Thursday, August 1, 2013

My Action Research Template

After meeting with my site supervisor, I have completed the outline of my action research plan. We agreed that I would develop a plan to address out current tardy policy and the administration of that policy. In the past I have noted that teachers are less than pleased with this policy and I will gather information from them, from administration, from published articles on tardiness and ways to decrease it, and from other school districts within the state of Texas. My plan will cover the 2013-14 school year. My template for preparing and implementing the plan is below......


Action Planning Template
Goal: to decrease student tardiness during the school day, thereby increasing instruction time, and decreasing interruptions to the learning process.
Action Steps(s):
Person(s) Responsible:
Timeline: Start/End
Needed Resources
Evaluation
Interview teachers regarding areas of concern associated with our current tardy policy

I will conduct the interviews of core classroom teachers at the HS
First week of school.
Surveys and interviews
Review the surveys and interviews to establish a plan to address and reduce student tardiness.
Explore ways to address the concerns discovered above




Myself – reading student handbooks from other districts, emailing former colleagues and principals, and reading articles on tardiness and policies to address tardiness.

Second and third weeks of school.
Online student handbooks, emails, articles on student tardiness and solutions.
Become familiar with and evaluate various options to reduce student tardiness.
Select a strategy to address the tardy policy concerns and present the strategy to the principal and AP.



I will select a strategy to incorporate into our tardy policy. The principal and AP will review the strategy and make suggestions or changes.
Fourth and fifth weeks of school strategy will be selected and approved.

** Our first six weeks grading period is actually 5 weeks.
Strategy and plan gathered in the step above.

Principal and AP input. 
Principal and AP will evaluate the strategy and make suggestions or changes to make the plan suitable to our needs.
Implement the strategy to help reduce student tardiness.




I will be responsible for implementing the strategy and collecting data during the course of the study.
Beginning of the second six weeks – Sept 30, 2013 through May 30, 2014.
TBD – based on strategy selected from steps above.
Data will be analyzed and adjustments or changes to the strategy will be made as needed to reduce student tardiness.

Examine the effectiveness of the strategy implemented by comparing tardiness records from last year with this year periodically and surveying teachers.
I will evaluate the strategy implemented throughout the process. I will present information to the principal and AP periodically to keep them up to date and suggest changes or seek their input.
Sept 30, 2013 –May 30, 2014
Attendance (Tardy) records from 2012-2013 and from 2013-2014 for comparison.

Teacher surveys

Administrator input
Changes (if needed) will be implemented to make the strategy more effective in reducing student tardiness.
Data analysis and final evaluation
My principal, my AP, and I will evaluate the overall effectiveness of the action research plan implemented.
June 2, 2014 – June 10, 2014
Action research data gathered.

Attendance (tardy) records

Teacher surveys
Did the action research plan reduce student tardiness? Was the plan practical and effective for our campus, faculty, and administration?
 

6 comments:

  1. Great ARP, The attendance clerk can run quick reports on student's tardy records, which I am sure you know, but it makes it easier when the research is required. Also, taking to the teachers is great, I know 5 min late to my class means they have missed a lot, warm ups are graded for easy daily grades.

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  2. I really likes the way you addressed the different areas, and set up your plan. You didn't put too much on here to get bogged down with during the process. Actually this helped give me a boost in getting started on writing mine. :-) Good luck with your research, I look forward to reading about the process.

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  3. What I like about your action research plan is that it is practical. It's a plan that can easily be done during the school year and it's one that will definitely improve academic success in your school. I also like the fact that you plan on going back and making changes to your plan if it's necessary.

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  4. This is such a simple topic yet so many schools (including my own) find themselves wondering what to do about the problem. Your project looks like a thought-out, detailed plan to address the issue from multiple angles. I think the common challenge that persistently feeds this problem back to life is a lack of consistent application by the administrators/teachers charged with the responsibility of utilizing the agreed upon methods. I hope your hard work through this project is applied in the days, months, and years after it is shared.

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  5. Brad, How long will you implement your new tardiness plan before you start to evaluate it as effective or not. I know from my own setting that it would take students several weeks to get used to a system therefore it might take a month or so for an effective attendance plan to truly take effect. I like your action research project and like the plan you have so far, just wanted to remind you to keep this in mind.

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    Replies
    1. The plan is to be implemented at the start of the second six week grading period (Sept 30). An initial evaluation will be done at the end of the semester (Early Jan) - so about 3 months later. I anticipate only minor changes from that point, so in reality the tardy plan will be in effect from the end of Sept to June. Hope this helps clear things up. Thanks for the input.

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