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.