Results

Well, I didn't post progress throughout the study, but here are the results:

Data Collection

Because the data was qualitative rather than quantitative, much of it is anecdotal. I sent out a post-project survey to poll participants’ perceptions of the process. Questions included rating scales regarding the effectiveness of the project as well as participants’ opinions of the most effective part of the process. The survey was taken independently through Survey Monkey online. When I had follow-up questions related to the surveys, I contacted the participants by email.

Findings (Section Four)

The online survey generated the following results:

Helpfulness of the collaboration:

- “Really helpful… I gained a lot from the experience”         60%

- “Somewhat helpful… I’m glad I participated”                    40%

- “Not very helpful”                                                                0%

- “A complete waste of time”                                                  0%

Participants commented that the greatest benefit of the face-to-face meetings included “exchanging ideas on what actually worked in the classroom to increase editing/revising skills,” knowing that other teachers were facing the same challenges, and sharing activities, ideas, materials, and strategies to improve teaching.

When asked what could have been added to make the meetings more helpful, answers included:

-          classroom visits and observations

-          make-and-take sessions

-          exchanging ideas for conferencing

-          ideas for first semester instruction

-          extending the project to include reading instruction as well as writing instruction

Same direction, new course

Well, the ultimate goal is student achievement, but I've decided to chart a new course. This is all still pending approval from a number of sources, but here's what I have so far:

Week 3 Assignment, Part 3

Draft Action Research Project Progress Report

I. Title: How does collaboration with professionals on other campuses improve instruction and/or student achievement.

II. Needs assessment – This exact data is on my campus in a notebook. The data that’s available online is “taking too long to respond.” (sigh)

III. Objectives and vision

a. I intend to show that collaboration with professionals on another campus yield instructional gains by broadening our resources and as a result, positively influence student achievement.

b. I will evaluate at the end of the school year by using a survey of the teachers involved and a series of reflections.

IV. Review of literature and strategy

a. Because I just changed my plan, I do not have any literature to support my research as yet.

b. My site supervisor and I collaborated to create this action plan.

c. We considered a couple of ideas and decided on this one because it includes an appropriate scope and the application is broad.

V. Articulate the vision – Frustrated by the lack of resources to address the demands of the new STAAR test and concerned with students’ mid-year scores, our team decided it would be advantageous to team up with language arts teachers at another school.

VI. Management the organiztion – This group meets about once each month either in person or via email as our schedules allow. We discuss lessons – what’s working, what’s not – then we set an agenda for the following meeting including which resources we’ll share.

VII. Manage operations – STAAR resources are what we focused on first. We then looked to engaging lessons with the kids. As time allowed, we discussed management and motivation of students.

VIII. Respond to community interests and needs

a. One of the advantages of this project is it includes teachers with a variety of experiences. Our schools have similar needs in terms of student populations, so sharing resources is a great way to work “smarter.”

b. Should our partner school not meet AYP, their students will be able to elect an alternative school, and our school is the closest of higher achieving schools, so we have a additional, vested interest in this other school’s success outside of the desire for success as a district.