Week 3 Assignment, Part 3 Draft Action Research Project Progress Report

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.