School/Family/Community Action Research Project

SCHOOL VISION:
All students of Nixon-Smiley High School will reach their optimum potential as academic, socially competent, motivated, and accountable citizens.

GOAL: Increased collaboration between school, home, and community to increase student academic achievement.


The school/family/community partnerships are essential to the students’ academic achievement and the overall positive school culture. These partnerships also have the potential to increase the importance that the family places on education due to their greater involvement and understanding of the education process and the role it plays not only in the lives of high school students but also how it affects life after high school. However, these partnerships are lacking at the high school level. Therefore, the action research process will address the following inquiries by giving me the platform to collect the data, analyze the data, to seek out strategies and processes to develop and implement successful school/family/community partnerships on the high school campus.

1. What are the barriers that prevent the school/family/community partnerships and what can be done to reduce or eliminate these barriers?

2. What is the academic achievement relationship between those students and families that are actively involved in the school/family/community partnerships and those that are not?

3. What effects do these partnerships have on the students’ desire to further their education beyond high school?

OUTCOMES: Define barriers to school/family/community partnerships.
ACTIVITIES: School faculty, students, families, community and business members complete written or on-line survey to discover the barriers to the school/family/community partnerships.
RESOURCES: A survey will be created with Survey Monkey and administered on-line or in written form.
RESPONSIBLE PARTY: Jane Iams - Researcher
TIME LINE: August 26, 2010
ASSESSMENT: Completion of the survey and analyze the data gathered.

OUTCOMES: Set the stage for developing school/family/ community partnerships.
ACTIVITIES: Meet with stakeholders(school board, school administrators, faculty, staff, students, family members, community and business members) to discuss the data collected through the survey.
RESOURCES: Schedule a meeting time with stakeholders to discuss and analyze survey data.
RESPONSIBLE PARTY: Jane Iams - Researcher, High School Principal, Lead Teachers, Parents, Students, Community and Business Members
TIME LINE: September 2, 2010
ASSESSMENT: Stakeholder feedback.

OUTCOMES: Set the stage for developing school/family/ community partnerships.
ACTIVITIES: Meet with stakeholders to collaborate on ideas and activities for increasing involvement in partnerships.
RESOURCES: Brainstorming meeting while focusing on data gathered to come up with ideas and activities to be held to increase participation.
RESPONSIBLE PARTY: Jane Iams - Researcher, High School Principal, Lead Teachers, Parents, Students, Community and Business Members
TIME LINE: September 7, 2010
ASSESSMENT: Datelines for ideas and activities determined and responsible parties assigned.

OUTCOMES: Increase participation for School/Family/Community partnerships.
ACTIVITIES: Family/Community Activity Nights
RESOURCES: Resources for the (5) Family/Community Nights will be determined by the teachers planning the activities.
RESPONSIBLE PARTY: Each core subject and all electives will be responsible for selecting a monthly activity night to host.
TIME LINE:One Family/Community Night per month (5) - September, October, January, March, April
ASSESSMENT: Sign-in Sheets with signatures and dates.

OUTCOMES: Increase participation for School/Family/ Community partnerships.
ACTIVITIES: Family/Community Activity Nights that are not academic related.
RESOURCES: Resources for the non-academic Family/ Community Nights will be determined by the school faculty and community members planning the activities.
RESPONSIBLE PARTY:Jane Iams - Researcher, Band Director, F.C.C.L.A. Teacher, Agriculture/Welding Teacher, Technology Teacher, Community/Business Members
TIME LINE: 3 Non-Academic Family/Community Nights per year - November, February, May
ASSESSMENT: Sign-in Sheets with signatures and dates.

OUTCOMES: Determine the relationship of participation in the Family/ Community Nights and student achievement.
ACTIVITIES: Analyze the data gathered based on students’ and their family’s participation in Activity Nights and how it influences their academic achievement.
RESOURCES: Sign-in Sheets from Activity Nights, students’ grades, benchmark grades, attendance records.
RESPONSIBLE PARTY: Jane Iams - Researcher, High School Principal, High School Lead Teachers
TIME LINE: Once a month, usually the first of the month, the students’ information will be compared to the previous months’ data to determine growth.
ASSESSMENT: Student grades, benchmark grades, and attendance records.

OUTCOMES: Asses the students’ attitude toward furthering their education beyond high school.
ACTIVITIES: Student surveyed regarding their attitudes toward higher education.
RESOURCES: On-line Survey created with survey monkey.
RESPONSIBLE PARTY: Jane Iams - Researcher
TIME LINE: September 2, 2010, January 10, 2011, and May 10, 2011
ASSESSMENT: Survey data collected and analyzed

OUTCOMES: Assess Findings
ACTIVITIES: Collect Data: 1) Participation levels – Sign –in Sheets, 2) Student Grades, Attendance, High Stakes Testing,
3) School, family, community survey data
RESOURCES: Time allocated to collecting data.
RESPONSIBLE PARTY: Jane Iams - Researcher
TIME LINE: End of the 2010-2011 school year
ASSESSMENT: Stakeholder Feedback, Student Progress, Increase in school/family/community partnerships

So Many Opportunities

After completing this week's assignment regarding action research topics, I realized that there are many opportunities for utilizing action research on my own campus. So many in fact, it almost seems overwhelming. It was challenging to decide on one specific topic in which to engage in the action research process. Ultimately, I chose the one in which I was the most passionate about, the one that would address the most issues stated in the campus improvement plan, and hopefully, the one that would have the most beneficial impact on my students. I am looking forward to move past the introduction stage to the action research process and actually begin conducting the research on school/family/community partnerships. I know that the family/school/community partnership action research process will be challenging, time consuming but most of all enlightening and that fuels my flame for learning. I am also excited about the opportunity to share the action research process with other teachers and administrators on my campus and in my district so that we can all benefit from the process.

Blogging for Educational Benefits

Blogging has opened up the door for collaboration for students, teachers and administrators alike. With the use of blogging, professional development opportunities know no boundaries. Professional Learning Communities can discuss relevant articles, campus policies, study reflective learning and teaching strategies, and share practices that are working without taking time out of the workday to meet.

Blogging will also increase the benefits of action research. Principals will be able to share their finding from their research with other principals from various geographic locations. This will allow principals to learn from each other without leaving their campus or district. Blogging also has the potential to decrease the feeling of isolation among principals because they will be able to share their practices, frustrations and finding so as to benefit others.

Action Research: What is it?

Action research is a cyclical process that focuses on providing insight into an administrator’s own practice in an effort to make change and improve their school. Therefore, action research places the burden on the individual involved in the research to clarify and diagnose a practical situation or problem on their campus that needs to be improved or resolved. This causes the principal, administrator or educational leaders to play an integral role in the research process by collecting and interpreting data to formulate the action strategies to address the necessary changes. In addition, action research forces those involved to take ownership of what is occurring on their campus and the practices and processes that need to be adjusted. No longer are the campus leaders disseminating data and programs that "outsiders" have told them but rather they are making decisions for their campus based on their campus data.

I am looking forward to utilizing action research to discover why there is a lack of parental/family involvement at the high school level. Research shows that positive parent/family/community/school partnerships increase student achievement. If this is the case, then why are these relationships lacking at high school? What are the barriers that keep these individuals from volunteering and participating in school activities? How do the teachers feel towards these partnerships? Why is the high school administration not reaching out to the families and the community to create and nourish these partnerships? The high school students of today and the future desperately need every opportunity to be successful both in and out of the classroom. As administrators, it is our responsibility to facilitate these opportunities for their success.