Action Research Action Plan

Action Research Topic: Seek ways to become more effective in servicing our ESL population both in the regular classroom setting and in TAKS preparation.

Goal: To ensure that ESL students are having their needs met in regular education classrooms allowing them the opportunity to be successful.
Action Step(s):

1.Have high school teachers meet with ESL teacher during a professional development session the week prior to school to discuss methods and strategies that will help ESL students feel more comfortable.

2.ESL teachers will also make teachers aware of cultural differences and how to overcome those differences.

Person(s) responsible: ESL and High School teachers and Administrators

Timeline: 1 Day during professional development week prior to start of school year.

Needed resources: Room big enough for entire high school teaching staff and administrators, handouts with strategies and methods to successfully reach ESL students.

Evaluation: At the end of the first semester the ESL teacher and regular education teachers will compare work samples from the beginning of the year to their current samples to monitor progress and identify problematic areas.

Goal: Ensure that ESL students are being adequately prepared for the TAKS test.
Action Step(s):

1.Before the start of the school year we will disaggregate the ESL student’s scores and identify the areas they need to improve on.

2.Actively monitor the effectiveness of the TAKS remediation ESL students are receiving. I.E. before or after school TAKS classes. This can be done through bench mark testing as well as our practice TAKS administered during January.

Person(s) responsible: Regular education teachers, before or after school TAKS class teachers, high school counselor, ESL teacher

Timeline: Start August 2010; End May 2010

Evaluation: The practice TAKS that our school administers in January of each school year will be a preliminary evaluation and point out any last minute areas we need to concentrate on. The TAKS scores in May will be indicator if the ESL students were adequately prepared.

Research-Week 2 Reflection

I enjoyed reading the second chapter of the Dana text. I particularly enjoyed the leadership section where Dana began by listing five things that effective leaders do: “model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, and encourage the heart,” (Dana, 2009). She also reiterated what she discussed in chapter one, that leaders should participate in inquiry and reflect often to ensure they are doing what they can to be effective leaders. One topic of action research that caught my eye was the idea of looking at your teacher’s, leadership team’s, and supervisor’s perception of how you do as a leader (Dana, 2009). This could be a humbling experience but if you use it professionally instead of personally, your entire campus would reap the benefits. Effective leaders of today are not afraid to take constructive criticism and using it to turn their weaknesses into strengths.

Educational Leaders and Blogs

Educational leaders can utilize blogs in a variety of ways. One way is to communicate with teachers, parents, and community stakeholders to inform them of current happenings on campus, alert them of any change in their schedule; for example, when a district has to evacuate due to an incoming hurricane! Leaders can also use blogs to present data such as campus TAKS scores and accountability ratings.

Benefits of Action Research

Action research is utilized by most educational leaders today. Traditional research involved outside parties offering advice and assistance to school districts seeking to correct one or more problems they have encountered. While this may be good to hear various methods and ideology, many times this is not effective because the outside source may not fully understand the district and their specific struggles. Through action research superintendents, principals, and other education leaders are able to be disaggregate their own data and identify problematic areas, prioritize them, then lay the blueprints to correct those problems.

Educational leaders may use various methods to implement action research. One method is to have administrative team meetings for the superintendent meets with campus principals and they look at each individual campus, discuss issues, and provide counsel to help improve certain areas. Just as teachers can learn from one another in the classroom, administrators can learn successful methods as well as methods that were not so successful.
Another method that could prove useful for action research is for principals to form leadership teams on their respective campuses. This will allow his or her teachers to take ownership in what is implemented on their campus.

Principals can also use campus based decision-making which includes teachers and a few community stakeholders. This allows administrators, teachers, and stakeholders to have an opportunity to communicate and collaborate on important aspects of their campus.