Week 3 Assignment

The goal of this inquiry is to establish whether or not a more strict tardy policy will have an impact on student learning and performance.
To achieve these goals, I will poll students, teachers, administrators and parents about the effectiveness of the current policy and seek input as to how to improve it.
I will look at current data on student performance and compare it to tracking records of student attendance. I will be looking for correlations between student performance and attendance. I am curious to see if an actual connection emerges or whether my impressions as a teacher are false.
Once data has been gathered, I will suggest changes to the policy. These changes will include a well established routine for tracking and implementing the new policy. It will also include an education process for the teachers on how to consistently apply the policy.
Resources needed for the completion of this inquiry will include past and current attendance information from the school secretary. It will also include TAKS testing data from previous years. This project will also necessitate the development of a survey tool to gather information from all of the concerned participants. Some of the surveys may need to be tailored to the audience that is to fill it out. However, they all need to be coordinated so that the information gathered is consistent.
The timeline for completing this project would have to cover an entire school year. The first step is to develop and administer the survey. I would expect this step to take at least 3-4 weeks. This will give all parties time to respond to the survey. Once all the information is collected from the survey, secretary and TAKS data, the data must be collated. By putting all the information together, the trends should become apparent. With the information gathered from all the interested people, then we can begin working on developing the new policy to address the concerns voiced in the surveys. Analysis of the data will obviously take quite a bit of time. I would expect it to take 4-5 weeks to analyze all of the data. Once that is done, revision of the policy can occur. The revisions should take 2-4 weeks to complete. Once completed, the policy should go through administration to ensure that all proper needs are addressed. That approval process should take 1-2 weeks. Then training and implementation of the plan can occur. The training of staff can be completed in a few days, but ongoing education will continue throughout the entire school year. Implementation will be almost immediate. After a week of transition, the policy should be established. As mentioned earlier, the education process will continue throughout the school year. Once the year is completed and all the testing is concluded, evaluation of the effectiveness can be measured.

The implementation of the policy will fall on the building administration. However, it will include constant support from the teachers and staff. Without all participants, the policy cannot be applied. Once the policy has been rewritten, the principal will have to guide the process to completion.
Monitoring the impact of the policy will be easy since it will include attendance data. Looking at the percentages of students who are tardy will be accomplished through technology.
Once the school year has been completed assessment may begin. By gathering data on current achievement, I can look at whether the new policy had any impact on student achievement. I believe that student achievement will be positively impacted

Week 2 Assignment "The Passions that Drive your Journey"
This weeks assignment was very useful in helping me to understand Action Research. As we went through the first steps of the process, I wasn't sure if I was moving in the right direction. This week seems to have helped. I definitely understand more of what action research is and how it can benefit an educator. Identifying the 9 passions which drive research gives me some insight into becoming a better administrator. Several of the topics mentioned in the reading this week were things I had not even considered as part of becoming a principal. I have learned that as principal, being an example to my teachers will make a big difference in how well my ideas are accepted. I also think that I am better prepared to start framing a question for my own research project.

How educators use blogs

From my first experiences with blogs, I think that they might be useful. However, I am still a little skeptical. My first concern is reliablility of information. I understand that everything must be viewed with a "grain of salt". However, as an educator, time is always short. I don't know if the benefit of the information will be worth the time it takes to sort through the many posts it takes to find it. With that said, I think that blogs can be used to share information quickly. Speed is critical to teachers. If a reliable network of partners can be established, the time sorting through posts could be cut down. In that way the time to find good information will be condensed. I do like the way that I can quickly post thoughts and ideas for peer review and comment. As an educator, I am always looking for the views of others. This will provide an opportunity for that.

Action Research

In this course I have discovered that action research is a useful tool for the school leader. It is a way to address concerns in a school that is focused on local improvement. Traditional research is based on outsiders looking in. With action research, the people who are in the trenches are the ones posing the question and attempting to find the answer. I like the fact that action research does not have to be as restrictive as traditional research. With action research, the principal can use the information gathered to guide the school toward collective goals. By gathering and analyzing data we as leaders can decide which strategies are working and which ones are not. We can use this information to keep a close eye on how the staff is responding and using the information. Action research is flexible enough that everyone can be involved. As more people are involved, it will be easier for improvements to the process to be made. As a principal, I think that action research will be a useful tool for me as a leader. I think that I can use it in my school to help keep all of the teachers on the same page as far as student learning. By gathering information that is specific to our situation. I think that teachers will respond to it better than if I just give them another one of those standard staff developments. It will be easier to get buy in from the staff if they feel that the information is geared toward our situation. Also, by getting the staff involved in the research process they will have a say in what we focus our research on.

First Post

Just a trial run