Action Research progress

Action Research Project Title: Utilizing pre-assessments to guide flexible grouping in the Math classroom

AR Project Summary (at least 250 words):

My Action Research Project is to test whether using pre-assessments to guide flexible grouping would be effective in raising our math test scores.  I’ve had some struggles getting this project going.  Originally I spoke to our math curriculum director for the district and she was excited and said she could easily send me the new scope and sequence for the year.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to secure that at this time.  Why everything has been different this year is because our district is changing all of the 4^th grade math curriculum.  Based on last year’s 4^th grade scores across the district, it was realized that our math curriculum was a key factor in the equation.  So, in order for our district curriculum writers to keep up, they are only a few weeks ahead of where the classroom teachers are.  To make the situation more challenging on my end, in order to fit in all of the rigor that they are, there is seldom time for teacher table lessons which is where the flexible grouping should be happening.  I’m considering testing the flexible grouping based on pre-assessments on my classroom only.  It might be a more feasible solution at this point.  Plus, if I compared my class’s growth to another class with a similar make-up, it might be more telling how effective pre-assessments are. If I could log all of the hours I spend worrying about this project, I would be nearly done, but actual time spent is far less.  My goal is to sit down this week and really see how I can rearrange each math class into rotations so that I will be sure that I will have the instructional time and can implement the flexible grouping that I know needs to happen.  I feel like I’m finally getting into the “groove” of my schedule and my students, so I’m more confident putting this into place at this point. 

     One additional concern is that my principal spoke to me yesterday about the possibility of reworking all of the math classes to include an additional advanced math class.  If this happens, then I may be starting with a new class of kids in a few weeks.

week 5 reflection

Honestly, up until this class, the word “research” had a very different meaning to me.  I envisioned being knee deep in professional case studies and leather bound books and the only product coming from the work would be a well cited report style paper that would undoubtedly be filed away, and never affect anyone.  Clearly, I was wrong.  An Action research project is a “systematic, intentional study of one’s own professional practice.” (Dana, 2009, p9)  An action research project requires action, hence the name.  One must find some question or dilemma on a campus or district that needs further investigation to ultimately make positive change.  The simple idea of this sounds exciting doesn’t it?  Honestly, anyone who’s longed to or actually been in a leadership position has an intrinsic need to be better and make improvements. 

            Leading an action research project should be an extension of your everyday life at school.  I don’t know many teachers who do things exactly the same way every year because new needs arise, new children bring new challenges, and of course standards and state expectations are ever changing.  So with each new year comes a new set of goals, problems and general wonderings; and a project is born.  Good teachers may not have officially planned out all of their action steps on paper, but they’ve surely researched an idea, put it into action and evaluated the effectiveness of the new strategy. 

            As we all embarked on this journey together, many of us in class have wondered: How will I ever have time for all of the work this year.  According to Dana, “Another way to create time for inquiry by making it a part of your normal administrative practice is to formulate a study based on something you must do anyway.” (Dana, 2009, p16)  I took this to heart when formulating my plan.  Not necessarily for ease, but out of common sense.  Increasing the 4^th graders Math STAAR scores must be a primary focus for my team of 8 teachers this year, in order to erase the blemish on our previous outstanding record.  It’s a goal that my principal and I had been discussing before I even began my classes here at Lamar.  It alone is a daunting task that took me a bit to even formulate a plan; and I’m sure my plan will be adjusted as I go.  Any good action research project is going to initially have flaws and need to be changed to accommodate both the environment and the situations that will surely arise. 

            One of the most eye opening aspects of starting an action research project is how critical self-reflection can be to guiding your plan.  According to Harris, “Leaders cannot accurately examine the work to improve schools without following Step 4, Engaging in Self-reflection.” (Harris, 2010, p 55)  In order to decide to focus on flexible grouping on my team for my project I really had to look within to my teacher practices.  If you ask most district officials and teachers they would probably say that flexible grouping is the norm in their district.  Yes, we do have changing groups for small group instruction, the question is: are the groupings done in a meaningful, purpose driven way, or simply on “gut” feeling.  We’ve often used test scores that are only measured 2 times a year to group students, but it still doesn’t mean that every student in each group is starting at the same academic starting point.  Using a pre-assessment model may hopefully make groupings more deliberate and result in higher student performance. 

            Overall, this class has made me reevaluate how I will think about wanting to affect change on my team, my campus or even my district.  Action Research is much like conducting a scientific experiment in order to prove or disprove a theory designed to improve campus/student climate.   However, where this varies from a simple science experiment is that based the results you must continue to implement variations of your plan; one that is ever changing. 

revised action research plan

I was really excited this week.  I went to our district math update training and was able to speak to the head of math curriculum for our district.  I talked to her about my research about flexible grouping which is generally done with a unit pre-assessment.  She was able to recommend resources that I could pull the pre-assessment materials from and gave me her blessing, so to speak.  In a big district, doing something different isn't always considered good.  She was so interested that she wants to see my data and report when I'm done.  She implied that it could help them go in that direction on a district level.  :)   So I now finally have the actual thing that I'm going to use to prove or disprove my action research project.  So here is my more detailed plan:

Action Research Project Template

Goal:  Increase 4th grade Math assessment scores for the 2013-2014 school year.

Question: Will implementing a pre-assessment driven system of flexible grouping within our math instructional time increase Unit test scores as well as STAAR scores?

	Action Step	Person Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1.	Research flexible grouping strategies and previous case studies.	Diana Wetzel	7/2013 8/2013	Professional case studies time	Documenting which case study influences the team’s decision of how to group our students.
2.	Share with the 4th grade team the data behind the new approach and explain how we will implement it.	Diana Wetzel And 4th grade teachers	8/21/2013	Powerpoint presentation	Copy of presentation
3.	Create pre-assessments for each major math unit.	Diana Wetzel	Aug 2013-May 2014	Lone Star assessment guide Access data base	Files containing major concepts covered and pre-assessments to match.
4.	4th grade teachers will give a small pre-assessment 1 week prior to each new unit. Then use the outcomes to help divide the students into groups based on concepts that are of concern.	4th grade team	Aug 2013-May 2014	Class time of 10-20 min.	Evidence that students were grouped differently based on assessments.
5.	Document as a team passing percentiles for unit assessments.	4th grade team	7/2013 through 5/2014	Excel program Time Team cooperation	Document showing passing percentiles per teacher and for entire grade level.
6.	Compare MAP score growth from the fall to the spring.  Show average growth.	Diana Wetzel	6/2014	District online data tool	Overall average point increase as well as analyzing specific growth of STAAR failures.
7.	Compare and analyze STAAR math scores to compare passing percentiles to last year’s scores.	Diana Wetzel	6/2014	STAAR reports	Documentation of increase of STAAR scores.
8.	Compare Boggess Elementary math scores to like campus overall passing scores. Specifically to a like campus that only groups by RIT score	Diana Wetzel	6/2014	STAAR reports	Documentation of basic overall passing percentages in math for our like campus group.
9.	Share data with my team leader group, my principal and the head of math curriculum, Julia Haun.	Diana Wetzel	June 2013	time	Copy of report and notations of any feedback that I may receive from participants.

The outcomes of this project will be evident by our year end STAAR scores as well as the comparisons of the MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) scores from the fall to the spring.  The STAAR passing standards have just been recently decided to stay in a phase 1 for an additional year, so comparisons to last year’s scores should be an indicator of progress.  Ultimately, we would hope to see passing standards in the 90th percentile.