Action Plan: Parental Involvement

Parental Involvement Action Plan

I will gather information from my interviews, activities, logs and other correspondence. It will be compiled before my first presentation to my colleagues. My plan and how it will be implemented as follows:

Goals:

• To increase parental involvement within the middle school setting.
• Compile data showing the effects of parental involvement.
• Utilize parental involvement in deficient subject areas.
• Show relationship between a student’s academics and parental involvement.

Activities:

• Review/revise/implement past activities that have proven success.
• Create non-traditional events (Parents teach a lesson)
• Cultural events
• Parents collaborate to develop activities they would like to implement.
  
  
  

Resources/Research needed:

• Data from the previous year. (PTA membership totals, volunteer logs, teachers log of parent volunteers)
• Interviews with PTA, other campuses with the same demographics with a greater parental involvement than ours.
• Professional development opportunities that pertain to parental involvement.
• Allotment of time set aside for implementing plan.

Timeline:

• First six weeks (initial) formation
• Mid-year
• End of year

Persons responsible for Implementation:

• C. Lewis
• R. Maxwell Principal
• Faculty
• PTA
• Volunteers
  
  

Process for Monitoring Achievement:

• PTA membership
• Volunteer percentage vs. previous year at any given time
• Faculty feedback
• Parental interviews

Assessment Instruments to Evaluate Effectiveness:

• Classes that have parent pull out programs with students who have tested below grade level in reading, retest student to establish reading level.
• PTA membership total.
• Questionnaires.
• Interviews
• Liken Scale
• Volunteer log
• Faculty collaboration about program (pros/cons)

Week #3 WOW!!!!

I really don't know where to begin. This by far has been the most frustrating week since I started the program. With the vague directions this week and poor coresspondece I realize how this ties into our action plan, eventhough they did not have this intention. When you embark on creating our action plan, a "plan" must be defined and outlined. The importance of specific directions and a plan is imparitive. Without these aspects in place you are left with a unorganized plan of action. I would gather that with this type of disorganization you will not accomplish what you set out to do. Throughout the readings we had this week when putting a action research plan into motion you must stay focused on the research plan you are working on.

Week 2 Enlightment

This week was very enlightening, watching the video presentations I gained a clearer picture of how different types of information are dissected and put to use. Johnny Briseno, A Principal who believes in going beyond the surface to see the true student. His passion is finding what makes a child who he/she is. He uses his data to establish a reference point as to where that student is in regards to state standards. He goes the extra mile to meet each students specific needs. One the other hand, Dr. Kirk Lewis who holds a position as a superintendent has a completely different perspective on using data in making a school/district successful. He uses his data strictly as benchmarks to gauge where his district stands. He looks at the entire district to gather information in forming his profile of where the strengths and weaknesses are. As far as action research they both agree on the significance of this practice and the value of its usable data collection. They both agree that action research should be campus specific. With that being said, knowing how to begin the process of researching your campus is research in itself. Realizing that choosing the action research model that fits your campus and where to place emphasis is to the outcome of your research. Avoiding issues that are merely interesting and focusing on the issues that provide real usable data is critical for implementing this effort. Defining your research so that is not only intriguing but also provides answers which in turn, has a positive impact on your campus. I am looking forward to studying and beginning the initial outlines of my research on Parental Involvement in the classroom.

Action Research- Very Interesting!

I have always voiced my opinion on how our school can improve. Not only academically but also the moral. My ideas always seemed welcome. I would be told that they would definitely be used, but it always ended up being empty words. I really had no idea that I was doing action research. As my colleagues would sit around and discuss different issues, but it would never go any further than the confines of the area where we were. I realize now that we were beginning the process of action research without knowing it. I know that participating in this more progressive way of thinking and researching could literally change the dynamics of a school. When I first began reading about action research vs. traditional research I found that the moral of a school could be positively affected. Although, there are certain aspects of traditional research that need to be followed. After reading Dana’s material I found myself getting excited about ways to get others involved in implementing action research. I am sold on the fact that this is the way to increase participation and moral in a campus. When this process is implemented it can only have a positive outcome on any campus. The question that I will ask my administrator is why we are not using this method of studying ourselves. I am going to ask him to read Dana’s journal and gauge his response to this subject. I am also going to share it with my colleagues in the hopes that they will be inspired to become a part of this way of thinking. I will use action research on data, which is available to me. I will start here and reflect from the previous years and adapt as much as I am allowed, to increase where I was deficient. Within the school I would like gather teachers and discuss how we can begin our own action research and as a group use our data and skills to improve the campus and ourselves.


I as a future educational leader will use blogs as a way to gain diverse opinions and views in areas where I may have input or need input from others. Being able to have access unlimited resources are very valuable. This type of gathering of expertise and opinion is genuinely a help to anyone seeking a broader range of input on any subject. Using multiple viewpoints will give leaders a opportunity to see every problem from more angles. Every leader is still left with the task of using their own judgment to sift through the additional blog information and decide what fits their issue.

The first Action post.

In the days to come you will be able to see my point of view about action research.