate the effectiveness of their community events in regards to the purposes of both the school and community organization. These meetings should encourage both to make adjustments and modifications to the plan in an effort to achieve their goals.
Monitor TAKS especially Language Arts
According to the research there is a direct correlation between poor English skills and high school drop outs. Low academic success for many Hispanics can be attributed to the limited proficiency in English. This challenge is often a contributing factor to students dropping out of school due to the surmounting challenge of overcoming this problem. I would like to implement ELA intervention classes much like what we see with math intervention and TAKS remedial classes. Unfortunately many schools see low math and science scores and immediately place the student in remedial classes for those subjects. Although this intention is good, a more long-term solution to these problems for many Hispanics would be to aide these students in understanding English. Then as a secondary benefit they will also improve in the other class subjects. It does little good to put a student in a second Math class if he can’t understand what the teacher is saying. Students enrolled in these classes should be monitored closely so that appropriate interventions are taken on behalf of the student.
Fry, R., (2003). Hispanic youth dropping out of U.S. schools measuring the challenge. PEW hispanic center report, Retrieved from http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/19.pdf

Jones, M., and Bou-Waked, R., (2007). School choice and hispanic dropouts. national center for policy analysis brief analysis, 602. Retrieved from http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/ba602.pdf

Schargel, F.P., (2003). Dropout prevention tools. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.

December 2010 - ?
o Teachers will need access to students’ common assessments and grades so they can best ascertain which students would benefit most from a ELA intervention or reading class.
English Language Arts Teachers
Counselors
The measure of success with be seen in the improved reading and oral skills in the English language for students enrolled in the intervention classes.
These students should see improvements in all courses since English is the foundation language for all content areas.

Week 3 Comments

I am very excited about putting together my action research plan into, well, action. There is much to it and there are many complexities that we will have to work through as we go but I am excited about the benefits it will give our students and staff. I think the challenges and the time to compile data will pay off as we get a better understanding of the causes and forces at work in our students' lives that push them to feel as if dropping out of school will resolve their problems. I am especially looking forward to meeting some of our parents during our home visits.

I have enjoyed learning about how research can guide our actions and teaching practices. It may seem logical and even elementary that we should have alwaysed based our actions on such research but the truth is that it have been only recently that technology and standarization has made this more easily done. I am curious, as a principal, how challening will it be for me to convince my teachers that this method should be used regularly to guide our instrution. I fear some veteran teachers are set in their ways and will resist the time requirment to do such research and resist the necessity of change associated with such a practice.

How can educational leaders use blogs?

Teachers can utilize Blogs and social networking sites such as edmodo.com as a means of communication with their students and other teachers about school activities and assignments. Similarly principals can use these methods to communicate with staff members and parents about school activities and other pertinent information. Blogs provide and interactive two way communication which allows the audience to ask for further information or clarification. Many blogs also have the capability to send messages to other devices such as email, phone text, or posts to other social networking sites. This is a huge improvement upon the one way communication of letters and web posts principals often use. Stake holders can read each other’s questions and comments as well communicate with one another about school events (i.e. PTA, boosters, etc…) Blogs are also free and allow the leader to post images, videos, and other media.

What I have learned, and how it can be used

Action Research is a great method for organizations and organizational leaders to ascertain foreseeable problems, resolve troubles, and plan future procedures. This is accomplished by utilizing methods of reflection, collaboration, and ongoing evaluation. Action research is designed to educate professionals on the best methods for their situation by conducting professional research while also utilizing collaboration by taking into consideration the thoughts and experience of the people of an organization as well as the circumstances, resources etc… of the organization and situation that the scientific research may not consider. This is done in a effort to find the course of action that will most likely produce the desired outcome. When conducting action research the facilitators and collaborators should utilize and plan for ongoing evaluation. By periodically evaluating a plan of action changes can be made along the way to best solve the problem of the organization. Schools and organizations can use action research to modify instruction to help their students improve learning. Action Research can help administrators and other organizational leaders to research and plan the best course of actions for just about everything from budgets to master schedules. PLCs and departments can utilize these same methods to help address issues facing a particular content area such as ways to incorporate technology into the classroom, teaching a particular topic, and analyzing curriculum and assessments.