Hernando Payne
EDLD 5397
August 5, 2012
Week 3 Assignment, Part 3
Draft Action Research Project Progress Report
a. Title –
Affirming that the needs of the sub-populations of S.F. Austin H.S. are being
met and assess how effective technology has been in this process.
b. Needs
Assessment – In keeping in line with the campus improvement plan and based upon
the 2011-2012 EOC data and TAKS data the campus did not meet AYP due to the
performance of two subpopulations in mathematics. The data is based on this
year’s state exam data.
c. Objectives
and Vision of the action research project. (ELCC 1.1) – All students at S.F.
Austin will meet or exceed the standard set by the State of Texas Education
Agency for all statewide measurements. Research will be directed towards
looking at other high schools in terms of the strategies implemented at those
high schools where these subpopulations are represented as the majority
demographic and a positive correlation will be sought between these
implementations and improved student performance amongst these sub-populations.
d. Review of
the Literature and Action Research Strategy – Apply Best Practice to Student
Learning (LCC 2.3) –
One of the references used: Echecarria, J., Vogt, M.E.,
Short, D. (2008). Introducing sheltered instruction. Making content comprehensible
for English learners: The SIOP model 3rd edition (1-20). United States of
America: Pearson Education, Inc.
SIOP is one of the best practices indicated for our Hispanic
population; many of whom are LEP. I have used this strategy before with great results
and it is indicated as one of the interventions to implement.
My campus was noticing small but noticeable indications
based on campus data that there was trouble within some of our subpopulations
and after reviewing this year’s data; those indications manifested themselves
in us not meeting AYP in mathematics. I decided to implement an action research
project concerning this matter since we were engaged in looking at this
already. The personnel involved in the research are the campus improvement specialist
and the campus principal. We considered last year’s data and the year before
that. Decisions made will be noted in the research project.
e. Articulate
the Vision (ELCC 1.2) – My action research is tied into the vision for the
campus which is communicated through the district website, school website, and
school newsletter.
f. Manage
the organization (ELCC 3.1) –Most of the responsibility, if not all of it, rest
on myself. Student privacy and safety will not be an issue as this research is
entirely based on data and evidenced based research. I had to wait until we had
our data teams meeting this summer to get the final piece of data I needed. I
know we can shore up our deficiencies with our subpopulations and this is a
priority on our campus. I plan to present evidence that these strategies do
work and must be implemented immediately.
g. Manage
Operations (ELCC 3.2) – I already met with the campus improvement specialist
and campus principal about my research. Although the campus improvement
specialist has been promoted to assistant principal it will not affect the work
on this research project. The administration realizes that we need to go in
this direction to address the subpopulations in mathematics and to make sure we
are good in reading as well.
h. Respond
to Community Interest and Needs (ELCC 4.2) – This research will bring forward
the best practices currently employed by high schools that have a majority of
the subpopulations we are now getting in increasing number. Many of our
teachers have never had to use these strategies but now we must begin to not
only implement these strategies but also change our overall approach to
teaching. Our students have changed and so must our methods. Some of these
methods include SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol), word walls,
and real world application when it comes to math science. We might even
consider changing who we look at to hire when it comes to math and science. At
the high school level, an ACP candidate may be better than a recent School of
Education college graduate due to the real world experience the ACP candidate
can bring to the classroom. I have been involved in professional developments
concerning this and will be looking to find research that addresses this.