Sunday, March 20, 2011

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)

2 comments:

  1. Kim, I think that GCS sounds like it is a good program if worked at properly. My thought is this, if the same students are going to GCS repeatedly, is that okay? Do they use GCS to do their homework all the time because after school they just don't want to do it. I know many of our older students have obligations a lot of times at home to help out. I'm wondering if you surveyed the kids too anonymously and tried to get to the root of them not doing their homework, if you could somehow cut out the number of times they go to GCS. I am in an elementary school so typically, not all the time, we can call mom or dad, explain the situation and homework is done the next day. I look forward to seeing your work. Good luck!

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  2. Kim, great job on your plan. I appreciate your attention to detail and effort in forethought. You will be pleased to see the research results, I'm sure.

    Keep up the great work!
    Dr. Abshire

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