ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT
PROCESS OVERVIEW
Special
Population Students in ISS and their Academic Success towards AYP
1. SETTING THE FOUNDATION – Creating a climate to explore action
research issues:
Since I had been involved in ISS (In school suspension) in
previous years in my school with students with a behavioral issue, it has
always made me wonder about its effectiveness in regards to all students
populations and achieving academic success by the end of the school year,
especially for meeting AYP by the campus .
It has always seemed to me that ISS is being used as an escape by
students to avoid attending a class with a particular teacher or all
classes. I feel that students are
wasting too much time in ISS instead of the classrooms where they should be
learning and achieving the academic success.
A lot of the learning process is lost in ISS because the actual teacher
for each particular class is not there and the student misses the opportunity
to engage in class to grasp the taught knowledge. I believe that conducting an action research
study will be very beneficial for the academic success of the ISS students and
the teaching process by the educators who will not have to waste additional
time to re-teach those students from ISS.
At the same time, administrators will benefit from having less ISS
referrals allowing them more available time to accomplish other important
school duties. Last, the school can
benefit by meeting and exceeding AYP as more students are engaged in a learning
process in class vs. ISS isolation. I
know that with an action research study implemented the students will spend
more time in the classroom engaged in the learning process than wasting their
time escaping towards ISS.
2. ANALYZING DATA – Data will
be gathered in several ways: 1. Referrals given to all students will be
collected by the administration secretaries.
At this point, the referral student will be identified for a particular
special education population. This
information will be noted on the referral.
In addition for data gathering, TEA AYP Progress campus data will be
obtained to analyze AYP passing and failure data from last year to current
year. ISS students will be classified
into behavioral or non-behavioral categories with subcategories of the
different reasons for their misconduct with a scale for the severity of the
offense.
3. DEVELOPING DEEPER UNDERSTANDING – In order to get a better result of the data gathered, all parties
involved need to be aware of the project and data generated. Those writing the referrals need to specify
complete information on the referrals.
Issues will rise about whether student should or should not be allowed
back in a classroom after an offense.
Pros and cons need to be examined to get a desired correct possible
solution to benefit academically those students in ISS.
4. ENGAGE IN SELF-REFLECTION
–
• For the action research
project, do I have the correct data available?
• How will teachers react to
students sent back to class to learn instead of ISS?
• What is the district and campus
policy on sending ISS students home? ,.
• What reactions will generate from
students, teachers, parents and administrators the idea to eliminate ISS from
school?
5. EXPLORING PROGRAMMATIC PATTERNS –
The removal of an ISS room from
campus will force and allow the students to write and meditate on their actions
and correct their behavior to continue in the classroom. Failure to comply will have to implement OSS
(out of school suspension) where parents are going to deal with the student at
home. A greater number of students will
go back to class and learn their different subjects improving their academic
performance and meeting AYP requirements.
6. DETERMINING DIRECTION –
You are about ready to launch your action research project but you must be able
to answer these questions:
It is time to double check your
approach to implementing your action research project!
A. Are you clear on what you
are attempting to solve (your research questions)? YES
B. Have you adequately
addressed the skills and resources questions? YES
C. Have you established a
collaborative approach to the issue? YES
D. Are your time lines
realistic? YES
E. Do you have a reasonable
plan to monitor the project? YES
F. Do you have a reasonable
plan for determining the level of success – how do you evaluate if the plan is
effective? YES
G. How will you revise and
improve the plan based on monitoring and evaluation? Double checking the ISS student special population, keep them in class
with a parental involvement commitment and evaluate with benchmarks and STAAR
test results.
7. TAKING ACTION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
I have prepared a plan of
action. Using the action research
project committee to help develop a plan of action, The Tool 7.1 Action
Planning Template will be the primary source to guide my plan of action. The project will be closely monitored and a
summary report will be created to show the outcome of my action research
project of special population ISS students are affected academically and
meeting AYP recognition.
8. SUSTAIN IMPROVEMENT
Keep positive results from the action
research. If indeed special populations
in ISS benefit from removal from it and place in classroom and improve
academically towards AYP, then keep applying and monitor all positive aspects
of it. Last, share this research with your
school, your district, and other district so that they can also benefit in the
future.
