Draft Action Research Project Progress Report Part 2

Week 4 Assignment, Part 3
Draft Action Research Project Report

Does GCS Decrease the Number of Students Who Fail on Their Report Cards?

(Draft Part 2)

1.     Implement the Vision

·      . As one way to evaluate if GCS is reaching its goal of reducing the numbers of students who fail on their report cards, I am gathering data over three six-weeks grading periods.  I have made a data base from the sign-in sheets provided by GCS for two grading periods and I am working on the third grading period. Using the spreadsheets enables me to document how many times each student visited GCS to make up work. I can then use the six weeks failure report to document whether each student  passed or failed the corresponding grading period. I had originally thought I would be finished entering data before now, but there have been as many as 400 students who visit GCS during one grading period and entering all the data has taken longer than I anticipated. I have already surveyed the GCS teacher and aide as well as the faculty on my campus. I have also researched several schools that have similar programs. I am hopeful that I will complete the project and present to the staff in  January. At that time, I will present my findings and recommend improvements to the GCS program to the principal and staff.

2.     Steward the Vision

·      I have spoken with the GCS teacher and aide concerning my action research project. They want the program to be successful and are open to possible changes. The elective teachers are interested in making sure that the students who are missing their elective classes to participate in GCS are getting the full benefit of the program. The academic teachers want to get homework from their students so the students are successful. I have completed an anonymous survey so teachers can give their opinion of the program and offer their suggestions.

3.     Promote Community Involvement

·      The goal of my project is to evaluate the success of a program and make improvements if needed. The program’s goal is for no student to fail because of low or missing assignments.  Information from my research project will be posted on my project share  page as well as the school newsletter.

4.     Manage Resources

·      My project hasn’t required any fiscal resources and the human recourses to this point have just been my own. I am finding as I gather data that not all students are benefitting from GCS. Some students who are attending 2-3 times a week still failed classes on their report cards. Some of the suggestions from my teacher survey suggest adding another tier of intervention for those students who still don’t complete work after being removed from their elective. This would involve additional resources such as a teacher doing “GCS” detention during lunch or even after school or Saturday detention. My findings may show a need for fiscal resources to improve the program.

5.     Mobilize Community Resources

·      There were no community resources used to do my action research project. However, community resources could be used to improve the GCS program at my school. The school could use volunteers to monitor students while they complete assignments or even help students complete their assignments if needed. I will provide data about the GCS program and hopefully the campus will collaboratively make improvements to the program after my data is presented.

6.     Promote Positive School Culture

·      . One of my reasons for choosing this project had to do with the displeasure of the elective teachers when students were taken from their class to make up work for other classes. Providing data that the program works would ease the feelings of the elective teachers. Also providing alternatives to removing students from electives would make the elective teachers feel empowered.

7.     Provide an Effective Instructional Program

·      I plan to present my findings to the principal and staff in January, I am in hopes the principal will  implement some improvements to the GCS program. This would allow time for teachers and students to try-out any changes and report again before the end of the school year.

8.     Influencing the Larger Context

·      . I will present my finding to the principal as well as the staff at my campus. We are using project share this year school-wide to allow teachers to share information. I would also meet with a former assistant principal to share my findings. Although he has now changed to another campus, he was very interested in my research project

9.     Design a Professional Growth Plan

·      .  I think that the faculty would not need any special training to implement any changes to GCS, I think it would just be a matter of getting all the faculty to “buy-in” into using the program on a regular basis and possibly giving some of their time to implement some stage 2 interventions when needed. I think that the GCS teacher and I could present the information and plan during a regular faculty meeting or during an in-service day.

Draft Action Research Project Progress Report

Does GCS Decrease the Number of Students Who Fail on Their Report Cards?

            Several years ago a program titled Grand Central Station or GCS was implemented at my campus. A teacher and an aide worked with select “at risk” students to ensure these students completed their assignments and passed for the year. Last year the program was changed to allow teachers the opportunity to send any student to GCS to make up homework assignments. This was done with the goal of reducing the numbers of students who fail on their report cards by reducing the number zeroes on homework assignments.

            Students with missing homework assignments were called to the GCS room during their elective class times. This was done with the idea that students wouldn’t want to miss their electives so they would do their homework. There were some issues with this plan. One being that students were missing instruction time during their elective classes and getting behind with their elective assignments. Students with special needs and students who are weak in academics often times shine in their electives. There were questions about pulling these students from an area where they were successful to complete work for other classes.Some elective teachers also resented the fact that students were pulled from their classes to do work for other classes. They felt as if they were being told that their class was not important. The GCS teacher also voiced a concern that some students liked coming there to get out of certain classes.

            I decided that a good action research project for myself would be to investigate whether GCS actually decreased the number of students who failed at report card time. Did going to GCS bring up students grades? Did students take advantage of the program to get out of classes? Were students falling behind in their electives? Was there a better time to have GCS than during elective time? Were other schools with a ZAP type program effective and how did they work? These were the questions I set out to answer.

            My data collection consisted of compiling a list of all the students who visited GCS during 3 different six week periods. I listed the student’s name and how many times they went to GCS to finish homework. I then used the failure list to determine if they had passed for the six week’s grading period. I am in the process of analyzing the data I have compiled as well as making comparisons between our program and other similar programs I have found online. I also surveyed the teachers to see if they felt GCS was effective, how often they used it, how they graded the work that came from GCS and what suggestions they had to improve GCS. 

            When I complete compiling and analyzing all my data, I hope to present information that will make our program more effective. Right now it looks as if although many students do pass after going to GCS, there are still a number who go several times a week and fail anyway. I am hoping to present some options to make our program more effective and keep students in their elective classes more of the time.

Lots of Students in GCS

I began entering data into my spreadsheet this week. I think I have already discovered one change that GCS could make to improve the program--finding a better way for the students to sign-in. I have entered over 400 students names into the spreadsheet. I am having difficulty reading some of the student's names on the GCS sign-in sheet. It would seem that there could be a way to sign the students in electronically with their name badges similar to the way they check out a book or access their lunch account. I have about 20 students I can't identify yet. I am going to talk with the GCS teachers this week and see if they can help me identify some signatures. So far it looks as if there are only a few "frequent flyers". Most students are only on the list once or twice for the 2nd six weeks. Next on the to do list will be to borrow the failure list from the registrar and see if the students attending GCS passed their classes on their report cards.

Action Research Revision/GCS defined

I want to thank everyone for their comments and give some background information before I post the revisions to my research plan. First, I wanted to let everyone know that GCS stands for Grand Central Station. This was a program that started several years ago to follow a set number of "at risk" students. The students were assigned to this program staffed by a teacher and one para-professional who "made sure" the students completed their assignments. The program added another para-professional this year and now any student can be sent to  GCS during their elective time to complete missing homework assignments. This is done with the hope that the students will have to complete their homework and then pass for the six weeks.  I am doing my research in this area to see if this program is effective. The program is still called GCS even though "zero recovery" or "zap" might be what you call a similar program at your campus. I have started making a spreadsheet with the student's names and how many times the students went to GCS. I decided not to use information from the first six weeks because the program was just getting started and there are usually many schedule changes along with students entering and withdrawing the first few weeks of school.
Here is my revised plan.---I am sure there will be more changes before all is said and done.

Action Planning Template
Goal: To evaluate the effectiveness of the GCS program at preventing students from failing due to missing homework assignments. Provide recommendations for any needed changes to the program
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Discuss topics for action research project with site supervisors	Myself and Mrs. Mckinney, Mr. Gilstrap, Mr. Mayo	February 2011	Failure list Intern Plan	Topic chosen
Meet with GCS teacher to obtain sign-in sheets for 2nd-5th six weeks	Myself and Mrs. Hale	March 9, 2011- April 30, 2011	Student sign-in sheet from GCS	Create spreadsheets of student’s use of GCS
Meet with registrar to obtain failure lists for 2nd-5th six weeks	Myself and Mrs. Brown	March 2011- April 30,2011	Failure lists	Create spreadsheets of students on the failure list
Literature review	Myself	April1, 2011- May 1, 2011	Internet Books, Articles Blogs	Create notebook with suggestions and ideas
Reflection on data results and literature review	Myself	April 1, 2011 May 1, 2011	Data and literature review notebook	Create teacher surveys addressing their use and opinion of GCS
Teachers will fill out surveys	Myself	May 15, 2011 May 30, 2011	Surveys	Compile results from surveys
Compile data and results of survey and present to principals	Myself and Mrs.Mckinney, Mr. Gilstrap  Mr. Mayo	June 2011- July 2011	Results of Data collected and teacher surveys	Hard data showing the effectiveness of the GCS program and recommendations for improvements
Present action research plan/results to the faculty	Myself, Principals and GCS teacher	August 2011	Results of data collected and teacher surveys	New survey of teacher’s opinions of the GCS program

Format based on Tool 7.1 from Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools

(Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2010)