Description

Action research can first help a school identify, clarify, plan, and evaluate actions that will bring the beliefs articulated in its covenant to life. A school's ability to bring about schoolwide renewal that benefits students is closely tied to its capacity to study and reflect on how its practices are affecting students.

Staying focused on student goals is remarkably difficult. It is easier to document whether programs, new initiatives, or new structures have been put in place than it is to study what is happening to students. For example, it is much easier to study whether teachers are using more cooperative learning techniques in their classrooms than it is to gather data on the effects cooperative learning is having on students. An action research process that is focused on students can help a school stay on track while informing the decision-making process as to what is working and what needs further attention.

Q & A

1. What is "action research?" Does it involve complicated statistics?

Action research is the process of collecting data about the school and using these data to make informed decisions about future actions. There are three basic kinds of action research: (1) teacher research, where the focus is on an individual teacher's classroom for that teacher's information; (2) collaborative research, where several classroom teachers working by grade level or department are involved; and (3) school-wide action research, where the whole school is involved and all teachers are affected. All three kinds of research should be focused on learning more about bringing the covenant to life.

A school can use complicated statistics in carrying out its action research if it wants to; however, a school does not have to if it feels it can monitor what is happening in other ways. Some schools will use a combination of various types of research.

2. Why do we do action research? How does action research fit with the other two premises of the League?

Without action research, schools make decisions based solely on opinions and cut reactions. While these opinions and reactions are important, data collection can provide important information. Also, schools that do not participate in action research are very vulnerable to outside pressures to make changes or stop what they are doing. If a school doesn't have any data to show that what they are doing is having results, they don't have a leg to stand on when somebody either takes exception to, or pressures them to change, what they are doing. Overall, action research tells the school how it is doing in bringing its covenant to life. It provides feedback that informs the shared decision-making process.

3. What should we study? How do we make sense of the data we collect?

A school should study actions that are taken in implementing the covenant. The data that is collected through action research needs to be interpreted. In order to make sense of the data, it must be broken down far enough to have implications for action. For example, knowing that a school's dropout rate is 20% does not lead to action. Knowing that of the 30 students that dropped out, 25 were ninth-grade boys does.

For action research to make sense, a school must first of all know what it wants to accomplish and what success will look like. Secondly, it must collect information that is pertinent to what it wants to accomplish. Finally, the data must be analyzed in such a way that it provides the type of picture that is useful. For example, a school's covenant may state that it wants students to be active in their own learning. It must then be determined what results are expected of "active learning." Only then can the school figure out how to collect information that can be analyzed in such a way as to let it study what happens when this part of the covenant is brought to life.

4. How do we get started? Where do we find the time?

Individual people initiate the action research process by asking themselves what they want to know more about when it comes to implementing the covenant. The school expands the process by collecting questions that these people have about bringing the covenant to life. The leadership team then provides leadership in planning ways to answer these questions. Remember, there are three types of research that can be used to answer these questions: teacher research, collaborative research, and school-wide action research.

Time is needed in order to carry out action research, and there are numerous creative ways that a school can set time aside in order to carry this process to completion. As a school plans its school year, days should be set aside for groups to work on action research. This means that substitutes or other ways of covering classes will be included in the school's budget. Whenever possible, people who want to work together on action research should be given common planning time. Staff meetings can be used to discuss action research, and staff development time can also focus on action research. Grants can be obtained for summer work or to give leaders in high schools extra planning periods, giving extra pay to those who take the lead. Schools should also consider Students and parents as valuable resources in the facilitation of the action research process.