Action Plan

Meaningful Action Research

The action research process must follow the appropriate framework and structure inorder to be conducted with fildelity. More importantly though, the topic must be relevent to the campus and interesting to the researcher. Selecting a topic only to complete an assignment or be published in a journal will result in meaningless research and findings. Also, there will be less buy in by the faculty when the passion is not observable in the researcher. Inorder to remain committed, the researcher must be invested and see it through to completion.

Educational Leaders Blog Benefits

Blogs allow educational leaders the ability to stay up to date with technology, ideas and 21st century global skills. Communication is enhanced through the sheer number of contacts and exchanges available through the internet. Perspectives from peers, community, parents, students and other stakeholders can be viewed within the contexts of indepth discussion. Information sharing is vital to a forward thinking administrator.

Navigating the Action Research Process

Action research "involves adding something new to what is already known about your topic. Specifically, it means going beyond the current body of literature on a,given topic, perhaps to answer a question as yet unexplored by those who have come before" (Arterbury and Jenkins 2010). Administrators are life long learners and model of this in the school environment. Action Research allows administrators to explore, collaborate and reflect with fellow administrators, teachers and district personnel.
Elliot (1988) describes action research as a continual set of spirals consisting of reflection and action. The process consists of inquiry, action, clarifying and continuous reflection of the action steps. This leads to other problem areas being recognized and able to be addressed. Inorder to be successful and implement the process with fidelity, time must be comitted. This means scheduling time for inquiry, research and reflection (Dana, 2009).

As an administrator, I plan to use the action research process to delve into issues of achievement. Extensive inquiry can take place with regard to low test scores, including overall scores, grade level performance, and sub-population performance. Attendance and graduation rates are other significant areas that call for inquiry and action. Many initiatives and attempts have been made to address these areas, but their success or lack there of needs to be researched inorder to not repeat mistakes or even to build on previous promising ideas. The area of special education becoming more inclusive within the regular education setting is also relevant at the current time, especially with the Response To Intervention requirements. Administrative inquiry and action research needs to explore the learning and achievement of special education students previously in self contained classes but now place in the regular classroom. This would cause the spiraling effect of leading to other issues, such as support systems, accomodations and benefits of inclusion teachers.

Arterbury, Dr. Elvis and Jenkins, Dr. Steve (2010). Research EDLD 5301. Lamar
University.

Dana, Nancy Fichman (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Elliot, J. (1988) Action Research for Educational Change, Buckingham: Open University Press.