Draft Action Research Project Progress Report

                            The Possibility of Improving Student Achievement through

Successful Staff Development Practices

Katy Azanza

 

With the increase of expectations on students and teachers, a new level of stress in the workplace is effecting education. Teachers on my campus are searching for ways to improve their teaching and increase student achievement. The district and campus administration offer and encourage teachers to improve themselves and their teaching practices through various staff development opportunites. These may take place during faculty meetings, inservice days, after school, or during the summer. However, the attendance and participation during required and optional trainings was disappointing and discouraging. While the trainings have positive intended outcomes for teachers and students, they were not always engaging enough to reach the set goal. Teachers on my campus desired staff development opportunites they could take back to their classrooms and try out. I chose to survey teachers following summer trainings to gather information on the effectiveness of the sessions attended. I interviewed several Instructional Coaches who led some of these sessions to discuss the results of their individual surveys. I was able to find varying levels of teacher engagement through different staff development practices. This led to my question: How can effective staff development increase student achievement?

My vision is that we will find areas where the staff development is either vigorous and we can perpetuate to build on it, or that in impuissant areas we can adjust our practices so that the teachers and students benefit. My orchestration is to design the survey in such a way as to quantify the construal and engagement of the faculty to address strengths and weaknesses and develop an orchestration to ameliorate staff development.

The current research surrounding the topic of staff development focuses on the way adults learn best. “Effective approaches to teacher development mirror what we know about learning; they are continuous, build on learners' current knowledge and skills, and include sufficient intensity and practice that new learnings can become part of teachers' ongoing practice” (Loucks-Horsley et al. 1987). Keeping this in mind, when conducting my research I need to examine the various types of staff development that would best fit the way teachers on my campus learn. Teacher learning will ultimately lead to an increase in student learning and achievement.

When my Action Research project is complete, I will have data to present to administrators, counselors, and faculty that will hopefully increase understanding of effective staff development practices that lead to incremented student achievement. In integration, all faculty can be updated and enlightened on how they can utilize trainings to become a better educator. With the various types of practice when conducting staff development,  our administration will become cognizant of the staff development that works best on our campus.

When organizing the implementation of the project, I needed to ascertain that I would get as much feedback as I could to collect adequate data. Surveying the campus was the most efficient way to accumulate information following a staff development. I consulted my site-supervisor and team when deveveloping the questions for the surveys, and made adjustments to questions after acquiring the first round of results. In some cases, I interviewed staff members and took notes. This was a great way to acquire a feeling for the emotions involved towards the subject. During faculty meetings, trainings, and other staff development opportunites I took detailed notes regarding the agenda. I then utilized these notes to create a survey targeted toward the attendees. In addition, I saught out teachers who had previously taken away learning experiences from a staff development and implemented them into their classroom. This will provide me with some data of student achievement. I plan to compare this data to other classrooms or previous years.

I used data to lead this project. Our needs assessment clearly showed that something had to be done to improve the staff development practices on campus. I brought this need to the attention of my Principal and Assistant Principal. Once we agreed on the need, they were excited to have data that could lead to improvements and student achievement. I took suggestions by the administration and faculty members to create a plan and goal for my project. By communicating with the staff about the target of the research, I gained support and personal investment in the project.

Staff development opportunites are designed to increase student achievement and teacher expertise; therefore, all students, including those with diverse backgrounds are included.  The data collected in the action research will address the needs of our students and assist faculty in meeting those needs by giving us the knowledge to expand our learning experiences through effective staff development.

References:

Loucks-Horsley, S., C. Harding, M. Arbuckle, C. Dubea, M. Williams, and L. Murray. (1987). Continuing to Learn: A Guidebook for Teacher Development. Andover, Mass.: The Regional Laboratory for Educational Improvement of the Northeast and Islands, and Oxford, Ohio: The National Staff Development Council.