Week 3-Action Research Plan

Action Planning Template
Goal: To find ways to decrease freshmen failure rate.
Action Step(s)	Person(s)	Timeline:	Needed	Evaluation
	Responsible	Start/End	Resources
1. Examining the work: Setting the foundation.  Collaborated with site supervisor and RTI coordinator for research topic of freshmen failure rate.	L. Marquez, Site Supervisor, RTI Coordinator	Mar-12	Tutoring Coordinator, Site Supervisor, RTI Coordinator	Interview with site supervisor andRTI coordinator
2. Analyzing data.  Interview both teachers responsible for tutoring sessions and develop a survey for freshmen students attending program to gain insight on its effectiveness.  Observe sessions on different days of the week, interact with students and take field notes to gain an understanding of students' needs, attitudes, and knowledge levels.  Interview administration responsible for parent contact of freshmen failing to see how different types of support are working.	L Marquez, Tutoring Coordinator and teachers, Administration	Apr-12	L Marquez, Tutoring Coordinator and teachers, Administration, Freshmen Students	Student 9 week grades Personal notes of observations Data collected through surveys and interviews.
3. Developing deeper understanding.  Research EBSCO and see what other schools are doing to target this special group of students.  Talk to retired personnel and see if there is anything from the past that can be combined with new ideas to implement different plans.  Reflect on all interviews, notes, and observations.  Talk to personnel from different schools/districts and get opinions on findings.	L Marquez	April/May 2012	EBSCO, Internet, other schools/ districts, Ms. Swindle, Ms. Garza, Mr. Cousins	Journals,interviews, surveys
4. Engaging in Self-Reflection.  Organize my thoughts and post them on my blog, read them frequently, ask other professionals for their input.  Keep thinking about the effectiveness of our newly implemented program and find ways to improve it or others to implement.  Talk to my freshmen and see if they agree or disagree with findings.	L Marquez, Blogs	Ongoing: March/Oct 2012	Blogs, interaction with site supervisor and administration	Blog and site supervisor feedback, personal notes and peer comments
5. Exploring Programmatic Patterns.  Survey all failing freshmen and see if there are differences in gender and/or race, if this is so, then which group is the one failing more subjects and what are their particular issues so we can develop a plan to target those specific issues.	L Marquez	April/May 2012	Survey designed for freshmen and administration support	Student grades, attendance of tutoring program, feedback from parents when contacted by administration
6. Determining direction.  Work collaboratively with tutoring coordinator, teachers involved with tutoring program, and administration responsible for contacting parents.  Continously monitor and assess progress.  Design and update timeline as needed.	L Marquez, Site Supervisor	March/Oct 2012	Tutoring Lab, Administration	Grades collected, students's issues identified, progress/success of tutoring program.
7. Taking action for school improvement.  Be as involved as I can be on everything that involves decreasing freshmen failure rate whether it's the tutoring program, contacting parents, looking into attendance issues or anything else that we might discover throughout this process.	L Marquez, Site Supervisor	March/May 2012	Tutoring Lab, Parent Contact, Administration input	Data collection, summarize and present findings and possible solutions to design plan for implementation
8. Sustaining improvement.  Stay engaged in action research throughout my career, share solutions with staff and anybody that can benefit from them.  Work collaboratively with others to obtain better and faster results and motivate others to embrace action research.  Always reflect and look at areas that need improvement.	L Marquez, Site Supervisor	Ongoing: March/Oct 2012	RTI reports, 9 weeks' grades, professional development	Develop a plan to implement solutions and decrease freshmen failure rate.

The 9 Passions

Week 2, EDLD 5301, EA 1244

This week I learned about the 9 passions of action research in education.  The nine areas are staff and curriculum development, individual teachers and students, school culture/community, leadership, management, school performance, and social justice or equity issues.  When we look at these different areas, we start to wonder and think about ways to improve different aspects of each area, this leads us to action research.  For my action research I will be looking at the fifth passion: individual students.  I will be looking at ways to decrease freshmen failure rate.  I think this is a critical group because it's a way of preventing a lot more issues in the future and I want to find ways to help them stay in school and succeed.  I would also like to look at their reasons for being absent since I believe that if students come to class, then they will have a better chance of learning, doing their work, and graduating.  I wonder how all this relates and what the best approach is.