Draft Action Research Project Progress Report

Title

Mentorship: The effects of community members’ guidance on middle school at-risk students

Needs Assessment

When our school received our AYP report card and Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) scores from the previous year, our administrators and I analyzed the data to determine the needs of our students. My principal asked for the group to devise a plan to help our economically disadvantaged at-risk students, who overlapped in many categories of the AYP report. The students classified as economically disadvantaged at-risk were selected to participate in the mentorship program due to low Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills scores, Cognitive Ability Test scores, Measures of Academic Progress test scores, classroom grades, and number of behavior referrals received.

Objectives and Vision of the action research project

I proposed a plan to create a mentorship program to increase academic achievement in partnering with community volunteers. In the plan, the community members provide guidance to our students by exploring occupational interests, continuing educational options, and life skills. My principal approved the program and provided the appropriate contacts to begin the process of the mentorship program. The objectives for the action research mentorship program is 80% of our economically disadvantaged students, who are failing a core class, are to be matched with a mentor by November of 2011, the economically disadvantaged students to have fewer behavioral referrals written due to poor behavior between November 2011 and May 2012, and economically disadvantaged students in grades 6 through 8 to meet a 90% passing rate on all 2012 MAP tests.

Review of the Literature and Action Research Strategy

In “How to build a successful mentoring program using the elements for effective practice,” the literature explains each program needs to consist of data driven interviews, surveys, and records to evaluate the types of activities, the quality of the activities, the length of the mentor relationship, frequency and duration of the meetings, and the perception of the relationship with the student and mentor. Our middle school mentorship program will also gather outcome data from teachers, school records, behavior referrals, classroom grades and MAP scores to determine if the student is improving their academics, behavior, and psychological function. To gather additional data, we will ask the parents of the programs students to provide feedback on the student’s behavior at home, their study habits, and any changes they have seen in their child since the program began.

When developing the curriculum for the mentorship program for economically disadvantaged students, I used Ruby Payne’s “A framework for Understanding Poverty” to provide the appropriate techniques to the mentors in the program. In Payne’s “A framework for Understanding Poverty”, I learned about generational poverty, characteristics of cultural poverty, and how to become a support system, while increasing achievement, for those in poverty.

MENTOR. (2005). How to build a successful mentoring program using the elements for effective practice. Retrieved from http://www.mentoring.org/program_resources/elements_and_toolkits?eeptoolkit

Payne, R. K. (2001). A framework for understanding poverty. Highlands, TX: aha! Process, Inc.

Articulate the Vision

After receiving approval from my principal, I met with the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) president and I described my goals and vision of the mentorship program. I asked the PTA president if the mentorship program could partner with the PTA to provide communication to the community. The PTA president agreed to partner with the middle school and she began to communicate the opportunity to serve as a volunteer of the mentorship program to parents, city government officials, local businesses, and churches.

I provided an informational meeting to the community members who were interested in the mentorship opportunity. At the informational meeting, I communicated expectations, procedures, district policies, goals, and the vision of the program. After I provided the information of the program, I answer any and all questions from the volunteers. At the volunteer meeting, I had each volunteer sign a document stating they would commit one day a week for an entire school year, abide by district policies and state laws, and they have completed a district background check.

Once I received all signed volunteer commitment contracts and background checks, I sent letters home to the parents of the targeted students. In the letter, the parents are given the information about the curriculum, the time of the meetings, the duration of the program, the screening of the volunteers, the staff members involved, and the goals for each participant. The letter is a release form for the parent to sign, indicating they are giving parent consent for their child to participate in the mentorship program.

Manage the organization

The mentors meet with their designated student once a week during the student’s lunch, which lasts for thirty minutes. During the lunch period, the mentor follows the provided curriculum, which covers a variety of academic subject matter. The curriculum topics include occupational interests, continuing education, college funding, goal setting, organization, and other life skills. I have created the curriculum, using various sources, and my assistant principal reviews and revises the curriculum each week.

When the mentors arrive at the school, the campus secretary has the volunteer sign in at the front office and the mentor receives a sticker, stating they are a student mentor, and the curriculum material for the particular day. The students have passes, which allow the student to leave a few minutes early to get their lunch from the cafeteria, to allow the students to get to the Distance learning room (DLR) as quickly as possible. The mentors and students meet in the DLR, which is supplied with tables, chairs, computers, writing utensils, and paper, to have a quiet working space without interruptions. In the DLR, a rotation occurs with teachers, counselors, or administrators at each lunch to serve as a resource and a monitor for safety for the students and mentors. During the time with the student, the mentor follows the topics of the curriculum and the mentor relates the material with the student’s life.

Manage Operations

My main strategy used in leading the project was to get a one on one meeting with every person involved to share my vision of providing our students with an additional recourse beyond academic tutoring. I wanted to provide a person who was consistent in the child’s life who cared about their future. I used the needs assessment during my meeting with my campus administration to determine the needs of our campus and in developing the curriculum for the mentors. I used data to determine what groups of students were in need of additional support and the students we were targeting to invite to the program. I tried to use each the strength of each person involved to help in the process. I used the PTA president for communication, the assistant principal for guidance and supervision, the councilor for a data resource and myself for organization. As a group, we discuss and decide on various decisions and problems. If the material being discussed is sensitive to public ears, I don’t involve the PTA president. The PTA president and myself provide all information communicated to the staff, volunteers, or parents for the mentorship program. The PTA president responds to any general information and I am responsible for any specific or sensitive information regarding the program.

Respond to Community Interest and Needs

The mentorship program was created for the economically disadvantaged at-risk students who needed additional support to increase student academic achievement. Several of our economically disadvantaged at-risk students are in special education. For those students with special needs, we have a special education teacher or paraprofessional available as a resource for the mentor. All the students in the program are assimilated to regular education core classes. We have a very diverse group of students and I have tried to match the mentor’s sex and ethnicity of that of the student.

Our school has never asked for help from the community beyond the PTA. The mentorship program is the first partnership with the community to provide additional support to our students. When advertising the chance for the community to participate in a mid day program, we received 34 volunteers, who committed participating one day a week for one year.

Change in Action Research Topic

During the summer, I was asked by my principal to focus on creating an additional resource for our economically disadvantaged students. We discussed my old action research topic and due to the changes we already made in our grading policies, my principal believed my time would be better served creating a plan for our at-risk students. I presented the idea of creating a mentorship program for the economically disadvantaged. I was approved and I am in charge of creating the program and gathering data from the project. The generated data will help our campus decide if the program can increase academic achievement through stable relationships with appropriate role models and additional tutoring. If the program is deemed a success through the data, the campus will continue the program in the following years. Due to the many changes to my action research topic and plan, I have had my hands full trying to prepare a new program. I am very excited to share my findings on the mentorship process.

Reflections and Revisions

After reading the questions on my blog, I realized, I need to be more specific with my action plan. The alternative grading system is going to be based on the grading system defined in Rick Wormeli’s Fair Isn’t Always Equal. A 4-point number scale, similar to the 4.0 grade average scale, will substitute the traditional letter grading scale. Rubrics will continue to be in place. Rubrics will be communicated to the students so students will be aware of the desired standards they are to complete. Motivation will be measured by student surveys/self-evaluations. Throughout the desired length of time, students will fill out the survey/self-evaluation to communicate if they were more, the same, or less motivated by the alternative grade. As far as the length of the action research project, I may need to extend my action research project to cover two classroom projects, which would extend the research project by two to three weeks. Based on the comment of reliable data, I scheduled a meeting with several team leaders this week to see if other teachers in the building would also be interested in implementing an alternative grading system. Recruiting additional teachers would elevate any shortage of reliable data.

I spoke with my site supervisor about my action research action plan and he thought that the plan was a good starting point. my site supervisor agreed with the additions I made to the action plan as a reflection to the comments and questions left from other students on my blog. My site supervisor suggested that I add parents as one of my resource tools due to the high involvement rate we have at our school. He believes that I would get an overwhelming amount of feedback from our parents. My site supervisor also suggested that I have the district curriculum specialist, building administrator, a first year teacher, and a veteran teacher analyze the data. He believes that collaboration with others in the district would give additional insight on the inquiry. I found my site supervisor's suggestions to be most helpful and I plan on adding these tasks to my action research plan.

A revised action research plan will be posted soon.

Action Research Plan

How is student motivation related to student’s perception of a traditional letter grading system compared to an alternative grading system and whether the alternative grading system allows for an accurate depiction of student mastery of the content provided?

Goals/Objectives:

1. Determine whether students are highly motivated by traditional or alternative grading system
2. Evaluate the accurate depiction of student mastery when the alternative grading system is implemented.

Activities:

1. Develop method of evaluating student motivation
2. Evaluate current and traditional letter grading systems with student motivation
3. Define alternative grading system
4. Implement alternative grading system in the classroom
5. Compare results of traditional grading versus alternative system.

Resources and Research Tools:

1. District and school grading policy
2. Campus Administrators
3. Related literature
4. Student evaluation tools

Timeline:

The qualitative data will be collected during a class project, which is projected to last two to three weeks. Multiple assessment checkpoints will be scheduled through out the duration of the project.

Persons responsible for implementation:

I am responsible for the implementation of the research action plan with the support of my site based administrator.

Process for Monitoring:

Through weekly assessments, I will monitor the progress of my action plan to meet the goals and objectives.

Assessment:

Based on Nacy Fichtman Dana’s, Leading with Passion and Knowledge, an assessment instrument will be designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the action research study.

My school administrators have inquired about the perception of a traditional letter grading system compared to an alternative grading system within our campus. A change in the grading system has been mentioned but further research has not been completed. Due to the schools interest on the subject, I intend to provide my data and research to provide insight and recommendations on the current grading system compared to an alternative grading system. Within my communication with my school officials, I will provide background information regarding our current grading system, the process of data collection for the alternative grading system, provide findings, analysis, claims, assertions, and arguments, and conclude with additional questions of inquiry.

Action Research Topic Defined

I originally was going to do my action research on the classroom evaluation processes. After speaking with my site supervisor, I am going to modify the action research topic. Instead of focusing on the evaluation process of student work in the classroom, I am going to research the grading system and how it relates to student motivation. The research will include how students perceive a traditional letter grading system compared to a completion grade and whether the grading system allows for an accurate depiction of student mastery of the content provided. The grading system needs to be a process that provides a thorough and accurate depiction of student mastery of the class material. Many times, passing a class with minimal effort instead of truly learning the subject matter motivates the students. Through action research, I want to find a consistent form of grading which presents a positive motivation for student learning.

Administrative Blogging

Administrative blogging allows principles all over the country to collaborate on school issues while providing additional questions, thought, and experiences. Blogging provides a support system for principles to reflect on personal experiences, actions, and policies.

Action Research

Based on Nancy Fichtman Dana’s Leading with Passion and Knowledge, action research is a process for leaders to collect data, create analysis, formulate action strategies, and implement solutions to develop change within their school and district. Action research allows local school site leaders to participate in school problems using campus-generated knowledge instead of depending on outside sources for generic research. By participating in action research, administration and teachers become part of a learning community designed to engage in student, teacher, and administrative needs. Each member of the process must continually pose questions, read relevant literature, and create practices based on new evidence derived from the action research. With each member participating in action research, the staff is completing their own professional development and actively improving their leadership and teaching skills. Individually, the members must inquire upon their own skills and practices to evaluate educational success. During action research, knowledge, understanding, and a sense of ownership begin to foster amongst staff members through the process. With these action research practices in place, restructure and reform begin to cultivate school culture. The action based research process builds greater campus expectation, which sustains school improvement guidelines. Action research is an effective process to meet individual campus’ needs.