Action Research Report

Week 3 Assignment, Part 3

Draft Action Research Project Progress Report

NOTE: MY ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT HAD TO CHANGE BECAUSE THE CURRICULUM WHICH MY OLD ACTION RESEARCH WOULD BE BASED ON WAS NOT EXECUTED IN MY DISTRICT.  THIS ASSIGNMENT IS BASED ON A CREATION OF A NEW ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AS DISCUSSED BY DR. MASON AND MYSELF.  THE TOPIC WAS DECIDED ON BY ONE OF MY MENTORS AND MYSELF.

a.     Title – Determining the effectiveness of Inova data identified mentor groups on standardized test scores.

b.     Needs Assessment – Reviewing our scores from the past few years breaking down our AEIS reports, we have found a need in our economically disadvantaged students and our African American students, typically African American male.  However, there is a vast amount of information available on how to approach these needs areas and we had tried a few different curriculum ideas and approaches with minimal success.  This year we chose to rely on a data source called Inova a little more heavily.  Inova data has brought a completely different way for us to review our data.  Inova presents our data with a component beyond just standard disagraggregation.  It provides us with a psychological component to factor into academic aptitude.  Inova presents us with a sheet on every student and divides them into categories based on their likelihood to pass a future standardized test and where that likelihood comes from.  Inova also provides information on whether or not the data shows an individual student may benefit from some psychological support past academic support.  For example, the creation of the relationship with an adult who cares about them and their success.  Based on this data we identified students who showed, based on the data, that they were likely to pass the standardized test, even if they had shown minimal success in the past if they were given some sort of emotional support.  These identified students typically fell into our groups where the we needed the most improvement based on our AEIS reports.  Thus, the creation of our mentor groups was formed. 

c.     Objectives and Vision of the action research project. (ELCC 1.1) – The way we will determine success of the mentor groups is both through qualitative and quantitative analysis.  First, through qualitative, I will interview those parties involved and first ask them if they feel it was successful and ask them why or why not.  I will encourage them to be frank with why they feel it helped or did not and suggest areas where it needed to be strengthened or eased off of.  It will be important to gain the individuals’ involved perception of the project, because perception is very important to success.  The students’ beliefs in particular will be very important, and their interviews will probably be somewhat longer and more in depth.  I will ask them questions about what they liked, didn’t like, what helped or didn’t help.  I will ask them if they knew someone in another mentor group and how did their experiences compare.  The quantitative analysis will be focused on test scores, grades and any other particular area a  mentored student is struggling (attendance, discipline).  I will be looking for any measurable improvement which can be correlated to the mentor group.  Then, on examination of standardized test scores I will compare the mentor group scores with the projected Inova scores, if these scores exceeded the projection, then we have a successful student.  If over 40% of our students are successful (being this was our first year), I deem the groups a success.  That is subject to debate after speaking to those in charge of the institution of the groups.

d.     Review of the Literature and Action Research Strategy –a.     Upon the review of literature regarding mentor relationships effectiveness on student achievement and experiences, I have found that there is a vast array of studies supporting that there is a positive correlation.   Many other studies have been conducted on various levels to determine the validity of this relationship and all of the resources I seemed to find had a common thread of there being a positive effect on a student’s life when a mentor was involved.  In 2008 Michael Karcher conducted a research project based on two different groups giving both groups some resources, but only one group was given mentors.  Through analysis, it was discovered the group with mentors experienced improved social skills, relationships and feelings of connectiveness (Karcher 2008).  Karcher goes on to discuss the importance of the quality of the relationships rather than the number of the relationships.   There are many other things to consider when conducting the research though, as brought to light by review of the research.  For example, Dubois (2007) cautions on there being several different types of studies which could be conducted and that different things can be revealed throughout.  Dubois references different Levels of studies and explains qualitative research in and of itself is not conclusive.  This gives credence to there being both a qualitative and quantitative approach to my study to assess both areas.  When testing a mentoring program for effectiveness it is important (Grossman & Johnson 1999) to first decide what outcomes you are using to determine effectiveness  or which “outcomes to track” (Grossman & Johnson 1999).  These may be academic outcomes or relationship quality.  What is even more important to realize is in your second step, when you are analyzing this data.  It is important to differentiate between a negative impact being an impact of the program or something that would have happened anyway.  A measureable effect of the program can only be something which would have not happened if the program was not in place  (Grossman and Johnson 1999).  This will be very important to remember as I am going through my data.  In reading the article “Mentoring Programs: A Framework to Inform Program Development, Research, and Evaluation” (Karcher, Kuperminc, Portwood, Sipe, & Taylor, 2006) I learned it is important to consider any other factors that are contributing to the mentoring stage.  All these factors need to be considered and noted, for example, if a specific program was found to require a specific level of funding to be successful this needs to be noted.  The article goes on to recommend five different components to research in mentoring casual analysis.   I found the fourth one to be specifically valuable, which places importance on considering population-specific interactions on the conclusions of the study (Karcher et al (2006).  In the “Policy Brief: Strengthening Mentoring Opportunities for At-Risk Youth” (Cavell, DuBois, Karcher, Keller & Rhodes 2009) the authors seek to explain why there is so much support to mentoring relationships yet many programs experience struggles and minimal success.   The authors explain it is important to give adequate training to mentors, put focus into sustaining improvements after cessation of program, and effective matching in mentor/mentee relationships (Cavell et al 2009).  The recommended steps of targeting those most likely for benefit, training, having goals, organized activities and providing support with be important for me to incorporate into the conclusion of my research.  According to Dana (2009) this is the point where a researcher adds any other important information and I believe this is applicable to the continuation and furthering of the mentoring program in the future.  Conclusively, the research shows there is commonly a positive correlation, however there are many extraneous factors which can detract from program success.  Through review of the current research I learned many aspects and perspectives to be included in my Action Research itself.

e.     Articulate the Vision (ELCC 1.2) – I plan to communicate the vision of this project by explaining my desire to see if these mentor groups were a successful initative in increasing student success and standardized test scores to those involved.  Many people on campus spent many hours and resources on this project in good faith that this would be successful and this would be a strategy that we could apply in the future.  My focus is seeing if that is something we want to continue in the future, meaning is it successful.  I will want to notify those involved with the mentor groups (parents, staff members and students) that I will be looking into the project to assess its success.  I plan to send letters to the parents involved to let them know I will probably be contacting them for an interview for their experience in the program.  I will speak to staff members and send notifications to students.  This notification will need to made non threatenting, and aimed at showing these stakeholders their perspective and opinions are very important to me regarding this initiative.   

f.      Manage the organization (ELCC 3.1) – One of the most important things to focus on in this Action Research project will be student privacy.  I will be examining many student documents, scores and grades and will need to take great care in assuring these records are kept private.  All documents after review will be shredded, and all files on the computer will be cleared and the cache reset.  Extreme care will be taken to protect student privacy.  Information which I collect will be kept on my jump drive, which is kept with me and the documents will be password protected.  I will organize my time strategically so that I am not overloaded.  I plan to execute much of this research in the next couple of weeks before school starts and continue it in the beginning of the school year so that I am not overloaded and we can have the results in enough time to learn from the results.  Monies should not be necessary, all resources will be provided by the school.  If there is any money that is needed, I am sure I can access it through my principal, as she is behind this action research project.  I do not forsee any need

g.     Manage Operations (ELCC 3.2) – My first priority will be telling those involved about my action research in order to make communication as easy as possible with all involved.  This means I need to talk to the mentors, administrators, teachers, and develop & send notices to both students and parents.  To execute this first priority I need to get a list of all individuals involved.  Once I do this and talk to all of these people about the Action Research, I want to talk to every mentor and get a record of their interactions with the student on a calendar so I can have a record of how many times each group met.  This may become important if one group was more successful than another.  At this time, I also need to ask for access to be granted to all these students eduphoria and Inova data so I can begin crunching data independently.  There will be two main parts of this project: qualitiative and quantitiave.  The qualitative process will be ongoing, I will start by interviewing the mentors and then continue with the students and parents.  The quantitative process may be done on my own time, contingent upon my access the the correct information being granted.  Once my information is granted I will be able to begin that process.  There will be four main levels of my project:

1.     Level One: Notifcation of stakeholders and request for access to pertinent information.

2.     Level Two and Three: Qualitative and quantitavie analysis (may be done simulataneously)

3.     Level Four: Communication of results to stakeholders

h.     Respond to Community Interest and Needs (ELCC 4.2) - There is a definite need of  defining  how to reach both African American students and Economically Disadvantaged Students.  There is a wealth of data of countless different approaches on how to best reach students who fall in these categories.  However, I have found many of these plans may produce results in new districts which were not as promising as the test district.  I believe a reason for this might be based on the lack of customization that these models affords.  Our mentoring plan allows for a great deal of customization to the needs of the district, students, parents and staff.  In the event that the research finds the mentor groups to be successful, this is a plan that can be easily replicated and customized for each district and their needs.  The foundation of this program is based on building relationships which can help students feel support and lead to their success.  This can be customized into whatever the district needs.