Action Research update

     At this point I am on track with my action research plan.  I have completed some of the research pertaining to the impact of summer school on learning; however, I feel I need to complete more readings.  I have not been able to secure the district data I need to make comparisons, however; I do not believe this is imperative in the scope of the project. 

    In addition to conducting research, I was also appointed summer school principal.  This afforded me the opportunity to control the focus and intent of each session.  Roundtable discussions were held with teachers, interventionists, etc. to set criteria for summer school invitation and identify student candidates.  Any student who was failing, flagged for retention, and/or below grade level was required to attend.  Classroom teachers collected pertinent information such as DRA levels, math baseline scores, etc.  

    Summer school was scheduled in two 3-week blocks with one week off between sessions.   The majority of students attended the first session every day; however, attendance varied widely during the second session.  Because attendance fluctuations were anticipated, summer school teachers were instructed to emphasize mastery of individual levels identified on end of year assessments.  In other words, we did not expect teachers to necessarily ‘move’ students, rather, not let students regress.  Progress monitoring was conducted once per session using running records for reading and a developmental assessment for the math intervention program.  Students took home progress reports at the end of the second session.  Preliminary examinations of the information on the progress monitoring indicated the majority of students did, in fact, maintain mastery.   At this time, classroom teachers are completing beginning of the year assessments.  Once that data arrives, I will be able to compare and contrast data to the beginning of the year 2011, end of year 2012, and beginning of the year 2012.