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