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.