Updated Action Research Plan

The only thing that changed in this update is the selected sample.  Instead of 10 students from each grade level producing a 50 student sample, I will focus specifically on two selected classrooms.  One 3rd grade classroom with about 22 students, Mrs. Minor's homeroom.  And one 5th grade classroom with ab out 22 students, undecided specific teacher's homeroom right now.  I will talk with my principal Monday and decide which homeroom would be best for my research.

Goal: The goal is of this action research project is to determine the effectiveness of iStation on increasing student reading ability.  The planned outcome of this research is to determine if the program is worth the time we spend on it, if it is truly increasing student reading ability and understanding and whether this translates to increased achievement on reading assessments.

Activities:  All students in grades Kindergarten through 5^th grade will complete a reading assessment in the iStation program the first week of every month.  How the student does on this assessment will determine their Tier level.  Tier 1 students are not required to spend any time on the program the rest of the month.  Tier 2 students are required to complete thirty minutes twice a week on the program completing the reading intervention.  Tier 3 students are required to complete forty-five minutes, three times a week on the program completing the reading intervention.  Each month I will look at the data (of each of the 50 students in my sample) presented by the iStation.  After receiving TAKS scores at the end of the year, I will compare the results of the TAKS test and compare them to the data given by iStation to determine the accurateness of iStation data as well as the effectiveness of the program.

Resources:  

·         iStation program

·         Access to iStation data for each student

·         TAKS Test results for each student

Timeline:

Sept 13-17 – Students complete initial reading assessment in iStation

Sept 20- Oct 1 – Students follow their individual intervention plan in the program

Oct  1-5 – All students complete 2^nd reading assessment in iStation

Oct  5-29 – Students follow their individual intervention plan in the program

Nov  1-5 – All students complete 3^rd reading assessment in iStation

Nov 8  - Print and analyze data and reports for my sample students

Nov  8 – Dec 3 - Students follow their individual intervention plan in the program

Dec  6-10 – All Students complete 4^th reading assessment in iStation

Dec  13-17 - Students follow their individual intervention plan in the program

Jan 3-7 – All students complete 5^th reading assessment in iStation

Jan 10 - Print and analyze data and reports for my sample students

Jan 10-28 - Students follow their individual intervention plan in the program

Jan 31- Feb 4 – All students complete 6^th reading assessment in iStation

Feb 7 - Print and analyze data and reports for my sample students

Feb 7-25 - Students follow their individual intervention plan in the program

Feb 28 – Mar 4 – All students complete 7^th reading assessment in iStation

Mar 7 - Print and analyze data and reports for my sample students

Mar  7 – Apr 1 - Students follow their individual intervention plan in the program

Apr  5 – 5^th Grade Reading TAKS

Apr  6 – May 17 – 5^th Grade At Risk students continue reading intervention plan in program

Apr  5 – Apr 25 – 3^rd and 4^th grade continue reading intervention plan in program

Apr  26-27 – 3^rd and 4^th grade Reading TAKS

May  18 – 5^th Grade Reading TAKS Retest

June  1 – Evaluate TAKS data, Print and analyze data and reports for my sample students, Compare TAKS data and iStation data

Persons responsible for implementation:

·         Classroom teachers responsible for administering monthly iStation assessment

·         Classroom teachers responsible for having students complete their required intervention on the program each week

·         Students responsible for completing their intervention program to the best of their ability each week

·         Principal/TEA responsible for supplying TAKS results data

·         iStation program responsible for supplying iStation data

·         I am responsible for selecting the students in my sample

·         I am responsible for printing, analyzing, and comparing all data

·         I am responsible for determining results of the research and concluding to proposed change

Process for monitoring the achievement of goals: At the end of this study, at the end of this current school year, I will be able to evaluate the achievement of my goals based on the results of the sample students TAKS data (from one 3^rd grade classroom- Mrs. Minor- and one 5^th grade classroom) as well as the overall TAKS achievement of our school.  Data from the iStation program showing student growth and achievement will be helpful as well although I feel the data is skewed unless there is something concrete to compare it with, which will be the TAKS test scores.  Students passing rate and commended rate will be noted as well as their passing rate and commended rate from the previous year.  What level the student is reading on will also be noted in determining the overall effectiveness of the iStation program. I will be able to determine whether the iStation program increased student reading achievement and whether it should be recommended for use again next year, therefore whether it was “worth our time” or not.

Assessment instrument(s) to evaluate the effectiveness of the action research study:  The effectiveness of this action research study will be visible based on the iStation review given at the end of the study.  If the program did in deed increase student reading achievement and was shown to have worked based on TAKS data then a positive recommendation will be given.  Adversely, if not enough growth was shown and TAKS data shows that then a negative review will be given.  Of course either review will be presented with all the data collected during my action research study.  Overall, effectiveness of this action research study will be clear if I am able to come to a conclusion and give a data backed positive or negative review that hopefully the district will use in their decision for what to do for the 2011-2012 school year.

Action Research Plan

Background Information: Our district has a new reading software this year, iStation.  The program seems to be very well laid out and entertaining to the kids, although it is very time consuming and takes away from classroom instruction time by a real teacher.  Teachers around the campus are a little worried trusting their Tier 2 and Tier 3 students to a computer software yet are following their requirements by district office.  We all wonder if the program will translate to student achievement on TAKS.  This lead me to do my action research project on if this iStation program is effective in increasing student reading ability and whether that ability translates to students' achievement on TAKS.  

Goal: The goal is of this action research project is to determine the effectiveness of iStation on increasing student reading ability.  The planned outcome of this research is to determine if the program is worth the time we spend on it, if it is truly increasing student reading ability and understanding and whether this translates to increased achievement on reading assessments.

Activities:  All students in grades Kindergarten through 5^th grade will complete a reading assessment in the iStation program the first week of every month.  How the student does on this assessment will determine their Tier level.  Tier 1 students are not required to spend any time on the program the rest of the month.  Tier 2 students are required to complete thirty minutes twice a week on the program completing the reading intervention.  Tier 3 students are required to complete forty-five minutes, three times a week on the program completing the reading intervention.  Each month I will look at the data (of each of the 50 students in my sample) presented by the iStation.  After receiving TAKS scores at the end of the year, I will compare the results of the TAKS test and compare them to the data given by iStation to determine the accurateness of iStation data as well as the effectiveness of the program.

Resources: 

·         iStation program

·         Access to iStation data for each student

·         TAKS Test results for each student

Timeline:

Sept 13-17 – Students complete initial reading assessment in iStation

Sept 20- Oct 1 – Students follow their individual intervention plan in the program

Oct  1-5 – All students complete 2^nd reading assessment in iStation

Oct  5-29 – Students follow their individual intervention plan in the program

Nov  1-5 – All students complete 3^rd reading assessment in iStation

Nov 8  - Print and analyze data and reports for my sample students

Nov  8 – Dec 3 - Students follow their individual intervention plan in the program

Dec  6-10 – All Students complete 4^th reading assessment in iStation

Dec  13-17 - Students follow their individual intervention plan in the program

Jan 3-7 – All students complete 5^th reading assessment in iStation

Jan 10 - Print and analyze data and reports for my sample students

Jan 10-28 - Students follow their individual intervention plan in the program

Jan 31- Feb 4 – All students complete 6^th reading assessment in iStation

Feb 7 - Print and analyze data and reports for my sample students

Feb 7-25 - Students follow their individual intervention plan in the program

Feb 28 – Mar 4 – All students complete 7^th reading assessment in iStation

Mar 7 - Print and analyze data and reports for my sample students

Mar  7 – Apr 1 - Students follow their individual intervention plan in the program

Apr  5 – 5^th Grade Reading TAKS

Apr  6 – May 17 – 5^th Grade At Risk students continue reading intervention plan in program

Apr  5 – Apr 25 – 3^rd and 4^th grade continue reading intervention plan in program

Apr  26-27 – 3^rd and 4^th grade Reading TAKS

May  18 – 5^th Grade Reading TAKS Retest

June  1 – Evaluate TAKS data, Print and analyze data and reports for my sample students, Compare TAKS data and iStation data

Persons responsible for implementation:

·         Classroom teachers responsible for administering monthly iStation assessment

·         Classroom teachers responsible for having students complete their required intervention on the program each week

·         Students responsible for completing their intervention program to the best of their ability each week

·         Principal/TEA responsible for supplying TAKS results data

·         iStation program responsible for supplying iStation data

·         I am responsible for selecting the students in my sample

·         I am responsible for printing, analyzing, and comparing all data

·         I am responsible for determining results of the research and concluding to proposed change

Process for monitoring the achievement of goals: At the end of this study, at the end of this current school year, I will be able to evaluate the achievement of my goals based on the results of the 50 sample students TAKS data as well as the overall TAKS achievement of our school.  Data from the iStation program showing student growth and achievement will be helpful as well although I feel the data is skewed unless there is something concrete to compare it with, which will be the TAKS test scores.  Students passing rate and commended rate will be noted as well as their passing rate and commended rate from the previous year.  What level the student is reading on will also be noted in determining the overall effectiveness of the iStation program. I will be able to determine whether the iStation program increased student reading achievement and whether it should be recommended for use again next year, therefore whether it was “worth our time” or not.

Assessment instrument(s) to evaluate the effectiveness of the action research study:  The effectiveness of this action research study will be visible based on the iStation review given at the end of the study.  If the program did in deed increase student reading achievement and was shown to have worked based on TAKS data then a positive recommendation will be given.  Adversely, if not enough growth was shown and TAKS data shows that then a negative review will be given.  Of course either review will be presented with all the data collected during my action research study.  Overall, effectiveness of this action research study will be clear if I am able to come to a conclusion and give a data backed positive or negative review that hopefully the district will use in their decision for what to do for the 2011-2012 school year.

Web Conference Reflection - 10/17 & 10/19

I have enjoyed attending and participating in this course's web conferences.  I am glad to see I can participate at my own comfort level and do not have to use the microphone and camera. I am not scared to ask questions through the "chat room style" area while I am a little intimidated by the microphone.  It has been interesting to hear about other people's action research projects and see what they are analyzing.  I also really enjoy the tangents the conference goes on, for example last night I learned about the new STAAR test compared to the current TAKS test.  Even though the conference gets long towards the end, I really enjoy talking with people who are from so many different areas within the same profession and learning from everyone.

EDLD 5301 - Week 2 Reflection

This week we watched interviews about action research from 3 professionals that completed their doctorate degrees from Lamar University. All 3 professionals spoke about analyzing data in one form or another.  From these interviews I learned two main ideas.  First, Dr. Briseno spoke about not only the importance of quantitative data but also the importance of qualitative data.  He spoke about how kids are not just a number and how student identity is important. I see so much analyzing of data in the education system these days that I am glad to be reminded that beyond data is student identity and finding ways to reach these students based on their environment, lives at home, and things they like beyond just the percentage of their income level, ethnicity, and TEKS based question mastery.  Second, I learned from both Dr. Briseno and Dr.Lewis the importance of researching issues to find solutions.  They both talked about the idea of “not recreating the wheel” and looking at other campuses across the country and other districts for answers to issues.  Dr. Lewis spoke about how its critical to translate other district’s data and research findings to translate to your district and environment. I found it interesting that districts in different areas are similar enough to compare data and promote change from the findings.

Blogging in Action Research

Blogging is a online journal.  A reflective journal is a credible source during action research because it a place you can refer back and read to see your thoughts in chronological order.  While writing in the blog you to take time to think about your practices, write down and do a preliminary analysis of the data, write down thoughts and ideas that come to mind that may be helpful later in creating change, etc.  Reading back on the comments and posts in a blog allows you to step back into how you were thinking at the moment you posted which is definitely helpful when analyzing data especially for administrators as they are so busy and have a million things to do at once, it is hard to take time to focus on one thing and remember everything that happened and what you thought as it occurred, but it is easy to grab your phone and blog about it and later use that research to help yourself create change.  Leaders can also use blogs to get the opinions of other teachers at the convienence of their free time, and to get the opinions of other administrators and teachers not on their campus.  It also always those commenting to give a more unbiased opinion and a more focused thought out opinion.

Old Boring Research vs New Reflective Action Research

I must admit I was scared by the title of my new class, “Research”.  I was dreading reading long boring books by extensively educated professionals and writing reports about their research findings.  After this first week and learning about “action research”, I am excited to conduct research on my specific school and issues that I wonder about all the time here.  Action research is the process of doing a intention study of a practice, analyzing the data, and making change based on the results.  It seems to be a learning reflection and very useful. It pleases me to see educational research turning to this trend.  My school is member of the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP).  We are taught weekly how to teach the students based on their rubric and are taught strategies to use with the kids that are created through action research and field based data.  Two main things I have learned through this program is giving a expectation at the beginning of each lesson and giving time for reflection at the end of every lesson.  Through these expectations and reflections, students own their own learning and connect concepts to other parts of school and their own real-lives.  I feel that action research will have the same effectiveness on us teachers and administrators.  Through our own reflection and changes made during action research we own are learning and are constantly expanding our knowledge base to best help our school and students.

 I am looking forward to the action research question I will be studying in this class because I have always been bothered by point and click software, I’ve wondered its actual effectiveness and worried about wasting such wonderful 21^st century technology tools on a drill and kill program.  I look forward to analyzing the data on these programs, finding the actual effectiveness, and coming up with a plan to change based on the findings.