A little update

If I could only be more on top of this blog, I know I would feel better about my research...
I decided that my current discussion forum post is timely and does a good job of explaining where I find myself in my current action research. I've had some trouble finding literature, but I'm feeling like I'll find more as I continue to dig.
I'm in the middle of it, literally, as I live the instructional changes that I my inquiry has led me to study. Here is my post and some insight into where I find myself in my reseach: not quite as far as I hoped...

The reason behind why I chose to work on the project that I did was, what I thought at the time, a practical one. We were faced with deciding whether to configure our instructional time as self-contained or departmentalized general education. Last year was my second year out of special education and the first year that we taught in a self contained arrangement. The biggest problem I had with this setup was that I only felt fully prepared to teach and deliver intervention in the subject(s) that I planned. We rotated subject planning that year as most of the team was new and we wanted a feel for each area. This was partially in anticipation of the departmentalized structure for this year. It seemed overwhelming to me to switch gears mentally from subject to subject and gathering materials for each was proving impossible, especially for science as we had limited class sets. When we set down as a team to discuss the upcoming year with our principal I asked if anyone had hard evidence related to student performance in these different arrangements. None of us did. At the time I was in the Lamar Academic Partnership program and was looking for the topic of my action research and decided this could be viable.

After initially searching for literature I found very little. To this point, I have only been able to locate one dedicated article from the last decade and one that only partially addressed the topic from the mid seventies, but I will continue the search until I have completed my work. As far as the accompanying research I feel like I am in the middle of it. After this year I will have raw data related to STAAR performance, curriculum based assessments and student grades, much that I can dis-aggregate and search through for patterns. I will also take into consideration teacher perception of the schedule, which as you can imagine, I am already getting plenty of. I’ll use surveys and interviews to gather actual information to use in the project when the time comes.

I hope what I learn and share offers some useful insight for teachers and administrators that are facing the same question. Rather than look to anecdotes and opinions, there will be recent, hard data to help drive a decision. I think that completing the project offers benefits to me besides the answer to a question. What I am finding is that I entered the year with some preconceptions, listened to colleagues (sometimes simply vent) then did some research that is now causing me to rethink my position. I am looking forward to seeing if the data I collect matches what has come before me. If it does not, then there’s another source of inquiry. 

Week Three in Action Reseach: My Plan

This week was spend struggling with my research topic and finding the time to sit down with my site supervisor to discuss my ideas. I was finally able to, and have put together the following plan. I have to admit, it will probably change, or evolve, but I think it will give me insight when the time comes for me to make decisions regarding instructional arrangements and offer informed feedback to my administrators.

Research Plan
Goal: To study the relationship between student achievement and classrooms organized as self-contained or departmentalized and provide information to administrators and other stakeholders in the position to make scheduling decisions.
Action Step(s):	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Identify two campuses with similar SES, one using self contained instruction and one using departmentalized	Myself	June/August	Schedule from two campuses, administrator assistance	Are the schools matched for SES, class size, TEA status?
Request teacher participation in answering a survey to collect qualitative data: their feelings on the two arrangements, their feelings on student engagement, work load, effectiveness of instruction.	I will create the surveys, request permission to send them and that the teachers complete them.	November	Electronic or paper survey	Analyze the information collected from the teachers
Collect assessment data from each campus: Benchmarks tests Curriculum Assessments	Myself	Throughout school year as test results become available	Test scores, objective analysis,	Analyze and compile data. Identify patterns
Publish results of the research study	Myself	May	Blog to disseminate findings, interpretation of my quantitative and qualitative data	Compare the results of the two instructional arrangements and identify patters

I am open to feedback. So feel free to share.

Rethinking with New Information

With this week's reading in "Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher" came many examples of inquiry in action. When it comes to using action research to solve problems it isn't always looking at numbers and scores on standardized tests. The process of inquiry itself will present chances to collect qualitative data and from that patterns can emerge.
I think this week from my reading and reflections I see that through the process of identifying a topic or "wondering" others will come.
In addition, the researcher will need to develop skills of adapted the work of others to fit their needs. One can save themself a lot of work by considering what others have done before them and bending their findings to fit their needs.

My First Week

What have I learned this week?

Action research, teacher research or practitioner inquiry: these are the names that could all be applied to the process of investigating something we as professional educators wonder about. The process is systematic and reflective. It requires that we look at what we do and decide if it works. It can be used in groups that share problems and decision making or encourage collaboration between lone professionals. Action research is different than traditional education research. It involves the professional in the act of the research, hence its name. It is not about transmission of data and applying it to a context, but about creating the data from the context. Conducting research that relates not just to our field, but to our exact situation makes it more likely that we will implement meaningful changes and build habits of continued learning and as leaders in education it sets an example for our colleagues to follow.

As a teacher professional inquiry will force me to look at what I do in the classroom when I identify a topic that I think needs more attention. As my experience grows and I continue to reflect on my practices I can see where changes are needed. Using action research can help me define new problems that may have not been obvious superficially and work on them.

How can an educational leader use a blog?

A leader or a teacher conducting action research can use a blog as a diary to record findings and share thoughts. The chronological nature of a blog allows the researcher to naturally track the thought processes and evolutions of findings. Collaboration between professionals can be easily facilitated though comments and linking of blogs. As mentioned above, the collaboration and participation in the research will make it more likely that the newly gained knowledge will be put to use.