Goal: What
are the passing rates of our LEP population on district assessments and the STAAR
test over one year after instituting an online reading intervention program and
do the results show a significant close
in achievement gaps between our LEP population and our “all students” category?
1.
Setting the Foundation-- After
meeting with my site supervisor a few times to brainstorm topics for action
research and align these topics to our school’s needs, we decided not to go
with my original research topic of our school configuration and the research
behind it. Instead, we decided to focus
on the reading scores of our LEP population and the gaps between our LEP scores
and our “all students” category. My site
supervisor and I were particularly curious about whether or not our
district-purchased online reading intervention programs would make a positive
difference in our LEP reading scores and lexiles. The two reading programs promise marked
improvement in student achievement in reading and language arts, and we wanted
to utilize the test data to see if it was worth our time. Right now, the main
online program that we are using for all students has been purchased for grades
5-8 within our district. Our superintendent
and school board are considering purchasing the program for all grades if we show
significant gains in reading in grades 5-8.
2.
Analyzing Data—The main program I will be analyzing is called
Classworks. It has numerous data reports
that it runs, but these reports seem to be less specific than the data we run
on Eduphoria (our district data tracking program) because Eduphoria is specific
to every student expectation at each grade level. However, Classworks does break activities
according to our state standards, and then it monitors that work
accordingly. Teachers can pull the data
by classes, individual students, grade levels, etc. Students can also track their own individual
data and can earn “badges” for completing and mastering standards. I will compare the activities and task data
to the student expectations data in Eduphoria for our LEP student population
and our “all students” category. We will
compare the breakdown of last year’s LEP and all student scores on the STAAR 8th
grade reading to this year’s data (2013) as well as the student scores for both
categories on all district assessments for this year to see if the reading
intervention program is having a positive impact on our LEP scores—specifically,
is it helping us to close this critical achievement gap. We will look at the qualitative data that
deals with student engagement as well such as whether or not the students enjoy
the program and are perhaps doing some of the modules and work at home.
3. Developing
Deeper Understanding—I will rely on Eduphoria and the Classworks data programs
in order to import critical data on student reading scores and achievement into
Excel spreadsheets to share regularly with my team of 8th grade
teachers. I will rely on my committee of
8th grade teachers for qualitative data on our LEP students to
measure student engagement in the planned interventions and to survey the
teachers’ feelings about whether or not the program is beneficial and the
overall usability of the program. We are
attempting to implement the program with fidelity, and have been using
classroom “stations” three times a week to make sure that students get both
small group instruction, independent practice, and time on the computers to
work on their reading intervention program.
We will compare our data from this year to last year’s data with a focus
on the two groups, LEP and “all students”. I plan to contact other Texas
schools who have used Classworks to gather information on whether or not they
found the program beneficial and at what level.
It would be interesting to also find out how long the program had been
in effect within other middle schools.
4.
Engage in Self-Reflection—After surveying the 7th and 8th
grade language arts teachers about their thoughts on the reading program, I
will write up my own reflections and share them in our committee meeting. We will invite our administrators to this
meeting. I plan to also share these
reflections and discussions on my blog.
I will take some time to reflect on the data, both quantitative and
qualitative (at a midway checkpoint at the very least), as well as the
processes I have used to evaluate the program.
I also plan to have a formal meeting with my site supervisor during this
time so that he can give me critical feedback on my progress.
5.
Exploring Programmatic Patterns—I will work closely with our ELL
secondary specialist and director of secondary instruction to analyze ways in
which this reading program can support the sheltered instruction expectations
of our district as well as research about how online or computer programs can
help assist our LEP student achievement rates and test scores. I want to see how broader student data in
reading can help us identify and assist struggling students earlier and in a
more comprehensive fashion. I know that
secondary teachers struggle with teaching students to read as they lack the
training that elementary teachers often have in this area. Having the assistance of a solid online
program could potentially make all the difference in terms of what the teachers
can do to help students in the classroom and what students will be able to do
on state tests.
6.
Determining Direction—It is at this point that I will conduct another
needs assessment to determine if everything from my research questions,
resources, and committee/administrative input are up to the task of fully
evaluating this reading program. I will
look at the data, the feedback, and the other information gathered and analyze
it to determine whether or not it gives a full picture of what the
implementation of the reading intervention program is or is not doing to help
our LEP population. I will meet with my
site supervisor (and perhaps also my colleagues in my EDLD 5301 cohort) to see
if there are any other facets of my research that I need to focus on. At this point I will need to reflect on and
determine whether I am utilizing the input and involvement of enough people
with whom to collaborate. Any changes or
shifts that need to be made to my plan to ensure its success will happen at
this point. I will share my reflections
and findings on these issues on my blog.
7.
Taking Action for School Improvement— In my draft action plan, I have
included my goals, my action steps, dates for completion, persons responsible,
and so on. The ongoing data on district
assessments broken down by student populations—particularly “all students” and
LEP for comparison purposes—will be gathered and shared with stakeholders on my
campus, particularly our administration and my committee of 8th
grade language arts teachers. These are
the people to whom I will report all findings (formative data—both quantitative
and qualitative). Should our
implementation of the reading intervention program be successful, I will share
our data and findings with the two local high schools and sister middle school
for their input and perhaps follow-up implementation of the reading program
utilizing our model or a version of it—integrated into the curriculum as
assessments/instruction/mini-lessons by stations with the data used regularly
in PLC meetings.
