Participatory Action Research At A Public New England Middle School Essay

While standards and assessments tell us whether students are gaining the skills and knowledge they need, accountability systems say that if they aren’t, schools and districts have to take steps to improve. This expectation of action is critical if we want all students to graduate high school ready for whatever they wish to do next – be it attend college, train for a job that will allow them to support a

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Teacher education is enhanced by using teachers as researchers. Teachers, who do research, can provide information on student interaction and classroom environments, and have a broad sampling field due to the amount of time spent in scholastic settings. This kind of action research allows a teacher to share with others what she/he has learned. It also offers to them, foundations for decisions regarding appropriate interventions and outcomes for improving students’ education or literacy within their classroom or school. When a teacher/researcher collects data for the purpose of research, they will mostly likely use a qualitative method (Johnson, 2008). Within this research, data is collected through observations and the answering of questions that relate to the data. Using this method, questions are more open ended and less defined, so there is more room for researchers to collect a variety of data. There are many ways that data can be collected for research purposes such as, the use of rubrics, student profiles, logs, and observation records that may consist of anecdotal records, checklists, reflections, conferences, interviews, and surveys. During my CIRG 621 my action research was based around Math. Although these courses are geared toward Reading Language arts I wanted to improve my student’s math scores and my ability to

There are numerous issues that plague the public education system. Several of the concerning challenges that it faces today are: The lack of familial support or guidance some students receive, the increase in the population of individuals that seem to undervalue the benefit of an education, and the test-centered curriculum structure that is applied in a majority of schools, within the system. There desperately needs to be an engagement of ideas to mend the problems that the education system faces. Not only would it allow students a better chance at exercising their full potential, but society as a whole, will reap the benefits of a well-rounded education for all.

Teen activists are determined and passionate about what they believe in because they fight for what they believe in, get support in different ways, and they work in different ways. This shows they are all working to get their way to make the world peaceful. Teen Activism is when a kid either went through a tough problem or heard about the problem and wanted to set the problem right. The activist uses whatever they can to get their word out, advertisements, books, newspaper, internet, t.v, and people like their peers, parents, pets, family members, friends, and all of their fans.

A gap between test scores of high and low income students has existed and grown by 40% since the 1960’s (Tavernise 1) and now is nearly double the size of the African-American and Caucasian achievement gap (Reardon 1). The debate on how to resolve it has been growing since then as well. Low income students, one-fifth of America’s school age children (Resmovits 1), fall into the cracks of the school system and worry if they’ll ever make it to college. Most people would agree “We need to help these children achieve,” and so to that statement there is little or no contest, the real debate is how we should help these children. Several new learning philosophies have been coming into focus since the 2001 No Child Left Behind act, two of which

A civic engagement program similar to SPR outside of Duke University is Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR). The CEPR is a partnership amongst school districts, foundations, states, and university researchers that assists in leveraging the large amount of new data about schools, teachers, and students to address “intractable policy questions in education.” Similar to SRP, the goal is to improve educational outcomes for all students; however, the CEPR attempts to achieve this by building a network amongst teachers around the country instead of just locally. Both organizations strive to engage the social scientists on what does and does not need to change. The CEPR claims to have “an irreplaceable role to play in

This past year, Mountain Home Junior High reinvented their after-school program. Throughout the year, several students in the program dropped out, and by the end of the school year, only ten students were being served. The ineffectiveness of the program, in my opinion, was due to a weak initiation phase before the program was implemented. A small committee was formed to write a grant from the program, set the program goals. There were no teachers, teacher leaders, or counselors on the committee and no input from community members or parents were considered. The curriculum for the program centered only on addressing benchmark scores of basic and below basic students and did not meet any other needs or the students. As a counselor, I heard complaints from parents throughout the year that their children would benefit more from having homework help and extended instruction. Teachers felt as if they were already using instruction time during the regular school day to prepare students for the last year’s PARCC and now the ACT Aspire exams.

An effective school leader possesses skills to create, implement, evaluate, improve and share a staff development plan. I met with Ben Rhodes, Sandy Creek Middle School’s principal, to interview him on the specific elements of his yearly staff development plan. We began with the design process focusing on the district and school goals. District goals include improving literacy across the content areas in reading and writing, Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum (GVC). Guaranteed and Viable Technology (GVT), and Closing the Achievement Gap (Equity in Excellence). Using a variety of assessments to focus on specific needs, Ben Rhodes and Mary Sonya, our Pupil Achievement Specialist, examined CSAP, Explore, MAP, and RAD data. They use the

Research is the method of intense enquiry into a particular topic/s. The ethical implications of conduction of research ventures without properly defined values or ethical process allows for the risk of breakdown of research structures and possible legal sanctions. This paper will aim to provide a meaningful, in-depth understanding of the research approach ‘Participatory Action Research’ and its conducive uses in relation to effective implementation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

In many facets of education, districts and school leaders have been trying to determine the best practices for moving and improving their students. NCLB and Common Core have lead way from a testing and data driven school to a more focused and clean progress machine that hopefully helps individual students improve and grow. Programs like Response to

by Karen Dorgan — 2004 This qualitative research project studied the efforts of a small public elementary school over the course of 1 academic year to meet higher standards imposed by the state. The state's department of education defined school success in terms of the percentage of students passing a set of multiple-choice, standardized tests in four core areas of the curriculum. The study looked particularly at strategies the school applied in an attempt to raise students' mathematics test scores. Interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis were used to analyze the effects of new

In the reviewed literature, a case is made for participatory action research and explanation given on its composition and on how it enhances the quality of research (Greenwood et al, 1993). They define participatory action research as a type of research that brings together a member of the organization (insider) and an expert research to carry out the research process.

Current reforms and initiatives based on the national education standards focus on student’s achievement and teacher’s preparation. Educational researchers and curriculum designers continuously find problems with standards and requirements on a state level and how the state and local boards of education focus highly on advanced placement and cultural literacy. A key focus is also accountability for students, schools, and school-districts in regards to academic performance. A new factor that has surfaced is school choice (charter schools and home schooling) and character development. Progressive teachers are able to guide learners to new experiences in every lesson. However; they are sensitive to unique and different learning styles which

Corey (1953) defined action research as the process by which practitioners attempt to study their problems scientifically in order to guide, correct, and evaluate their decisions and actions.