Tool 7.1 Action Planning Template - Revised
Goal: Implement student families on our campus to decrease student apathy and increase student achievement.
Action Step(s): | Person(s) Responsible: | Timeline: Start/End: | Needed Resources | Evaluation |
Divide students into families for the duration of their time on our campus | Steffany Fitzpatrick, Teacher Amy Burkey, Dean of Students Paula Ringo, Principal | Start: June 2011 End: August 2011 (in-service) | Class Lists of incoming 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students List of teachers for the 2011-2012 school year | Teachers will evaluate their groups after the administration has approved them to see if there might be any potential conflicts between the teachers or students |
Develop a list of activities that the families will participate in on a regular basis | Steffany Fitzpatrick, Teacher Amy Burkey, Dean of Students | Start: June 2011 End: August 2011 (in-service) | Develop focus groups of teachers for their input on the activites | Field Notes, Interviews with Teachers and students about possible activities they would be interested in participating in. |
Explain the purpose and benefits of the student families to staff, parents, and students to rally support for the program. | Steffany Fitzpatrick, Teacher Amy Burkey, Dean of Students Paula Ringo, Principal Campus Teachers | During the Welcome Back week activities just before school starts | Venue to hold the Welcome back meeting. Teachers to describe activities that their students will be participating in and a presentation on the benefits to the parents. | Evaluating the effectiveness of the launch program by interviewing the parents, students, and staff that were at the welcome back program. |
Develop focus groups of students, teachers, and parents to evaluate the program and activities | Steffany Fitzpatrick, Teacher Amy Burkey, Dean of Students Paula Ringo, Principal Campus Teachers Parents Students | Start: June 2011 End: August 2011 (in-service) | Focus groups and a place to hold the meetings afterschool | Field notes, interviews, and other data collected will help determine the effectiveness of these groups and see if a positive change is taking place |
Evaluate the effectiveness of the student families after the first 3 weeks of school. | Steffany Fitzpatrick, Teacher Amy Burkey, Dean of Students Paula Ringo, Principal Campus Teachers | Mid September at the end of the first 3 week progress report grading period. | PIEMS Coordinator to provide grades, information from teachers about students’ performance, data on the number of office referrals | Evaluate grades, interview students, parents and teachers about their thoughts and feelings on the effects of the families, evaluate the number office referrals |
Determine if there are any reoccurring patterns or gaps in the program | Steffany Fitzpatrick, Teacher Amy Burkey, Dean of Students Paula Ringo, Principal Campus Teachers | Review initially at first 3 weeks progress report and then each six weeks after for the 2011-2012 school year | PIEMS data, grades, TAKS benchmarks, Teachers remarks and findings | Interview teachers and students, review field notes, and evaluate the gaps or patterns that might be developing |
Self Reflection | Steffany Fitzpatrick, Teacher Amy Burkey, Dean of Students | On-going throughout the implementation and evaluation process | Journal and conference time with my site supervisor | Record and analyze all reflections written to see progress, strengths, weaknesses, and areas that need improvement. Keep record of all things accomplished and learned for professional vita and future use |
Continue to monitor progress, growth and change throughout the 2011-2012 school year and then determine if the program is successful and if we should continue into the next school year to see effects of a 3 year implementation | Steffany Fitzpatrick, Teacher Amy Burkey, Dean of Students Paula Ringo, Principal Campus Teachers | Start: August 2011 End: May 2012 | All recorded data, field notes, interviews, videos, blogs, suggestions, and focus group recommendations | TAKS data, grade data, teacher input, student’s thoughts, parent’s reactions, community and administrations observations |
Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools Sandra Harris, Stacey Edmonson, Julie Combs
© Eye On Education
Harris Text, Chapter 8 Review
Force Field Analysis
Force Field Analysis is understanding the factors that bring about change, support change, and resist change. To conduct a Force Field Analysis, you will need to complete the following 7 steps:
1. Describe the current situation.
2. Describe the proposed change.
3. Identify what will happen if no change occurs.
4. Identify the forces driving the proposed change.
5. Identify the forces resisting the change.
6. Determine whether the change is viable.
7. If the change is viable, what is needed for implementation? Will you need to reduce the strength of the forces opposing the change, or increase the forces driving the change?
Analyzing each of these points will help with the circumstances surrounding the change.
Delphi Method
The Delphi Method is a method that is often used to gather information from several people and then through a process of steps, the group is lead to a consensus.
To implement the Delphi Method, the following format is suggested.
1. Send around a problem statement to staff.
2. Ask staff to write down what he or she believe need to be done.
3. Retrieve the written comments.
4. Reproduce everyone’s comments.
5. Return all the comments to the participants.
6. Participants read comments and then individually write a synthesis of the various ideas (this step is optional and often omitted due to time constraints).
7. Collect everyone’s syntheses or you do this yourself.
8. Make a new list of all synthesized ideas.
9. Send the new list back to participants and ask them to rank items.
10. Collect and compute an average and frequency of ratings; then return tallies to participants to re-rank.
This process will help groups come to a consensus amongst the entire population that is involved.
Nominal Group Technique
Nominal Group Technique is usually something done in small meetings or faculty meetings with improvement as the goal. Implementation includes the following steps:
1. Have each individual within a small group silently generate and write perceived needs/issues. Do not allow discussion among participants at this point.
2. Ask each individual to share orally with the small group one perceived need/issue at a time. The Facilitator then writes these on a flip chart with NO discussion.
3. Lead small group discussions of each perceived need/issue for further clarification.
4. Ask group members to rewrite and rate all perceived needs/issues listed in the previous step. Numerical values can be assigned to each from 1-5 for example.
When completing this method, judgmental comments are not allowed from the participants or the facilitator.
Ways to Use These Techniques
These techniques for sustained improvement would be beneficial to my action research project. I will be able to apply all three of these techniques to gain insight and understanding around my action research project idea. I will be able to better address my research project and the circumstances that will surround the change associated with my inquiry. These techniques will provide a true picture of the improvement process and understanding of the change necessary for my action research project.
Tool 8.1 CARE Model: Planning Tool
Identify Concerns that must change (look to the future)
(Assign points to concerns from 1 to 3 in the order of the most important issues to consider.)
1. Teachers, students and administrators must be willing to try new things in order to see change occur. Everyone needs to have faith that change is necessary for growth and that change is often a very positive necessity.
2. Time must change. Scheduling time for the research project is critical. Implementation of the school families will require time and the administration and teachers will have to schedule in time to participate in the activities with the students.
3. Parental support. Parents must start to support the teachers and schools staff instead of complaining that they are asking too much of their students or complaining that they are not doing the job they are hired to do. Parents need to begin to understand that school is not just about teaching facts but about becoming well rounded productive members of society.
Identify Affirmations that must be sustained (look to the present)
(Assign points to affirmations from 1 to 3 in the order of the most important issues to consider.)
1. Collaborative environment. Currently, the staff on my campus are very collaborative and this is very critical for change and supporting one another’s efforts.
2. Focus. Our staff needs to continue to stay focused on the end result and on what the overall goal of school is, student learning. We need to continue to work toward student achievement as we currently do.
3. Technology. Currently we are a technology rich campus and we need to continue to stay active in the technology committee and stay current with our equipment. This will aid in the implementation of the school families and technology can be incorporated into the program.
SMART Recommendations that must be implemented:
(Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely)
(Assign points to recommendations from 1 to 3 in the order of the most important recommendations to implement.)
1. School families must be formed.
2. List of activities for the school families must be determined.
3. Implementation and school families activities must be completed.
EVALUATE – Specifically and Often
(Identify the best ways to evaluate the implemented recommendations.)
1. Surveys. I will be using surveys, possibly SurveyMonkey.com, to evaluate others opinions on the progress and implementation of the school families.
2. Focus groups will also be essential for hearing and understanding the ideas and feedback from parents, students, teachers, and administrators.
3. I will also be evaluating data and assessments such as office referrals, the failure lists, and the ICU program on our campus.
Harris, S., Edmonson, S., & Combs, J. (2009). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps from analysis to action. Larchmont, N.Y.: Eye on Education.
Peer Comments
I have not had any comments on my blog at this point so I have decided to complete this portion of the assignment using comments made to my posts on the discussion board. I am very appreciative of these two peers for their very beneficial thoughts and information.
One peer commented that they had a similar program to my idea of the school families. He informed me that their program ended up being more of a study hall time. This is one challenge that I had not thought of but that is very likely to occur if the program is not structured and implemented correctly. I want to stress the importance of the program and its benefits and have the teachers and students buy in to the program positively.
A second peer of mine commented how the school family program is the opposite of the gangs that students often belong to. She was stating that gangs began as a form of acceptance but in a negative way. These school families will provide acceptance in a positive and educational setting. I did think about what she was saying in comparison to gangs. I will need to be careful implementing this inquiry research project so that it does not become a negatively competitive natured organization. I want the school families to support one another and foster the culture of our school. I do not want the families to become competitive with one another in a negative fashion. This is something I will have to monitor closely and address quickly.
Neither of the comments required me to change my action plan. However, they are definitely two very critical thoughts and points that I will be taking into account when developing the list of activities for the family groups and when developing the tools for evaluation. I will be able to incorporate both of the ideas of these comments into already existing parts of my plan. Site Supervisor Meeting
In the meeting with my site supervisor, we discussed not only the action research plan, but also the concerns I developed after completing part 3 of the assignment.
At this time, my site supervisor and I are both in agreement about my action research plan. She suggested that we continually reevaluate the plan to see if additions, omissions, or changes need to be made. She said the plan is comprehensive at this point but as we run into new ideas and challenges, we will make the necessary changes.
We discussed the challenges of time and teacher buy-in. She agreed that in order to combat the challenge of time, we will start small with very small required activities of the groups. I will also start small in the evaluation process by sending out short questionnaire surveys and asking a small amount of questions in my interviews and focus groups. This will only require a few minutes of those involved instead of large blocks out of their time.
Teacher buy-in is also something she feels we can address by starting small. By not requiring a large amount of additional responsibility of those involved, we are more likely to gain the support of those involved. We also discussed thoroughly explaining the benefits, goals, possible activities, and possible challenges to the staff so that everyone knows what to expect and how influential and positive the program can be.
The last things we discussed were the comments made by my peers. She agreed that these were two ideas were very critical and needed to be monitored very closely. She thought in order to combat the challenge of the family time turning into a study hall, we would need to implement specific activities with specific amounts of time designated. This way, all participants would be on task and the time would be used wisely. Then we discussed keeping all activities between all of the families supportive and positive. We will be closely monitoring discussions among the students and the activities to make sure they are positive and are contributing to the entire school, not individual family groups.
We are both in agreement of the action research plan and will begin to work on the plan immediately. Changes will be made as they arise. Challenges
I will be facing several challenges as I delve into my action research project. My inquiry is: How can implementing teacher-lead family groups help decrease student apathy across our campus and increase student achievement as a result? How will the family groups help students with their sense of belonging and involvement on our campus? How will the family groups help increase students’ intrinsic motivation to succeed and do their best? How will the family groups help increase student organization and study skills, therefore increasing their grades.
Time will be a challenge I face simply because there is never enough of it. This is something obvious that everyone deals with on a daily basis. I believe that time, or lack of time, will be a particular challenge for this project because it is something new that I must make time for on top of my current responsibilities. I plan to combat this by scheduling a specific time for this research as our Dana text suggested. Just as I schedule my current responsibilities, I will schedule in time to conduct the focus groups, surveys, research, and planning.
The second, and perhaps most important challenge, I will face is teacher and student “buy-in.” I believe that finding a positive way to present this research project to those involved is critical. I want to present all the benefits and opportunities that the implementation of the school families will offer so that everyone sees this as a positive opportunity. I feel that there may be some resistance to the project and that some teachers and students may see it as an additional thing to add to their to-do list. I will combat this problem and increase “buy-in” by explaining all the potential benefits and by starting small. Incorporating activities that we already do and programs we already participate in will lessen some of the apprehension. Hopefully as we begin to see results, we can increase the activities and opportunities and then teachers and students will then begin to experience positive results and participate fully in the program with an optimistic view.
I know that implementing any new program and asking others to participate in focus groups and surveys that take away their time is always a challenge. I work with and incredible staff on my campus who are always willing to try new things and support one another. I hope that my action research project will be beneficial and positive with lots of support because I truly believe it could help solve several of our everyday issues that we all struggle with on a regular basis.
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