Action Research Plan Progress Report

Action Research Project Title: Parent Involvement using Mobile Communication

Blog URL: http://caseysactionresearch.blogspot.com/

Number of AR Project Documented Hours: 20-25 Hours

AR Project Summary (at least 250 words):

My action research project is designed around parent communication through the use of mobile communication devices.  We have a Low SES population and I believe that if we can communicate with parents using cell phones, we might have a chance.  I have already implemented our Facebook, Twitter and Remind101.  We currently have 48 active twitter followers and 275 Facebook friends.  The Facebook account is what has me the most excited.  I have been posting many school updates and information on our Facebook along with tweeting.  The great thing is that our open house had more parents than ever before.  Along with that, we have many parents asking for more information on this web page.  This communication has really started to change the way we do things at school. We have even been able to communicate with our non-English speaking parents about these tools and they are excited to get involved.  We are going to also start putting translated information on the site as well so we can continue to communicate will all our parents.  We are also having huge success with the Remind101 program.  The parents are really excited to get instant texts about their child’s class.  I now have to work on the data collection part of the project along with continuing to promote the sites.  The final data collection will take place at the end of the year when we receive STAAR results. We are hoping that the outcome will yield positive results showing that increased parent communication will indeed increase student scores.