Update on Action Research and a Slight Change

In the beginning of the action research experience I was going to focus on discipline and why my school had so many repeat offenders.  As I began digging in to this my school decided to do a complete 180 with our procedures since we had a turnover with our administration.  We have decide to implement PBIS throughout our school.  As I looked at this from a distance I decided along with my site supervisor to tie this in with my action research of the repeat offenders from previous years and how PBIS has positively or negatively effected their discipline.  I have joined our PBIS committee where we meet each Monday and have roundtable discussions on our our procedures are going and what we are seeing throughout the school.  To this point I have noticed a significant change from years past with our discipline.  We had a such a problem in the past with always having students in ISS, I am pleased to report that my principal went to an administrators meeting this past week and we are the only school in the district we has not had a single student in ISS.  I know its early still put the students seem to have a more positive reaction to PBIS as opposed to our other way how discipline which was pretty much non existent.  I know I need to dig deeper into the project and let it run its course longer before I feel that PBIS is a success and to see if it has helped with our students academic achievement.  In our weekly PBIS meetings, now that we are almost into our second 6 weeks, I will inquire the teachers about the effect PBIS has with students assessment scores in their classrooms and if they feel there is a link in the way we are handling discipline.  I will keep you all updated as we move further into the school year and hopefully I can report even better information on PBIS and its effectiveness on our repeat offenders and our school community.

Week 3 in Action Research

I hope all is well out there fr everyone who is working on Week 3 assignments and good luck for those who have not started yet.  This week has been very trying in the sense that it was somewhat difficult to understand what was required for us to do or how to do it.  I have created my Action Research template and copied it just below.  I have also included my part 1 assignment response, just so you may have a better understanding.  I hope that you will take the time to share what you think about it and what I may need to look at again and make some changes.

Complete Part 1 of this assignment below

How effective is our current “In School Suspension” program and why are there always the same students (repeat offenders) who are in ISS? I have come to this topic through discussions with my site supervisor and assistant principal.  I went in to this class wanting to research something that deals with discipline and how effective our schools discipline may be.  I feel in my heart that there is something different that can be done for us to get more value out of our current ISS program and to keep repeat offenders out of ISS and in the classroom.  Action Planning Template Goal:  To evaluate and modify our current ISS program and to lower the amount of time repeat offenders spend in ISS. Action Steps(s): Person(s) Responsible: Timeline: Start/End Needed Resources Evaluation 1. Evaluate current ISS program and create a list of “Repeat Offenders”. Survey teachers on how effective they feel our current ISS procedures are.  Myself, Assistant Principal and ISS teacher April to May 2013 Referrals from previous year. Amount of days each student spent in ISS. Survey Monkey access for teacher surveys. Complete list of “Repeat Offenders” and teacher surveys. 2. Analyze teacher feedback, create a chart of “repeat offenders” and the amount of time they spent in ISS Myself and Assistant Principal May 2013 Survey results and referrals from current year and previous years if possible Compile results in a chart and focus in on why repeat offenders were in ISS 3. Modify current ISS procedures/programs and interview repeat offenders teachers as to what or why those students may always be in ISS Myself, Assistant Principal and ISS teacher May 2013 to July 2013 Current ISS procedures, other school procedures and documents used to reduce time in ISS Lay out a plan on what I would like to implement for next school years ISS program and show what other schools are doing in this instance. 4. Implement new plan for the coming school years ISS program and the procedures for “Repeat Offenders” Myself, Assistant Principal and ISS teacher August 2013 Copy of new plan for all teachers and administrators. Copy of procedures for “Repeat Offenders” Have a final copy placed in school handbook for the upcoming year. 5. Present new ISS procedures/program to staff and how we may better deal with “Repeat Offenders” Myself and Assistant Principal August 2013 Staff development day, and copies for staff of new plan Teacher feedback 6. Analyze new ISS procedures and effectiveness for “Repeat Offenders” Myself and Assistant Principal August to September 2013 Surveys for staff and students (repeat offenders) Evaluate the new procedures

Meeting with my Site Supervisor

After meeting with my site supervisor on possible action research topics we both decided on a topic dealing with our “ISS” procedures and its effectiveness.  There were other topics we threw around dealing with staff development and discipline.  In the end he supported my topic on how we can change our “ISS” procedures and its effectiveness when dealing with repeat offenders.  He was very intrigued that I wanted to research this and was 100% percent supportive.  He said that they were thinking and looking for new ways to revamp “ISS” and would be very interested in hearing about my findings.  They are going to meet sometime in the coming months to throw around some ideas on this topic and I have asked to be part of those discussions.  Overall the meeting with my supervisor was a success and I feel that he will do whatever he can to assist me in my research.  

How Educational Leaders Might use Blogs

Educational leaders can use blogs in many different ways.  They could use blogs to reach parents, students or faculty.  This could be used as another way to communicate with the community and to get suggestions on certain topics.  This could also be used as a public forum to keep the community up to date on the happenings at their respected school.

What I Have Learned About Action Research

In the beginning, all I thought action research was was just another way to get information out of selected texts that we may use in the future.  Action research seems to be a very interesting and hands on approach in analyzing data and implementing new data and strategies.  While reading up on action research, it is commonly associated with inquiry.  Inquiry to me is something that you are interested in and often ask yourself questions about a certain topic.  Once the question is raised, we make the choice to dig deeper into the topic or let it go by the wayside.  This is where the action research comes into play, once the topic is chosen then we may move forward in our research.  This research must include data, observations, and in the end allow us a way to implement our findings so that we may answer our inquiry or question that was raised.  I plan to use action research throughout my time as a teacher and hopefully when the time comes as an administrator.  I hope to focus my first action research project in some area of discipline. I feel that in order to become a great administrator we will need to master the art of discipline and knowing that every student and situation may need to be handled differently.


This is my first post as a "Blogger", I hope to use this as just another source of communication and allow others to follow me on my "Action Research Adventures".