This week we were asked to create an action research plan. At first I was a little confused of how to start, but looking at the Template 7.1 and the 8 Step outline from the Harris et al. text, really helped me get a mental picture of how my action plan was going to look like. These examples helped me organize my thoughts and ideas of the process of my research. By creating this draft I am able to have a clear understanding of what I need to focus on, so I can get started with my action research. This is a draft and I understand that throughout the process it might change depending if I see that it needs to be improved in some sort of way. I am looking forward on starting to work on this research and can't wait for the results!
Action Research
Project
Reasons for Lack of Parent Involvement and ways to
motivate parents to be involved
1. Examining the work: Setting the Foundation- There is a need to be
able to find the
reasons why parents are not involved in their
child's education and find ways to motivate them to get involved.
2. Analyzing
data –
-
Choose
two students from each grade level (1st-5th grade) to send questionnaires to
their parents. Parents will be asked to fill out a questionnaire that deals
with how involved they are in their child's education.
- Create a survey
for parents about their child's teacher. This will allow to see how
parents feel about the type of contact they have with their child's
teacher.
- Interview two
teachers from each grade level to see how they feel about parent
involvement in their grade level. I will also interview my two
administrators to see how they feel about this issue and to see if they
have any suggestions.
3.Developing
deeper understanding
–Being able to see the data from the parents questionnaires and surveys.
Talking to students why they might think that parents are not that involved. Meeting
with the principals and teachers to discuss this issue and gather their
thoughts. All these different ways will assist me on developing a deeper
understanding of my project.
4. Engaging
in Self-Reflection –
-
What
are the obstacles of parent involvement?
- What
can teachers do to increase the levels of parent involvement from their
classroom?
- How
does socioeconomic status affect parent involvement?
- Does
race and language really matter for parent involvement?
- How
does academic achievement of students whose parents are involve compare to the
academic achievement of students whose parents aren't involved?
- Do
parents feel that administrators and teachers welcome and encourage parents to
be involved?
5.Exploring
Programmatic Patterns – Meeting with the principal and assistant principal to
discuss what are some of the strategies that we can implement in our campus to
motivate parents to be involved. What can teachers start doing to motivate the
parents to be involved in their child's education?
6.Determining
direction –
I feel that my research is clear and I will be able to solve my research
questions. I have adequately addressed the skills and resources questions that
I will be implementing from this research. I have established a collaborative
approach to this issue and have discussed it with my principals and I will be
working with parents and teachers as well. The timelines that I set for this
project is to start on March 19,2012 and end this project on
June
15,2012. I believe that I have enough time to complete this research project. I
have already determined the plan that I will be using to monitor and evaluate
this project.
7. Taking action for
school improvement –
I will be using the tool 7.1 Action Planning Template (Harris, Edmonson, and
Combs) to help me as a guide and be able to see what are the expectations that
need to be done to complete this project.
8.Sustain improvement – The data collected for this research will be able to help me
reflect on what is the next step that needs to be taken at my campus to
implemented. I will be able to share my finding with colleagues, teachers,
parents, and administrators of ways that we can motivate parents to be involved
in their child's education. This would be a great way for our students to have
more motivation knowing that their parents would be a part of their success.
Tool 7.1
Action Planning Template
Goal: The objective for
this research investigation is to find the reasons why parents are not involved
in their child's education and find ways to motivate them to get involved.
Action
Step(s)
|
Person(s)
Responsible
|
Timeline:
Start/End
|
Needed
Resources
|
Evaluation
|
Choose two students
from each grade level (1st-5th grade) to send questionnaires to their parents.
Parents will be asked to fill out a questionnaire that deals with how
involved they are in their child's education.
|
10 parents
|
March 2012-June 2012
|
10 parents
|
Questionnaires
|
Create a survey for
parents about their child's teacher. This will allow to see how parents feel
about the type of contact they have with their child's teacher.
|
10 parents
|
March 2012-June 2012
|
10 parents
|
Surveys
|
Interview two
teachers from each grade level to see how they feel about parent involvement
in their grade level. I will also interview my two administrators to see how
they feel about this issue and to see if they have any suggestions.
|
10 parents
Principal-
Ms. Amarantos,
Assistant Principal-
Ms. London
|
March 2012-June 2012
|
10 teachers,
Principal,
Assistant Principal
|
Interviews
|
Format based on Tool 7.1 from Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools
(Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2010)