Purpose of my action research and the significance

I am debating a few areas of concern in our school that would benefit from action research. The curriculum we currently use is cscope. This “package deal” comes equipped with a unit test over each section. We teach the material in the format outlined by the curriculum however, the test scores are low, the majority of the scores are not above a 70. It is not uncommon for teachers to have a class average on a particular test of a 50 or below. This topic interests me and I believe that we could benefit as a faculty from action research, the down fall is the amount of information concerning this topic. I couldn’t find too much, if any information at all over this area. There is plenty of information (journals, articles, books) over test scores and how to generate improvement, but few if any over improving cscope unit test scores. For this reason I am also considering conducting action research over an issue at our school that is currently a big and common problem. This year our school has had an increase in students being tardy to class. We have five minutes in between classes, and as of this year we went to a lockerless campus. The halls are quieter, but tardies remain high. Conducting action research could help find a solution or at least improve the tardy issue. My principal let me know that this was an issue that is a main area of concern and the amount of information available to research would be greater. I believe that in both issues the students, faculty, and administration will benefit from action research. In the issue of improving cscope test scores, the students and faculty will be the ones primarily benefitted. Teachers work hard and want to see that their work helped students succeed on whatever form of evaluation is chose. Likewise, the students want to pass the tests. Finding a solution to the tardy issue, in my opinion, will primarily benefit the administrators and teachers the most. A large amount of office referrals and students being in P.A.S.S (principal’s alternative school setting) are due to tardies. Our administration puts too much time into dealing with tardies/dress code violations. Teachers and students would also benefit from a solution to the tardy issue; students would be in class more, missing less instruction time making the teachers’ job less stressful.

Description of Action Research and how educational leaders might use blogs.

Action research is a great method of solving problems at the school and finding solutions over areas of concern surrounding the school and community.  It can become a part of the school's continuous improvement and used to solve multiple problems that the staff or students might be encountering.  It is important that this style of research is done with the constituents that are being affected by the problem instead of outside people.  Action inquiry seeks out or defines a problem within the current system or school, then collaboratively seeks and determines possible solutions to the problems using different methods of research.  The next step requires taking action by doing something different that might help solve the problem or improve it.  The last step in action research is to communicate the results.  Action inquiry can be very crucial in the continuous development/improvement of the school.  Staff and administrators might use action research to find out: why tardies are more common after lunch, why are students struggling with 7^th grade science vocabulary, what can we do to limit dress code referrals and what can we do as a school to increase parental involvement with their child’s education.  Without action inquiry, changes and questions surrounding policies that are flawed would not be sought after.  If the entire staff at a particular school had an area of concern and no one conducted action research, quite possibly the problem would not get solved in the correct manner, and the constant complaints could affect the entire climate of the school.  Action research requires people to become active in trying to solve the areas of concern, and taking a course of action that reflects the result of their research.  I have learned that action research is different than traditional research because action inquiry requires the work to be done in house, by the staff affected or surrounding the problem.  Traditional research relies on the opinions and findings from outsiders, not associated with the school or the school district.  Therefore, in traditional research the outsiders do not know the climate or culture of the school and their courses of action are not an accurate reflection of the school they are hoping to improve.

Educational leaders might use blogs for numerous reasons.   If a principal solves a problem using action research and the result is successful, the leader might want to save the solutions on the blog.  This would allow for other leaders to view the results of action research on this particular problem.  An educational leader sharing a blog can be a form of communicating the results of the action research, a form that doesn’t end at the school, instead it spreads to other schools so that the information can continue to be useful.  The blogs can also be useful in sharing your thoughts and research to other staff members in the future.  If you blog about a problem, action research, and the course of action, then you will be able to come back to this information in the future.  The can be used to share with new staff members or see what area the team excelled at so that this practice or method can solve other areas of concern (Dana, 2009, p.88).

Dana, N. (2009).  Leading with passion and knowledge.  Corwin:  A SAGE Company.