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.