Action Research - Student Achievement after Modification of IEP's

ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT
PROCESS OVERVIEW
SPECIAL EDUCATION - WHAT HAPPENS TO STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT ONCE A STUDENT HAS HAD THEIR IEP MODIFIED AND MAY REQUIRE A REDUCTION OF TEACHER/CO-TEACHER SUPPORT?

1. Goals and objectives/outcomes of the research investigation:

Teachers and co-teachers will become more skilled in assisting students to achieve goals listed on IEP’s and communicating to the Special Education department, the need to reduce teacher/co-teacher support for students who are showing academic success in the classroom. The Special Education department will become more skilled in monitoring the progress of student achievement once the modifications have been reduced to may require a reduction of teacher/co-teacher support .

2. Activities designed to achieve the objectives:

I will collaborate with teachers every two weeks to discuss students who are showing academic success in the classroom who may need modifications to their IEP’s and forward those names to the Special Education department. Once the IEP’s have been modified, I will collaborate with counselors to collect progress report and report card grades and teachers to collect test grades and student work samples. I will then show the success or lack of success to the Special Education department chair to re-assess the reduction in modifications.

3. Resources and research tools needed for data gathering

I would submit my proposal to the administrative team and will meet with the Special Education department to discuss scheduling and time constraints that will prevent me from meeting with teachers. I will need to discuss if there will be funding for a substitute when I start my internship. Counselors, teachers, and the Special Education department chair will provide background information on students who may require a reduction of teacher/co-teacher support from previous years data such as test scores and IEP’s.

4. Draft of timeline for completion and implementation of activities

July- Collaborate with site supervisor on a topic for action research
August- Collaborate with administrative team and Special Education department regarding the process of collecting data from teachers of special education students who may require a reduction of teacher/co-teacher support due to student success in the class room. Meet with teachers to discuss action research and students who may require a reduction of teacher/co-teacher support due to student success in the class room.
September- Collaborate with counselors to retrieve district test scores, progress report and report card grades of special education students who have had their IEP’s modified and may require a reduction of teacher/co-teacher support due to student success in the class room. Collaborate with teachers to retrieve examples


of student work of those special education students being monitored. Report all findings of success or failure to the Special Education department to re-assess the modification(s).

October- Collaborate with counselors to retrieve district test scores, progress report and report card grades of special education students who have had their IEP’s modified and may require a reduction of teacher/co-teacher support due to student success in the class room. Collaborate with teachers to retrieve examples
of student work of those special education students being monitored. Report all findings of success or failure to the Special Education department to re-assess the modification(s).

November (Program Completed) - Collaborate with counselors to retrieve district test scores, progress report and report card grades of special education students who have had their IEP’s modified and may require a reduction of teacher/co-teacher support due to student success in the class room. Collaborate with teachers to retrieve examples of student work of those special education students being monitored. Report all findings of success or failure to the Special Education department to re-assess the modification(s). Report the findings of the Action Research plan to my site supervisor and find out if he is interested in me continuing the research or if he would like to use data collected so far.

5. Persons responsible for implementation of the research plan

Parents - If I need to sit in during an ARD (admission, review, and decision) of a student who is not my student, I will ask parent permission to be there.
Teachers- Allow a discussion of concerns that they have about students who have IEP’s and those who may need their IEP’s modified due to student success in the class room. Teachers may also make recommendations to improve individual student success.
Administrators- Discuss action research progress and the need for assistance in any areas needed.
Counselors - Collect report card and progress report grades
Special Education department chair - Discuss findings of those students who have had their IEP’s modified to re-assess modifications if needed.
Discuss previous programs that have improved student achievement or ideas on how to improve the current mentoring program.
SBDM committee - Review campus funding for substitute if needed to complete action research
Testing administrators - Provide data from campus, district, and state testing.
Instructional Specialists - Discuss ideas on how to improve current weaknesses in academics for those students who have had their IEP‘s modified.

6. Process for monitoring the achievement of goals and objectives

Teachers will be interviewed and fill out paper work to ensure that IEP’s are being implemented.

Teachers will submit class work and tests of those students who have their IEP’s modified to show a reduction in support from teachers and co-teachers.

Counselors will provide progress report and report card grades every three weeks.

Instructional specialists will provide test scores from district and state assessments.

The special education department chair will make suggestions for improvement of the action research plan and ways to increase student achievement.

The special education department chair will re-assess modifications of those students who show a lack of student achievement or academic success.

7. Assessment instruments to evaluate the effectiveness of the actions research study

Data that will be collected include progress report and report card grades, in class exams, district assessments and samples of class work. Instructional specialists and test administrators will provide data from all district tests and TAKS tests.

21st Century Perspective on Action Research: Navigating the Action Research Process

21st Century Perspective on Action Research: Navigating the Action Research Process: "Action research 'involves adding something new to what is already known about your topic. Specifically, it means going beyond the current bo..."


I like your thoughts on this. This was something that I never thought about after years of research. It is not necessary to start over with research that is already there.

Don't Reinvent the Wheel!

An epiphany from a lesson that I learned this week was to not "reinvent the wheel". I can't tell you the amount of times that I've had a research paper or topic due, and have spent days at the library or computer researching.

Dr. Johnny Briseno, a principal at Rancho Isabella elementary in Angleton ISD suggests that you find research that is already available on a topic that concerns you. I agree Dr. Briseno. This new information has given me the courage to continue my education. Thank you, Dr. Briseno!

Action Research for T.E.A.M. (Teaching Excellence and Achievement through Mentoring)

Action Research is described as "articulating a wondering, collecting data to gain insights into the wondering, analyzing data, making improvements in practice based on what was learned, and sharing learning with others"(Dana 2009).

Action research is insider based, meaning that the principal takes ownership of what is happening in his/her school and is basing all actions toward student achievement based on data collected, books reviewed, or other information that has been shared with them. The Action Researcher is familiar with the school setting unlike other forms of research conducted by universities. In these studies, often the university researchers are not familiar with school settings or they are not fully aware issues that students, teachers, and administrators are faced with.

Action research also known as teacher inquiry, practitioner inquiry and is a powerful tool for both teachers and administrators and has furthered educational reform. These staff developments are focused on problem solving, teaching practices, leadership roles and inquiry, which in turn increases student achievement.

I plan to use action research as I submit a proposal for a mentoring program. When becoming frustrated when there was a lack of parental support for students. I later came to realize that some parents have work schedules that prevent them from supporting their child while others just do not understand the content of the subject. The students in turn show low academic acheivement and high discipline referrals.

During this time I also realized that I could not be a mentor to all, therefore I am stepping into the community to seek those who have a heart for helping children. I will seek the support of the administrative team, the campus improvement committe, counselors, and other staff who are willing to support the effort to increase student achievement.

Students will check in with their mentors once a week and discuss the progression or digression of academic and behavioral progress. Once a month, the student and a parent will meet with the mentor and teacher to discuss what is and is not working. Student feedback will be important to inform me of what changes should be made to improve the program.

Dana suggests that an online blog can be used as a journal in the form of a reflective, powerful data collection tool that can be shared with teachers and students. The online blog can also serve as a tool to link to other resources that may be beneficial to staff.

Achieving Student Success through Mentoring

When a student does not have parent support at home, how does this affect student achievement? As educators, when a parent does not support his/her child's education and it clearly shows through this student academically, what is our response?

Is the parent the blame for not showing interest, or is the student to blame for not following directions? What if the parent(s) spend their time working to provide for that student and that is all that they can give? What if that student can not focus academically because there is not a lack of support at home because the parents do not understand the content of your subject?

All of these questions forced me to change my relationships with students and parents. Answers to these questions also helped me realize that I could not help these students on my own, and that this was a school wide issue. When those in the community are willing to devote time to someone in need, in this case students who need someone to check on them, this directly affects student achievement.

I am proposing a mentor program for students who lack parent support. The student will check in with the mentor once a week and discuss academic and behavioral progression or digression. Students will also have a monthly meeting that will include their mentor, parents, counselor, and teacher to view logs of teacher recommendation and student progress.

The mentoring program will start with my students and I will monitor student achievement and academic ahievement in the classroom and propose that this become a school-wide initiative. I will ask for support from the administrative team and our campus improvement committee along with instructional specialists and counselors. Most importantly, I want to make sure that students have an active role in the program by receiving feedback on how to improve the program and on things that they would change.

Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020

If we truly want to implement and integrate technology into the curriculum, school districts must be willing to accept the costs of high quality staff development. Often times teachers are willing and wanting to use technology in the classroom but have to use former methods of teaching due to a lack of funding in this area.

Technology application TEKS and SBEC Technology application standards apply to all new teachers and veteran teachers. I like that the TEA suggests that each school district report the number of teachers who meet the SBEC Technology requirement. Viewing an electronic copy of the results may give school districts the extra push to support teachers, therefore supporting students.

There has been progress made in Educator Preparation and Development. According to the TEA, leaders now recognize that educators must be prepared to instruct the 21st century learner with technology resources and are allocating at least 30% of the budget to train teachers and purchase technology based tools to use in the classroom.

I have been fortunate to work in a school that is technology based this year. This is a pilot school in the district but I recommend that all schools integrate technology across all subject levels. Each teacher should receive training every grading period on how to use technology based TEKS in the upcoming unit. The learners of this generation now fill out job applications on line, unlike previous generations who used pen and paper for all major life changes.