Action Research Project Update-EDLD 5326

Getting a campus culture committee together was a little harder than I expected.  The spring semester is super busy with preparing students for statewide testing, so I had to improvise on the development of the committee.  I anticipated that I would have about 10 staff members.  After everything was said and done, there are only five members.  This change has made me re-think this project as a whole and I may end up using the committee only for the survey and research portion.  I am working with my site supervisor to come with an alternate plan for the implantation portion.

 After forming this committee, I arranged to hold two meetings.  For the first meeting, I discussed my action research project in more detail and we discussed each person role, established a timeline, and future meeting dates.  At the second meeting, we discussed a method to survey both students and staff member to determine their perception of our campus culture.  We decided to utilize an electronic survey.  We decided that the goal of this survey would be to determine how our campus culture is viewed and ways to improve that culture.  This survey looked at the aesthetics of our building, our organizational structures, accessibility of staff members, beliefs about teaching, beliefs about student expectations, and student activities.  After this survey was given to staff members and students, the committee met during our planning time to analyze the responses.  We are currently determining what will be our two areas of focus.

School/Community Partnership Project

School/Community Partnership Project

Cornelius McFarland’s EDLD 5301

Action Planning Template
Goal: To develop a campus culture committee to examine target areas of improvement on a campus and impact student learning.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Select or solicit volunteers staff members to participate in the Culture Committee	Site Supervisor and Cornelius McFarland	November – December 2012	Meeting location	The formation of the Campus Culture Committee
Develop a staff survey to assess areas of improvement from the perspective of staff members	Site Supervisor and Cornelius McFarland	December 2012	Survey Monkey or other internet based survey system	Results of Survey
Choose two areas of improvement as focus of action research	Cornelius McFarland Culture Committee	January 2013	Meeting location	Documentation of areas of improvement.
Develop and implement an plan of action for each area of improvement	Cornelius McFarland Culture Committee Site Supervisor	January 2013	Literature related best practices of areas of improvement	Implementation plan and base line data related to areas of improvement.
Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the plan of action for the targeted areas of improvement	Cornelius McFarland	Spring 2013	Questionnaire and surveys.	Data related to areas of improvement

 

Format based on Tool 7.1 from Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools

(Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2010)

Lessons Learned from Week 2

Although there were many valuable things learned in week 2, there are several ideas that stuck with me.  The interview with the scholar leaders provided me with  valuable information from  Dr. Chagois and Dr. Briseno.  I learned to be relentless in finding ways to improve student performance.  I also learned the importance of not trying to reinvent the wheel but get out there and find out what other campuses are doing.  Also, getting teachers to work together to attain the goal of impacting student success at a high level.
In looking at my internship plan with my site supervisor, I was able to reflect on the different areas of action research and determine which path I would take as I begin this process.  There are several areas of interest to me, but narrowing it down will be challenging for me.

Education leaders can use action research to facilitate change in the practices of other educators.  Action research provides you  with an opportunity to look at problems within your organization and address them either individually or collaboratively. This process allows you to use a  systematic approach to develop solutions to those problems.

In my readings for this week’s assignments, I have learned about the unique opportunities that action research can provide educational practioners.  Action research is a process by which we select a possible problem/concern and develop as strategic plan to address that problem and implement that plan.  In the school setting, there can be so many  problems/concerns like parental involvement, student achievement on standardized test, and what seems to be the buzz word from parents, bullying.  Action research provides us with opportunities to not only look at those problems as they are happening as individuals or collaborative groups, but to use research based practices to try and resolve those problems.    It allows you to change what you are doing to positively impact the situation.   Action research can be used to as a tool to facilitate changes in schools.

I have also learned that as an educator we utilize action research everyday as we provide instruction to your students.   When reading the literature this week, I begin to think about how we address curriculum and instruction and how the process of action research is similar to the cyclical model of the implantation of curriculum.  As educators, you develop, implement, assess, and change curriculum to meet the needs of students.  This process seems to be founded in action research.