Action Research Plan and Reflection- Week 3

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)