Research Update

This is my Action Research Plan

Inquiry Question-How does teacher access to professional/staff development on campus meet the needs of teachers and their students?

Context/Setting-The setting is a middle school which serves approximately 1,000 students in a medium-sized suburban community. The student population is over 95% Hispanic and over 85% Economically Disadvantaged with a high percentage of Limited English Proficient (LEP) students. In terms of teacher experience, about 55% of teachers on campus have been teaching for 6 years or more, with 45% having 5 years or less experience. Both new and experienced teachers benefit from continued professional development to help them grow as educators and not become stagnant. I chose this topic for action research because our campus does not have a system in place for ensuring that its teachers receive access to valuable and needed professional development opportunities in a consistent way.

Selection/Target Population-The action research will target a representative sample of the 90 or so teachers on campus, both experienced and inexperienced ones. I will be analyzing which teachers receive what kinds of professional development and how the decisions regarding professional development are made.

Rationale for Sample Size-Since there are teachers with a variety of levels of experience, specific certification specialties, who service different student populations with various learning needs, it is important that I examine a representative selection of all the teachers on campus to see if their educational development needs are being met. From the approximately 90 teachers on campus, I will select a sample of about 25% (23 teachers): 14 Regular Education teachers (from the core content areas: ELA, Math, Social Studies, and Science), 7 with less than 5 years experience including at least one first-year teacher and 7 with 6 or more years experience; 5 non-content area Regular Education teachers, experienced and inexperienced; and 4 Special Education teachers, experienced and inexperienced (23 teachers total). I will be sure the selection sample includes teachers who work with LEP, Special Education, Gifted and Talented, and Pre-AP students.

How Research will be Conducted-Since the Curriculum Assistant keeps documentation of each teacher’s professional development history and is in charge of staff development on campus, I will be reviewing her records for the 2009-2010 school year. I decided to review last year’s data so that I can get a full year’s worth of information and make recommendations based on the data. I will be examining the type and amount of professional development, the teachers’ professional certification and background, and the characteristics of the students in their classes. I will interview the Curriculum Assistant and the Principal as to their perceived roles (and the school’s) in helping teachers select appropriate professional development. I will also interview a selection of the teachers in the target sample about their choices for professional development, the ease of access to professional development opportunities, and their opinion of how the training(s) or lack of training has impacted the students in their classes.

Research Update

Well, I had originally thought I was going to do my research on evaluating the effect of increased parental involvement on student success and/or achievement. But after doing some readings and talking to my site supervisor, I've decided that I'm going to focus my action research on evaluating the effectiveness of our campus professional development opportunities/activities specifically for teachers.

The following are some of the questions I'll be examining: What types of professional development are currently being utilized by our teachers? What is the system used to ensure teachers receive relevant, apporpriate training? How effective are the current professional development development programs? What gaps or weaknesses in professional development are evident?

Since a strong, developed, systemic plan for professional development is essential to teacher growth and, therefore, student success, it is important that our campus examine our current approach and make changes as needed.

Research Corner

I will be working on increasing parental involvement on our campus this coming school year. Parents of middle school students often spend much less time actively involved in their child's education than they did in elementary school. The type of involvement may need to grow and change, but active parental involvement is still essential to a student's success. I will be looking for ways and opportunities to draw parents into their child's educational experience. Some of the things I plan to develop or work on this year are creating a Parent Newsletter, conducting monthly Parent Meetings, and increasing the use of the school Website. I plan to use action research to help me develop and evaluate the effectiveness of the activities and ensure that I'm meeting the needs of the parents, students, teachers, and administrators on our campus.