Revised Plan

This is my revised plan.  I have had to alter this plan because I can only track students that I actually teach. This has reduced the scope of my plan but may actually turn out to offer more validity because I will have more control of the variables.  There may be a more direct correlation between my activities to increase parental use of the grading program and academic achievement.

 

EDLD 5301 Research

 

Action Research Plan

 

 

SCHOOL VISION:

We will provide students a challenging curriculum in a safe, nurturing, and positive learning environment.

GOAL:  What is the relationship between parental use of Power Schools (a web based student information system that incorporates an online grade book) and student academic performance?  In what ways can our school encourage parental use of Power Schools? Therefore, the goal of this plan is for our school to actively encourage parental use of Power Schools in order to increase academic performance.  The goal of my plan is to implement methods used by the administration and myself at my school to encourage the use of Power Schools by parents.  The outcome of my plan will hopefully be to show that an increased use of the program has also led to an increase in student academic performance.

 

 

OUTCOMES	ACTIVITIES	RESOURCES/ RESEARCH TOOLS NEEDED	RESPONSIBILITY TO ADDRESS ACTIVITIES	TIME LINE	Benchmarks/ Assessment
Determine the amount of access by parents using Power Schools for the 2012-2013 academic year.	Obtain data from Power Schools to chart the amount of access to the program for each student.	Power School	Joel Jacobs Mr. Steve Martin, Asst. Principal at DMS Amanda Dobson, Dir. of Instructional Technology	9/24—6/1	Completed data
Chart the relationship between the use of Power Schools and academic performance.	Create a spreadsheet that correlates students grades to Power School access.	Data from the Power School printouts	Joel Jacobs	9/24-6-/1	Completed spreadsheet
Determine teacher perceptions regarding the use of Power schools by parents and academic performance.	Create and distribute a survey to all teachers in the school to measure their perceptions regarding Power Schools and academic performance.	Survey.	Joel Jacobs	8/13—10/26	Creation of and completion of survey. Analysis of survey results and creation of a document to illustrate survey results.
Learn more about the use of Power Schools in other districts.	Conduct a review of pertinent websites relating to the use of Power Schools; this will serve as a type of literature review.	Internet and educational journals. Manuals from the district office regarding the Power Schools program.	Joel Jacobs Amanda Dobson, Dir. Of Instructional Technology	8/13—10/26	Completion of a literature review
Implement strategies to increase use of Power Schools by parents.	Work with teachers and administrators to implement possible strategies to increase Power School use by parents.  Implement the strategies created by the staff of DMS.	Schools phone master program.  Schools website. Teacher websites and personal pages on the Power School site.	Joel Jacobs Staff and faculty of DMS	9/24-2/15	Creation of and implementation of school wide strategies.
Determine the final academic grades for  current 8th grade students that I teach  at Dawkins Middle School for the first semester of the 2012-2013 school year.	Obtain data from Power Schools to determine the grades for every 8th grade student at DMS in their core academic classes for the first semester of 2012-2013.	Power School	Joel Jacobs Mr. Steve Martin, Asst. Principal at DMS Amanda Dobson, Dir. of Instructional Technology	1/4	Completed data
Determine the amount of access by parents using Power Schools for the first semester of the 2012-2013 academic year.	Obtain data from Power Schools to chart the amount of access to the program for each student.	Power School	Joel Jacobs Mr. Steve Martin, Asst. Principal at DMS Amanda Dobson, Dir. of Instructional Technology	1/4	Completed data
Chart the relationship between the use of Power Schools and academic performance.	Create a spreadsheet that correlates students grades to Power School access.	Data from the Power School printouts	Joel Jacobs	1/4—6/1	Completed spreadsheet