Action Research Week 2

It has been eye opening this week learning about all of the different types of action research. I also enjoyed the videos of the scholars discussing the important of action research in addition to some actual action research that has been done in their district. I liked when Kirk Lewis, Superintendent of Passadena ISD, reminded viewers to conduct research that is practical. By doing so, it will increase interest level, help you to focus on the outcome and most importantly, students will benefit more from practical research versus something just theoretical. These words have helped me to refine my action research topics a bit. I have several areas that I am interested in. One possible research topic is focused on teacher collaboration and it's impact on a particular content area (science) and test scores. This one is difficult since it would be hard to tell if the actual teacher collaboration increased/impacted the scores or other variables in the classroom i.e. different students this year versus last, etc.  After discussing several options with my site-supervisor, I'm thinking it would be beneficial to the Department of School Improvement if I do action research around a program called Interactive Achievement.  Several of our Tier I schools are using this program in an effort to improve student learning thus positively impacting test scores. Our district is wanting data on whether or not this program is beneficial to student learning lending itself to greater student achievement gains versus schools not using this program.