Action Research Reflection

This course brought about a lot of challenging ideas for me. I had some really great conversations with both my site mentor and colleagues about leadership, research and the challenges with implementing new programs, the obstacles that loss of funding can bring, and the constant need for change. Honestly, these conversations gave me the most insight; speaking with people who understand my campus and my individual leadership style.

My experience going into a course on action research was minimal; or rather, my awareness of action research was minimal. After the first week of readings, I realized I have seen research projects in action here at school. I have even participated in some of them and have contributed with data for some. Research-based action projects are going on continuously at my campus, as well as at campuses across the nation.

I especially enjoyed the interviews with the professionals, particularly Dr. Chargois. His thoughts on attempting to quantify qualitative data he said, “data can be collected on just about anything and if a teacher (or administrator) is wise, they will understand that it can all play a part (even if it is a minor part; what a student ate for breakfast, for instance) in growing and improving a child, a classroom, a school, a district, or the idea of education as a whole” (Chargois, T. Interview, 2012). Another great resource for me has been some of the readings I have found through on-line searches. I am currently reading a book entitled School Leadership that Works by Robert Marzano, Timothy Waters and Brian A. McNulty. This book has provided me with a lot of eye-opening thoughts on action research. It gave me my initial wandering, “To what extent does leadership play a role in whether a school is effective or ineffective?” Most of my thoughts and questions have stemmed from this big picture question.

This course has also been effective by introducing me to the idea of sustaining action research, particularly through the Force Field Analysis. It’s important to specify the current situation, the proposed change and look at what will happen if there is no change, why there is no change and assess if the change is viable. Of the three strategies in this chapter, the Force Field Analysis is the one I predict I will use most with my research project. Because I am primarily dealing with people, I suspect there will be stronger driving, and resisting forces at play.

When thinking of my action research project, I immediately took a direction toward teacher evaluation and staff development. I am very passionate about the on-going learning of teachers and felt that there had to be something in that area that I could research. The first roadblock for me was when my site mentor responded to my idea to look at creating and/or evaluating professional development as: ‘I think your goal is more about using a system to effectively document growth in relation to PD/mentoring rather than gauging the actual instrument used for evaluating. Honestly, it sounds cumbersome to me over time. Maybe another angle?’ This certainly left me questioning a lot about action research. I was determined to find a project that would be interesting enough to me, yet applicable to my school. I knew I did not want to pursue a topic that focused on student discipline; I wanted, instead, to keep focus on teachers. My administrative goals are directed in curriculum, director of instruction, staff development and teacher evaluation, so I thought it’d be best to take advantage of this opportunity to complete a project in an area that might directly apply to my position in the future. The next challenge for me was to find a project that would have some good quantitative data, as most of what I was brainstorming would just simply be too qualitative. After speaking with my mentor in length, she recommended I meet with the leaders of the new teacher mentor program. These two teachers were able to provide me with a really good history of the program, the changes that had come in the past few years, the challenges they are having with the program now and the need for possible action research. I decided to direct my focus on this program and how it is/can be used to grow teachers.

Action Research Draft

Action Research Planning
	To determine what extent leadership plays a role in the effectiveness of schools. How does the process of mentoring new teachers help individual teachers (new and veteran) learn and grow?
Action Steps	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Determine qualities of what makes a school effective, to use as a measurement for goal.	Principal, Director of Instruction (site mentor), Department Leaders	December 2012/ February 2013	Data of past performances, AYP, campus goals met.	None.
2. Determine clear mission and goals.	Self, Department leaders, principal, site mentor	December 2012/ February 2013	Campus Improvement Plan, Site Based Committees, Campus SMART goals	None.
3. Examine leadership theories and the practices of these theories in education; specifically on campus as it relates to mentor program.	Principal, site mentor, self	December 2012/ March 2013	Readings on leadership theories. Interviews with school leaders.	None.
4. Determine mission of new teacher mentor program.	Site mentor, Teacher Mentor Program leaders	December 2012/ February 2013	District goals/Campus goals.	None.
5. Evaluate success of program. Determine strengths and weaknesses of program.	Teacher mentor program leaders, mentors, new teachers in program, site mentor	December 2012/ February 2013	Interviews, classroom observations, meetings, data records, field notes, interviews.	Survey data, Interviews, Observations
6.  Determine professional development courses focused on leadership attended by staff.	District Staff Development Liaison, site mentor, principal, assistant principals	January 2013/ March 2013	Professional development quantitative data, courses offered, courses taken, percentage of passing rate	None.
7. Evaluate strategies for assigning teacher mentors, pairing new teachers with mentors (content vs. non-content), training and retaining teacher mentors.	Self, teacher mentor program leaders, site mentor, teacher mentors	March 2013/ May 2013	Past data, incentives, leadership involvement	Survey data Interviews
8.  Implement strategies to improve involvement, retention and leadership. Meaningful meetings Opportunities for sharing and reflecting Opportunities for growth	Self, teacher mentor program leaders, site mentor, department leaders, teacher mentors	August 2013/ October 2013	Data analysis, Reflection journals and blog	Survey data Interviews
9. Determine necessary professional development for new teachers and teacher mentors. Professional development that directly links to campus strategies Content-based PD Leadership training for mentors Provide opportunities for PD to be integrated into classrooms	Self, teacher mentor program leaders, site mentor, department leaders, teacher mentors, professional development liaisons	August 2013/ October 2013
10. Track professional development by new teachers and teacher mentors.	professional development liaisons, site mentor	August 2013/ December 2013	Professional development quantitative data, courses offered, courses taken, number of PD hours offered/taken
11.
12.  Reflect on progress and findings.	Self, site mentor	December 2012/ December 2013	Data analysis, Reflection journals, blog
13. Share results discovered	Self, site mentor	December 2013	Data analysis, Reflection journals, blog

Action Research Weekly Thoughts - Week 4

This week saw many changes to my action research topic. After visiting with the leaders of the new teacher mentor program here on campus, I decided it would be in my best interest to direct my focus on school leadership by focusing on how new teachers are led. So, I am currently reseraching the effectiveness of the new teacher mentor program.
A few years ago, my district cut funding for professional development. Currently, many programs that were awarded funding in the past (albiet minimal funding) now struggle to find ways to keep meaningful work going. The new teacher mentor program is one that now functions without any pay for its leaders. While there is still a group of teachers doing excellent work with new teachers, I feel the overall goals are not being met. There are many questions that have been circling in my mind regarding this program:
What consitutes a 'new' teacher; one new to the profession, one new to the district, to the school, to a certain content area? What incentives can we offer to raise the meetings' attendance? What can be done to make the meetings more meaningful? What can be done to make the professional development for new teachers more meaningful? How can we best pair teacher mentors with new teachers? How can we encourage new teachers to attend trainings, since they (ironically) do not need the hours (new teachers receive more PD hours than most teachers)? How can we direct our focus on the people, the leadership, rather than simply implementing a program to help new teachers?
This last question is important to me because I believe if we grow the new teachers, we will get much better results than if we simply assign Teacher A to Teacher B, put meetings on the calendar, have teachers sign in, sit and listen to how procedures will be implemented, ask for questions, then adjourn.


  

Action Research Weekly Thoughts

This week's correspondence with my site mentor was somewhat frustrating. The frustration came from me not having many of my thoughts together on action research and the fact that most of my thoughts were focused too much on qualitative data. This caused me to stress out thinking I wouldn't be able to come up with a topic to research that would be interesting enough for me while being realistic enough to actually conduct and evaluate. The exciting part of my week's correspondence came from slowly sorting through a lot of my thoughts and narrowing in on a few solid ideas. I am leaning towards researching the new teacher mentor program at district and/or campus level. I'd like to work in evaluation of staff development programs, but that is where I run into more qualitative data, rather than data I can quantify. Although I still have a lot of the specifics to work out, as well as coming up with the question I want to research, I feel like I am at a much better place than I was 72 hours ago. My mentor and I will meet Monday; not to finalize everything (as this seems like a task that will be ever-evolving), and I am excited to see where I'll be in the next 72 hours.