Back in the Saddle Again...

It's been a while... It's amazing to think that I'm at the half-way mark in my journey to complete my Master's Degree! While working through the classes and embedded internship, it's imporant to reflect on the work that continues to happen in regards to the Action Research Project.

Here are this week's reflections:

Who is the audience for the Action Research Project?

One of the main ways I will disseminate the information found in my Action Research Project will be through a campus staff-development meeting. I am presenting at one of our spring faculty meetings with ways of working non-academic grades into the classroom. Additionally, I'll present my findings through the blog I set up earlier in my coursework. The target audience for this project is classroom teachers, exposing the staff to a new way to facilitate grading that reflects both a student's academic ability and a student's ability to manage their "professional ethics" in the classroom.

One of the main reasons for implementing the use of academic vs. non-academic grades is to provide the students, teachers and parents the information necessary to provide a complete picture of the student's abilities in school. The process must be used by teachers in order to work, but needs to be explained to both parents and students to ensure that the non-academic grades are understood by all.

How I'll get the word out about my project:

As stated before, the information will first be presented to the staff in a faculty meeting. There will be an additional presentation at a PTA meeting on the campus' use of non-academic grades and how they will help both teachers paint a more complete picture of a student's work in the classroom.

In addition to face-to-face meetings, I plan to build a website that outlines the research regarding the use of academic and non-academic grades. This website will allow teachers a place to share ideas for how they are using non-academic or formative grading practices in the classroom. There will also be a place on the site for parents to explore the research-based methods for moving beyond the use of purely "academic" grades. The site will also house a list of books and/or websites that further explain the implementation of non-academic grades in schools across the district and country.

How I plan to accomplish the "4 Critical Tasks":

The four tasks are as follows:

• Provide background information.
• Share the design of the inquiry (procedures, data collection, and data analysis).
• State the learning and supporting statements with data.
• Provide concluding thoughts.

All four are necessary in the process for both crafting and presenting the ideas behind an Action Research Project. The background information allows the audience to understand the thinking behind the project. It shows the context for the research and allows a common understanding of why the project is even undertaken. The design for the project allows all parties to understand how the research was conducted and how the project was set up. In other words, this is the blueprint for the learning outcome. As we analyze the data collected throughout the project, the next step is to state the things learned through the project. Successful projects will not only prove this with statements, but with data and research that further proves the inquiry. The last step in the process is to provide concluding thoughts, or commentary, about the lessons learned. This is where the researcher interprets the data into a way that is meaningful for all involved.

No one step in this process is more important than the other, infact, they all work in tandem with each other in order to disseminate the information learned throughout the project. Excluding any one part of the critical tasks would negate the entire project.

Clarifying Moment

For last week's assignment we were to meet with our site supervisor to edit and approve the Action Research Plans. For me, it was spring break, and my principal and I met through email. It was interesting enough, but more of a "good job" than any critique. Today we just met again to see what we could do to edit the plan again--it was almost an hour of tearing apart the plan and refocusing it.

Now... we've changed it a lot. The over-arching goal is now: Determine how seperating out non-academic from academic grades influence student's perception of their learning.

That's a big change from simply "Determine how non-academic factors impact student acheivement."

I love how Dr. Nye really takes the time to see how this will be a viable and researchable plan, and not just another "x" to cross off on my graduation plan. It's refreshing to do something for a class that is not only practical in my classroom, but has the ability to influence our campus as a whole.

It was a great meeting, and I'm excited to see how the ball rolls forward from here!

Research Plan

Here it is... and I am looking forward for ways to improve the plan!

Revised Action Plan

Goal:

o   Determine how non-academic factors impact student achievement.

Objectives/Outcomes:

o  Determine how non-academic measures impact student’s academic grades.

o  Examine classrooms and schools that separate “professional ethics grades” from academic grades to analyze how it impacts student achievement

o  Explore the relationship between formative assessments and a student’s overall knowledge in a course.

Action Steps	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline	Resources A.    Resources Available B.    Resources Needed	Evaluation
Step 1: Grading and Assessment Book Study	Assistant Principal: Dr. Marie Rossmann	Fall 2011	A. Teachers/staff B. Robert Marzano’s book Grading and Assessment that Works (2006.)	Are the ideas in this book something that could be incorporated into our current classrooms?
Step 2: Compare and contrast the ideas in Marzano’s book with other assessment books	Grading and Assessment Committee members	Spring 2011 through Spring 2012	A. The Teacher as Assessment Leader (Guskey, 2009.) B. Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessments techniques for your classroom (Fisher and Fray, 2007.)	Discussion at committee meeting. Do the techniques and practices in the books support or refute the ideas in the Marzano (2006) book?
Step 3: Survey of teachers, students and parents currently using alternative grading systems.	Parents, Teachers and students at: Heritage H.S., Liberty H.S. and Hunt M.S.	Spring 2011	A. Create survey B. Google Documents or Pink Monkey survey website	Aggregate data to find benefits and weaknesses to the current alternative grading systems. How can we improve?
Step 4: Develop and research multiple formative assessment documents to aide student’s learning	Committee members/ campus leadership	Fall 2011	A. Research formative assessment methods discussed in assessment books (Guskey, 2009, Fisher and Fray, 2007, and Marzano, 20006) B. Books	Teacher and committee developed formative assessment models to aide student academic learning.
Step 5: Create examples and non-examples of ways to assess student academics vs. non-academic grading	Committee members/ Campus leadership District campuses using non-academic grades	Fall 2011	A. Campuses that are currently using non-academic grades. Cite examples of non-academic grading that works B. Committee members	Use of examples and non-examples of academic grading. Students and teachers will work to modify the lists as needed.
Step 6: Professional development for teachers and staff	Committee members/ campus leadership	Spring 2012	A. Teachers and staff; time for professional development B. Background information; literature or research for basis of implementation; examples and handouts for staff	Teacher/staff/Student survey results. Ways to implement and use non-academic grading systems to improve academic success.
Step 7: Instruction of non-academic grading standards to the entire campus of teachers	Teachers/staff	Fall semester 2012	A. Committee created presentation and rubrics B. Instruction time; handouts for students; student buy-in	Student survey of initial thoughts
Step 8: Present non-academic grading information to students and parents	Teachers	Fall 2012	A. Present information to students at the start of the academic year, and inform parents during curriculum night activities. B. Presentation	Inform students and parents how the new grading system will impact overall academic success.
Step 9: Collection of data	Committee members/ teachers/staff	Ongoing	A. Compare failure rates for the years before non-academic grading and after implementing the program. B. Failure rates from the 09-10 year, plus 10-11 and 11-12 years.	Comparison of academic grades when non-academic measures are assessed differently.
Step 10: Analysis and reevaluation of plan	Committee members/ administration	June 2012	A. Data B. Comparison of data and teacher input on effectiveness	Discussion of committee members and campus leadership on effectiveness based on data analysis
Step 11: Additional professional development	Committee members/ campus leadership	August 2012	A. Teachers and staff; time for professional development B. Results of spring data collection	Teacher/staff survey of additional needs
Step 12: Implement revised action plan based on data and evaluation	Teachers/staff	August 2012	A. Committee revised plan and documents; previous year’s data B. Instruction time; handouts for students; student buy-in	Comparison of new data to old data

 

Picking a project

I'm still debating between two topics: Grading & Assessment, and the effects of TAKS tutorials. I know I won't have the data for the TAKS information until May or June, so today I'll focus my post on Grading.

Purpose: Grades are something that are a necessary evil as a teacher. All students receive some sort of check for their assignments, and the hope is to make the grades paint a more authentic picture of a student. If a student is a "B" student, only because he turns in every assignment a day late--how can the parents know how to help. The more information they have about the grades, the more they can play an active role in their child's education. I want to research how different methods of grading and assessing can improve student performance.

Significance: The more information a student and parent has in their pocket, the more they can do with it. If a parent can look at an assignment and see that their student turned it in on time, but received a 73. It gives a lot more information than the student who received a 93 on the assignment, but turned it in two days late--receiving the same 73. I want to focus on Marazano's bookGrading and Assessment that Works, and compare it to other books and schools that are separating out the academic grades from a student's "ethics." The hope is to paint a more complete picture of what a student is doing in the class.

Ways that educational leaders might use blogs

Blogs are yesterday's newsletters, but better. In today's paper-free society, they are a smart solution for educators to keep up with their educational community. A blog can contain anything from meeting notes, links to educational articles or the schedule of this week's school activities. It is essentially a whittled down website, simple enough for anyone to use.

Today's blogs have a variety of tools built in to help organize topics and ideas. You can tag or label entries to organize, or use the "follow" button to connect with your school and community in seconds. Another great feature of Google's Blogger is the integrated site reader.google.com that keeps all the blogs organized in one central location. An educational leader can easily track the pulse of a community by following: teacher blogs, neighboring schools, and city information in one place.

Learing about Action Research

In reading the Nancy Fichtman Dana text Leading with Passion and Knowledge, it seems like she's simply putting a name to something that I've always believed. If you're going to change what you're doing, you need a reason for it other than change for change's sake.

One of my first introductions to Action Research was at a Jeff Anderson workshop for grammar instruction. He told everyone in the ball-room that if they haven't read the report Writing Next, that it should be the first thing they do when they left the workshop. It was an in your face meta-research report that outlined research based methods to improve writing instruction. It wasn't simply Mr. Anderson telling me what worked in his classroom, but studies and strategies that were time-tested and proven to improve student skills. Now, I try to make decisions in my classroom and my curriculum that aren't simply my idea, but based in research. This allows me to streamline my instruction and my budget to invest in programs that aren't simply the latest fad in eduction.

In the course of my internship, I plan on using several action-based research topics. Some ideas are: Apple Computer's Challenge Based Learning model, The effectiveness of TAKS tutorials, and Assessment in the classroom. I'm hoping to help my campus leaders in their assessment of campus programs and efficient ways of integrating these strategies to make us the best campus that we can be.