Action Research Project: "Parental Involvement"

Action Research Project
Parental Involvement
1. Setting the Foundation: At Kilgore High School our administrators have raised the bar for accountability. In order to help students succeed, teachers will need to reach out and garner the help of parents at home. If the parents become more involved then it is believed that the success of students will increase as well.
2. Analyzing Data: Student surveys, parental surveys, individual student reviews, and computer generated data will be used to obtain information. Student and parent surveys will contain questions the researcher would like to see answered. Student interviews will cover topics that deal with barriers that they foresee when trying to get their parents involved. Computer generated data will include general homework assignments, standard tests, and state assessments.
3. Developing Deeper Understanding: Students and parents both face many barriers when it comes to parental involvement. Many students come from broken homes and do not live with their parents. Some students only live with one parent who might work nights while the student is at home. Many of these barriers play a significant part in parental involvement.
4. Engage In Self Reflection: Is this action research beneficial for my campus and do I have the resources to provide adequate solutions to problems? Will this action research be able to find the resources to sustain the solutions for years to come?
5. Exploring Programmatic Patterns: Some of the problems that I will encounter will consist of the surveys. I do not know how serious the students and parents will receive them. I also understand that I will not receive all parent surveys. I hope the instructor will give students extra points or some other benefit for receiving parent and student surveys.
6. Determining Direction: This research project will find out if parental involvement will improve the overall success of students. Collaboration with teachers and my site-based supervisor has helped with the approach to this project. This action research project is on schedule to be completed by March of 2011. Evaluation methods to monitor this project include student assignments, test scores, state assessments.
7. Taking Action For School Improvement: This project will include a written plan that will be discussed with the teacher participating in this project and my site-based supervisor. Once details of the research project are concluded, a summative report will be drawn up based on the findings.
8. Sustain Improvement: If parental involvement does significantly impact student performance, I hope to recommend a plan to develop a parent/student involvement program. This program will encourage parents to get involved with their child’s education and teach them the importance of their involvement.