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.