Not sure if I posted this correctly. Tried the spreadsheet thing and it didn't look right.

Patrick's Action Research Plan
Goals:  1.  To find out if my school’s new positive behavior discipline system is making a difference in office referrals, suspensions, and test scores.  2.  To get feedback from students and teachers about our new positive behavior discipline system and ways to improve it.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Collect all 4th grade office referrals from 2009.	Myself, Principal, guidance counselor, and TOR counselor	Complete by December 2011	Data showing all office referrals.  Data will be saved on the computer as well as hard copies in the guidance counselors’ office.	I will determine how many office referrals were totaled by our fourth grade for 2009.  I will save that data and compare it to 2010 and 2011 data.  Using graphs I will show how we improved or stayed the same in the number of referrals.
Collect all 4th grade office referrals from 2010.	Myself, Principal, guidance counselor, and TOR counselor	Complete by December 2011	Data showing all office referrals.  Data will be saved on the office computers as ell as hard copies in the front office.	I will determine how many office referrals were totaled by our fourth grade for 2010.  I will save this data and information and compare it to 2009.
Collect all suspensions from our fourth grade in 2009.	Myself, Principal, guidance counselor, and TOR counselor	Complete by March 2012	Data showing all suspensions from the 2009-2010 school year.  Data will be located in front office files or on the computer.	I will determine how many suspensions were totaled in fourth grade and compare that total to how many occurred in 2010.
Collect all suspensions from our fourth grade in 2010.	Myself, Principal, guidance counselor, and TOR counselor	Complete by March 2012	Data showing all suspensions from the 2010-2011 school year.  Data will be located in front office files or on the office computer.	I will determine how many suspensions were totaled in fourth grade in 2010-2011 and compare that total to how many occurred in 2009-2010.

Get results of our fourth grade LEAP scores from the 2009-2010 school year.	Myself, Principal, guidance counselor, and TOR counselor	Complete by December 2011.	Collect data showing our fourth grades’ test scores in each area of the LEAP test from 2009-2010.	I will compare the scores from the 2009-2010 school year to the results I get from the 2010-2011 school year test scores.
Get results of our fourth grade LEAP scores from the 2010-2011 school year.	Myself, Principal, guidance counselor, and TOR counselor.	Complete by December 2011.	Collect data showing our fourth grades’ test scores in each area of the LEAP test from 2010-2011.	I will compare the scores from 2010-2011 to the test scores from 2009-2010.  Looking at the differences in the two scores.
Conduct a teacher survey on how they view our new positive behavior discipline system.	15-20 teachers from my school.  Ranging from grades 1st-5th grade.	Complete by May 2012.	Collect surveys that show how our teachers feel about PBIS and what are areas they think need improvement.	I will gather the surveys from our teachers and see what areas are the most common as far as strengths and weaknesses from the surveys.
Conduct a student survey to see what the students think of our new positive behavior discipline system.	20-30 students from my school.  Ranging from 4th-5th grade.	Complete by May 2012.	Collect surveys that show how our students feel about PBIS.  What areas they like and what are things that they would like to see improve or done differently.	I will gather surveys from our students and determine which areas are most common for strengths and weaknesses of PBIS.
Collect all office referrals from our current school year for the fourth grade.  2011-2012.	Myself, Principal, Guidance Counselor, and TOR counselor.	Complete by May 2012	Collect all office referrals from our current school year and compare those results to the previous two school years.	Compare the results of the amount of office referrals from this year to the previous two years.  Noting any improvement or decline in the results.
Collect all the suspensions from our current school year for our fourth grade.	Myself, Principal, Guidance Counselor, and TOR counselor.	Complete by May 2012.	Collect all suspensions from our current school year and compare those results to the previous two years.  Hard copy of all suspensions from our current school year.	Compare the results from this year to the previous two years noting any improvement or areas of difference.
Gather results of LEAP test from our current school year.  2011-2012	Myself, Principal Guidance Counselor and TOR counselor	Complete by August 2012	Collect all LEAP scores from 2011-2012 and compare them to the previous two school years’ scores.  Hard copy of all LEAP scores from our current school year	Compare the results of the LEAP scores from this school year to the past two years.  Noting differences and areas of improvement.
Gather literature and information supporting positive behavior reinforcement and the effects it could have on school discipline.	Internet, articles, journals, and other school principals	Complete by May 2012	Gather research that supports positive behavior reinforcement and document the most common reasons it is effective.  Internet, Articles, and books that address positive reinforcement	Determine whether positive reinforcement is the best way of disciplining students.  Look at other schools that have been doing this new system and see how their school has improved.
Develop graphs and charts showing areas of change or improvement since implementing the new positive behavior plan.	Myself, Guidance counselor, Principal, classroom teachers	Complete by August 2012	Information showing all test scores, referrals, suspensions, and surveys from the previous three years.	By making graphs I can determine how effective our new positive reinforcement program really is.

What I learned from Week 2

Week 2 of 5301 has been very helpful and beneficial for me.  I have never done much research in the past and was kind of nervous about getting started with my action research.  By reading the assignments and watching the videos it has given me confidence and good ideas about how to conduct a good action research project.  One thing that stuck out to me was when Mr. Briseno said that many times there are underlying issues or reasons for why a student is misbehaving or not learning.  He said to always look for a way or opportunity to intervene and help the student and never give up on them.  I also learned that as a leader we must never stop growing and learning.  A leader must continue to learn just like students and teachers by reading and attending workshops and seminars.  I also think I have improved when it comes to using APA format.  My first class I wasn't really sure how to use APA, but with practice and looking at website I believe I have improved.

How educational leaders might use blogs.

I think educational leaders can use blogs in many different ways.  One way I would use a blog if I were an educational leader is for reflection.  A blog could be a way a principal could reflect on the week or express things he/she could've done differently or things that went well throughout the week.  A blog could also be used to share things that happened that week in their school that were positive. A lot of times principals get bogged down with angry parents or behavior problems, but there are also times when they hear great stories of student achievement and improvement.  A blog would be a good way to post those inspiring stories.

What I have learned about action research

Honestly, up until this course I have never heard or used the term "action research."  That obviously does not mean that I have never heard of administration or staff investigating or researching different school issues.  I think action research is the correct way to get data and information about your school.  There is nothing wrong with traditional research and you can learn many things from what it says.  However, to truly reach your school, you must do specific research at your school and on your school's issues.  I have learned that action research can be done on a small scale as well as a large scale.  Not all research has to be 40 pages of data and charts.  It can be as simple as asking questions or giving surveys.  I think I can use action research in my school in many different areas.  One area specifically is in student discipline and behavior.  My school has recently started a new behavior program in which positive reinforcement is stressed.  We are trying to get students to behave and want to learn by rewarding them with different incentives and prizes.  I think I can research and compare our old way of disciplining and managing behavior to our new behavior program.  By comparing test scores, office referrals, and suspensions from previous years to the past two years, I can see what is working and what needs to be tweaked.  This new behavior program has never been researched thoroughly at my school and would definitely benefit from someone doing research on it.