Actin Research Paper...Draft--More Like All I've Got at the Moment

I haven't done much but this is what I have come up with since having to put it in written form!

Pre AP and AP Courses: Have We Made any Gains?

Abstract

Title and Author

Pre AP and AP Courses: Have We Made any Gains, written and researched by Jennifer Davis, teacher, Lubbock High School, Lubbock, TX.

Introduction/Background

The goal with this action research project was to compare the number of students enrolled in Pre AP and AP courses between two school years to see if there were any gains in participation levels.

The action research was conducted on the campus of Lubbock High School in Lubbock, TX. Lubbock High School is a Title I School with a majority of Hispanic students. Research was conducted by myself, Jennifer Davis, as a graduate student at Lamar University. Currently, I am a full time teacher of a non-core subject at Lubbock High School. The research focused on all students taking at least one Pre AP course regardless of their grade level, with an emphasis on how many freshmen were taking at least one course, and have we made any gains in improving our numbers?

As part of our Campus Improvement Plan, finding the number of students enrolled in Pre AP courses compared to the year before, is significant for the campus. As mentioned below, we are a magnet school and pride ourselves on being able to offer Pre AP and AP courses to our students. If our numbers did not increase, then I need to find out why and come up with ideas on how to regain those participants. If our numbers did increase, then I need to look at what we did to ensure that those results do not decrease.

By comparing this year’s (2011-2012) number of students enrolled in Pre AP courses to that of last year (2010-2011), what gains have we made in the participation levels? For my campus, this is important to know since we are a magnet school; meaning, we offer specialized courses that other schools in our district does not. We strive to continue to push our limits and increase numbers every year. So again I ask, what gains have we made in the participation levels of Pre AP between the two school years?

All Pre AP/AP teachers will benefit from this research. Teachers outside of my campus and district would be able to benefit from the research as well. Hopefully, by reading this report, teachers, administrators, parents, and students will be able to see what the benefits are of taking Pre AP/AP courses and also ways to continue to increase their numbers for their campus. By learning how to increase participation in Pre AP/AP courses, other schools can continue to push their students towards obtaining a college degree. It will be important for my campus in particular in that we will be able to continue making gains as a magnet school while continuing to raise the bar for our students.

Literature Review

Action Research Design

Subjects

I chose to use students from all grade levels as my subjects for this research. Since this is a high school, the grade levels are ninth-twelfth. I did however only have a select group of 50 students from each grade level complete the survey. For this past school year (11-12), there were 2, 095 students taking Pre AP courses. Now, this could be at least one class for some students, or four classes for others; therefore, the number listed above is a total enrollment.

Procedures

Data Collection

Findings

Conclusions and Recommendations

References

Instead of focusing on finding how many students are currently enrolled in just one Pre AP course, my site supervisor said it would be easier to find the total number of students enrolled in Pre AP courses to compare to last year. I will be looking at it from that stand point.

Also, I did find out that most of the freshmen on my campus are taking at least one Pre AP course since the majority are magnet kids or in the AVID program. In the end, I am only looking at maybe 100 students who are not taking at least one Pre AP course. This could make my research a little easier! I o have to keep in mind that some of the students are special ed and may not be able to take a Pre AP course because of the disability they have.

Action Research Tool 7.1

Action Planning Template
Goal: By comparing this year’s number of students enrolled in Pre AP courses to that of last year, what gains have we made in the participation levels? What can we do to get all freshmen (those who are not magnet students or in the AVID program) in at least one Pre AP course for next year?
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Review Master Schedule to find out how many Pre AP courses are being taught this year.	Jennifer Davis	Completed by October 2011	Master Schedule	Look at Master Schedule and count classes.
Find number of students currently enrolled in at least one Pre AP course for this school year.	Jennifer Davis Kyle Clark	Complete by November 2011	TEAMS data Master Schedule	Use data provided by resources listed
Find number of students enrolled in at least one Pre AP course last year. Compare these numbers.	Jennifer Davis Kyle Clark	Complete by December 2011	Archived data in TEAMS	TEAMS data this year and last year will provide these numbers,
Find percentage of students enrolled in Pre AP courses this year compared to percentage of students enrolled last year.	Jennifer Davis	Complete by November 2012	Gathered data from Master Schedule and TEAMS	See if we have made gains or losses from this year to last
Determine number of freshmen taking at least one Pre AP course this year.	Jennifer Davis Kyle Clark Core area teachers	Complete by November 2011		Send out emails to teachers and ask for number of students in class
Depending on number of children participating, survey a select number per core class to find out why they are taking a Pre AP course and whether they will continue taking them and move to AP as a junior or senior.	Jennifer Davis Freshmen Pre AP teachers Sophomore Pre AP teachers	Complete by February or March 2012	Surveys	Read surveys and collect data
Look into ways to encourage incoming freshmen to take at least one Pre AP course.	Jennifer Davis Kyle Clark Pre AP Teachers	Ongoing	Teachers, students, principals and counselors	Questionnaires/Surveys
When new school year starts, gather data on how many freshmen are taking a Pre AP course based on decisions made from #8.	Jennifer Davis Kyle Clark Counselors	Complete by September 2012	Counselors Jennifer Davis Kyle Clark	Look to see from gathered data and numbers of students enrolled, where we need to make improvements.

Draft Action Research Plan

Goal: By comparing this year's number of students enrolled in Pre AP courses to that of last year, what gains have we made in the participation levels? and What can we do to get all freshman in at least one Pre AP course in the four core areas?

Context of Study: The study will focus on all grade levels and their participation in Pre AP courses with an emphasis on numbers for freshman and finding innovative ways to encourage incoming freshman to take at least one Pre AP course.

Sample size and rationale: I am going to look at all students that are taking Pre AP courses in the four core areas and figure what the percentage is in relation to the whole school’s population. One of the main objectives for the research is to see how many students overall are participating compared to last year (2010-2011).

Needed Resources: Master Schedule, TEAMS data, cooperation with Pre AP teachers, support form site supervisor and teachers, students

Activities and Timeline:

1. Review Master Schedule to find out how many Pre AP courses are being taught this year. Completed by: October 2011
2. Find number of students currently enrolled in at least one Pre AP course for this school year. Complete by: November 2011
3. Find number of students enrolled in at least one Pre AP course last year. Complete by: December 2011
4. Compare these numbers. Complete by: December 2011
5. Find percentage of students enrolled in Pre AP courses this year compared to percentage of students enrolled last year. Complete by: January 2012
6. Determine number of freshman taking at least one Pre AP course this year. Complete by: November 2011
7. Depending on number of children participating, survey a select number per core class to find out why they are taking a Pre AP course and whether they will continue taking them and move to AP as a junior or senior. Complete by: February or March 2012
8. Look into ways to encourage incoming freshman to take at least one Pre AP course. Complete by: Ongoing
9. When new school year starts, gather data on how many freshmen are taking a Pre AP course based on decisions made from #8. Complete by: September 2012

Person(s) responsible for implementation of activities: Myself and Kyle Clark

Process for Monitoring the Achievement of goals and objectives:

I will continue to monitor the achievement of the goals and objectives with the help of my site supervisor. If the data pushes us in a new direction, then new objectives will be come up with and I’ll revise the research.

Assessment instruments to evaluate the effectiveness of the action research study:

The surveys will be crucial to evaluate the effectiveness, but most importantly, the master schedule for the next school year will be where I can get answers on how the research is going.

Change of Plans!

The proposed questions I posted last week are no longer option for my action research. My site supervisor sent back some areas that are relevant to my campus and need to be worked on. I have chosen one of his suggestions and will move forward with it. It is as follows:

Comparing current participation in PAP and Academic level courses with that of last year.

This is one of our campus improvement plan goals.

I am open to any suggestions on where to look for literature on this as well as any sub-questions that I could look into.

Action Research Ideas

1. How can we ensure that all students are participating in either a student group or athletics program? How many students do we currently serve in this aspect and how can we encourage those who aren't serving, to join?

2. How does the homework load given by teachers affect our students lives outside of school? Can the load be lessened and the objective still be reached?

3. How many more young ladies would benefit from the adoption of a drill team instead of just a pom squad?

How You Might Use a Blog

As an educational leader, you could use a blog to interact with students, parents, the community at large, and teachers. This could be a great way to get feedback from stake holders on new ideas that you are thinking about implementing in the future as well as answering any questions that people may have asked.