Friday, August 2, 2013

This is my stress free get something on paper rough rough draft. I plan on changing this before submitting it into part 2. Please give me honest and critical advice!!!


Action Planning Template
Goal: In what ways can our school develop a better communication system with our parents in order to improve not only the number of parents involved, but the overall impact it has on student growth compared to last years parent involvement numbers and school achievement?
Action Steps(s):
Person(s) Responsible:
Timeline: Start/End
Needed Resources
Evaluation
Collect the numbers of parents involved with our website last year along with collecting the start results from the 8th grade students last year in US History.

Casey Gray and Philip Bates
August 2013
2013 Starr Results

2012-2013 Parent Website Numbers
Create a comparable spreadsheet to evaluate the scores and parent involvement.
Create Facebook and Twitter account
Casey Gray
August 10, 2013
Facebook.com
Twitter.com
Edline.com
Check for ease of access and that all parts of the sites adhere to district guidelines.
Submit the facebook and twitter accounts to site supervisor for approval.

Casey Gray and Philip Bates
August 20, 2013
Computer and account access
Meet with supervisor to discuss changes or indentify any additional needs.
Go live with these 2 accounts







Casey Gray
Philip Bates
Counselors
PTA - President
September 1, 2013
PTA Directory, Counselors email list, Parent Directory, Connect Ed Phone System, Copier and PA System
Create a checklist of students and parents at our school. Sign off when parents and students join.
Monitor the facebook and twitter accounts – Accept invitations




Casey Gray
All year long
Computer, Account access
Make sure there are a steady number of requests. If not, promote the sites again.
Post valuable information about school, tests, benchmarks, tutoring times, Saturday schools and other educational opportunities
Casey Gray
Philip Bates
Counselors
Teachers with educational information
All Year Long
Test and tutoring schedules.

Educational opportunities schedule.

Extra Curricular activities
Create Parent surveys to evaluate the effectiveness of this form of communication. Make sure they are getting the needed information.
Evaluate the final numbers of parent involvement
Casey Gray
May 2014
Facebook and Twitter access.
Compare the numbers to the previous years numbers on the spreadsheet from first task.
Collect and evaluate scores from 2014 STAAR Test
Casey Gray
Philip Bates
May 2014
STAAR RESULTS
Did the scores improve?  Compare versus last years scores.
Create a final results summary
Casey Gray
June 2014
Spread sheets from both years. Parent involvement numbers and STAAR Scores and Action Research Template
Compile findings and prepare to share
Share the findings with our school, district Social Studies Coordinator and on my educational blog
Casey Gray
Philip Bates
Milissa Pfiefer
June 2014
Final Results Summary and Action Research Template
What is the final verdict? Did the increase of mobile communication networks help increase both the numbers of parents involved and the overall 8th grade history scores?

13 comments:

  1. Your plan is clear, concise, and easy to read. I was wondering about the 8th grade US History data...it is STAAR data you are using in step 1? Why US History (I guessing that's what you teach)? Is the STAAR data you are analyzing at the end also 8th grade US History? That was really the only thing I was unclear about. Have you considered also using Remind101? Parents can get quick info you send as an email or text without having to log into a program.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much for the comment!! I am evaluating the US STAAR Results and I will put that in there! I am evaluating that test because A) I teach it and B) it is the hardest 8th grade test. (used to be easiest with TAKS) but now is the hardest. State results were 65% pass rate and that was with a 48% as the standard!! That means close to 150,000 8th grade students failed the History STAAR test and that means they scored below a 48%. I figured I needed to do something about this!!!

      LOL THANKS AGAIN FOR COMMENTING!!

      Delete
  2. Your plan looks great very detailed and clear. I love that you're using technology to communicate with parents. I am interested to know if more parents will want to participate than the numbers from last year because of convenience??? Great plan!

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  3. I keep kicking myself for not figuring Twitter out. I'm old enough that it's a bit of work to reframe my brain. Have you ever used Remind101? It's free and easy to use...you might take a look. Good luck with your plan.

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  4. Casey,

    Your plan looks really good. I would consider reworking the wondering into a master goal with a sub-goal...just a thought. I read Gen. Schwartzkopf's book in 1994 or 1995, after first Gulf War, and when he went to a new command in Georgia (over 10's or 1,000's of troops) he asked the leaders these three questions before he got there, "What are we as leaders of this post supposed to be doing?" "How are we doing at those things?" "If you could start one thing, stop one thing, and change one thing, what would it be?" I've found this rubric for change oh so very helpful in the past almost-twenty years. What are ya doing now, how do you want to get better, how's it gonna look when we get there? Oh yeah, Twitter really is a good thing...so easy to update a large group of people all at once.

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  5. Your goal seems a little unclear. The plan as a whole looks good. Your steps are very clear. I will be following your blog to see how this inquiry goes because my school definitely needs help with parent involvement.

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    Replies
    1. To determine the effectiveness of implementing new forms of mobile communication networks in order to increase parent involvement which should increase lower socioeconomic students’ growth on the 2014 8th Grade US History STAAR test.

      What do you think about this? I really appreciate your comments!! Helped me a ton!!!

      Delete
  6. I think you would be fine doing the project on just one of the communication systems. If you throw in too many variables you won't know which one made a difference.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Do you think if I leave it as a general statement it will allow for me to keep it more simple (such as) Yes increased mobile networking worked or not. Not just twitter or facebook?

      What do you think. BTW... I love the comments!! make me tweak my project to make it better!! I really appreciate them!!

      Here is my new goal:

      To determine the effectiveness of implementing new forms of mobile communication networks in order to increase parent involvement which should increase lower socioeconomic students’ growth on the 2014 8th Grade US History STAAR test.

      Delete
  7. Your plan is very detailed!! This will definitely help when school starts and you have a million things thrown at you at once. I think communicating with technology is really going to help your parent involvement- mainly for convenience! Good luck and cant wait to see what you find out!

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  8. Casey,

    What you have written is well written and very concise but do a spell check..:) I have to say though that your original question of inquiry seems a bit too general. I was wondering if you should consider looking at how more parental communication effects how students improve including a higher attendance rate, less tardies, and failure rate. Your students might better from more parental involvement over the course of the year but not on the STAAR exam...it would give you a place to look at a smaller group of focus students who did better during the school year but not on the STAAR. Just a rambling of thoughts.. I am sure whatever you do will be successful.

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  9. First critical thought: in your "goal" area - the word "years" needs an apostrophe...

    Overall, I think the plan you have is very clear and can be easily implemented. I hope it gives you an interesting look at parent involvement and its impact on student learning. I also use the app, "Remind 101" for easy parent communication - it sends a text from you that can't be replied to. Comes in handy... Good luck!

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  10. Our campus started using Facebook last year. Most of it was great and the line of communication was increased. Of course, there were a few parents upset because they still wanted paper flyers. Your plan looks great and it looks like it will be fun! You may want to consider changing "...parents in order to improve..." to the word increase.

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