Action Planning Template | ||||
Goal: To determine if extra-curricular involvement is a motivator for student academic success. | ||||
Action Steps(s): | Person(s) Responsible: | Timeline: Start/End | Needed Resources | Evaluation |
Discuss topic with site supervisor, Renee Godi | Jeff Banner & Renee Godi | April 2011 | - Time - Failure Reports | Agreed that the results will warrant action to be taken by many to increase student academic success. |
Present research plan to all extra-curricular sponsors at beginning of year staff meeting. | Jeff Banner & all extra-curricular sponsors | August 2011 | - Time - List of all sponsors - Powerpoint explaining my research - Printout of powerpoint for those who are not present | Ensure that all parties involved understand the process and what information is needed for me to conduct the research. |
All extra-curricular sponsors email a copy of their roster. | Jeff Banner & all extra-curricular sponsors | September 2011 | - Time - List of all sponsors - Email sponsors with a deadline to submit rosters. | Compile all the lists into one master listing of students involved in extra-curricular activities. |
Obtain Failure Reports for the first, second, and third six weeks grading periods. | Jeff Banner | December 2011 | - Time - Access to pinnacle failure reports - 7th and 8th student enrollment - Contact any teacher who listed an Incomplete for a grade. | Calculate the school failure rate for the 7th and 8th grade combined. |
Identify percentage of failing students that are involved in any extra-curricular activity by comparing failure list to my master list. | Jeff Banner | January 2012 | -Time -Failure Reports - Master list of extra-curricular students | Of those that failed, calculate the percentage that were involved in extra-curricular activities. |
Examine Current or existing research in this area. | Jeff Banner | August 2011 – February 2012 | - Time - Periodicals - Databases | Investigate existing research in this area to develop a deeper understanding and determine if my results support or discredit what is shown. |
Compile data and results for each grading period. | Jeff Banner | February 2012 | - Time - Create charts and graphs with figures | Compile and organize results in order to prepare to present them to administrators and extra-curricular sponsors. |
Share findings with site supervisor | Jeff Banner & Renee Godi | February 2012 | - Time - Computer with presentation or printout of presentation | Explain the results to my principal. Discuss the findings and examine if there is need for additional information. |
Share findings with all extra-curricular sponsors. | Jeff Banner & all extra-curricular sponsors | March 2012 | - Time - Powerpoint explaining research - Printout of powerpoint for those not there. - Questionnaire for suggestions or qualitative information that needs to be considered. | Explain the results to all extra-curricular sponsors. |
Brainstorm and identify actions that can be taken to increase all students’ academic success. | Jeff Banner & leadership team | April 2012 | - Time - Leadership team | Based on results, determine how to motivate more students. If participation is a motivator based on the research, how can we get more students involved? If it is not, what can be done to motivate students? |
Implement appropriate changes to improve academic success. | Jeff Banner & Renee Godi | August 2012 | - Time - Present changes and research to staff at beginning of year staff meeting. | Implement new ideas brought forth by the action research. |
Evaluate the progress and need for additional action research in this area. | Jeff Banner | Ongoing | - Time - Evaluate improvement by looking at student athletes academic success. | Constantly examine the progress of my student athletes to determine if the changes implemented are successful. |
Format based on Tool 7.1 from Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools
(Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2010)
Your timelines to complete your action research plan looks great. You can tell you have thoughts things out well. So, a few questions about your plan. What is your sample group? Are you going to try and follow each student/athlete that fails, or focus on a certain percentage? If it is every student you are going to focus on, it may be too time consuming for you unless, as you are doing the research there is a small percentage of failures. Good luck. I wish I was coaching at your school so I could see the results!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. I used these topics for part of our weekly assignment. Here are the responses to your questions.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the sample group question, I am going to look at all extra-curricular participants. I feel that small sample groups can skew and manipulate the data. For example, if I only looked at athletics, that may be more or less of a motivator than band. So in order to not single out one group, I will be evaluating all groups on our campus. My goal is to determine if extra-curricular involvement motivates students to be academically successful. Therefore, by not narrowing my sample size, my results can be used in a general nature for all extra-curricular activities.
The second question is similar to the first. However, it has sparked a good follow up or second research idea to build on my findings. I know that my results will be general in nature when considering all types of groups. Depending on the results, it could possibly be a good idea to investigate specific students from specific extra-curriculars. This will allow me to investigate more of the qualitative data with each student. In my opinion, collecting the broad data is a good starting point. From there, based on the results, I can investigate more specific data by looking at individual students.