Action Research Plan

1. Examining the work: Setting the Foundation
We pour so much time, effort, and money into athletic programs; is it helping or hurting our students in the long run? The question to research is: Of what value is athletics to our academic program? If there is a significant improvement in athletes’ behavior and academic success over non-athletes, what can we do for non-athletes to mirror this improvement?

2. Analyzing data
Gather data from last year’s disciplinary referrals, TAKS scores, and course grades. After putting all the information together, compare athletes and non-athletes to see if a disparity exists in their academic success rate.

3. Developing deeper understanding
Interview teachers and students. Take a survey. Keep a journal of the progress of the research.

4. Engaging in Self-Reflection
Add the qualitative information gathered in Step 3 to the quantitative data and see if a pattern exists among athletes and non-athletes.

5. Exploring Programmatic Patterns
Ask questions about the gathered information. Check to see if there is equity among the students in terms of socio-economic status, gender, race, and age.

6. Determining direction
When the data has been analyzed, determine if a disparity exists between athletes and non-athletes in behavior and academic achievement. Who gets more referrals? Do off-season athletes get more referrals than when their sport was in season? Do non-athletes fail more classes than athletes? Is there a disparity between the two groups?

7. Taking action for school improvement
Focus on the group that shows the least achievement or appropriate behavior. Create and implement a plan to help improve the behavior and academic achievement of that group.

8. Sustaining improvement
Evaluate the students after they have been involved in the improvement program. Is it helping? Compare the students’ current scores and behavior with those prior to involvement in the improvement program.

New idea for action research

As I was completing my assignment for this week I read through the examples of inquiries in Chapter 2 of Dana's book and I finally came up with a topic that interests me and will be of benefit to my school. I have been at my high school for 5 years and every year we have done well in athletics (two back-to-back State football championships, for starters!) and above average in academic pursuits like UIL academic events, FFA, BPA, HOSA and other club competitions. I want to research the relationship between athletes' behavior and academic performance during their sports season as opposed to outside their sports season. In addition, I want to compare their behavior and academic performance with that of students who are not involved in athletics. If athletes' behavior and academic performance is significantly higher when they are encouraged by their coaches, is there something we could do for non-athletes that would provide the same kind of encouragement?

Week 2 Reflection

Of the topics I have discussed with my site mentor, I am leaning toward researching the various e-mail programs available to schools, both cost items and open source. We are an "old" district, so to speak. We have a number of teachers who have been here 20+ years, and even a significant number who have been here 35 years. As you might imagine, they are definitely digital immigrants and many have been dragged into the digital age kicking and screaming. Whatever e-mail program we decided to use must be simple, intuitive, and efficient. My research will focus on those aspects of the programs we look at.

In trying to categorize this research, I believe I would put it under the category of management. We are planning to do district-wide training in the program we choose and the training would fall under "faculty/staff development" category, but the focus of the research remains which e-mail program offers the most with the least learning curve.

How educational leaders might use blogs

Educational leaders can use action research to solve a multitude of questions. One possibility to use it as a principal might be to implement it with the leadership/site based decision making committee to develop a campus improvement plan.
Action research can be done in collaboration with others who share an interest in the problem. A blog or a wiki would be a useful tool when researching in collaboration with peers; many times the biggest detriment to collaboration is the time it takes to meet together. Using technology to share research with others would help solve that problem.

What I've learned about action research

Action research is a way of solving problems. The kinds of problems that can be dealt with are endless: student behavior problems, learning styles, project management, professional growth and development, statistical research, knowledge acquisition, certification programs, and much, much more. Harris, et. al. (2007) says that "inquiry is investigating in a systematic way. Inquiry is examining data, asking qustions, and requesting more information. The inquiry process, based on logical reasoning, requires the collection of information in a systematic way." (p. 5)

In the course of taking classes at Lamar, I have discovered that I really need to change my style of teaching to a project approach. Action research would be useful to learn how to organize my classes to be taught in this manner and how to go about doing it. In addition, action research would be useful in developing the projects for my computer applications classes to use. I would like to learn ways that businesses use various applications in the course of their daily work and then develop projects that mimic their activity. Another use for action research in developing a project approach would be to discover projects that have already been created that could be adapted for use in my classroom.