EDLD 5301 Research Class Reflections:

This research course was a very informative course.  I learned a lot of new action research skills that I plan to use throughout my career as an administrator.  What I am mostly excited about is my current action research project and how implementation of these skills will make it very profitable to our students. Even though I foresee some potential challenges due to the broad scope of my project, continued communication will my site supervisor and the ability to fall back on my resources (blogs, discussions, textbook, etc.) should culminate this action plan into one that will move our campus to a higher level of success.  The ability to share ideas was a great tool to use when I was trying to solidify a topic for my action research plan.  Even though I had an idea for my action research, my colleagues helped me to see the high level of importance of it and they encouraged me to stay focused on the goal. The action research blogs and discussion board were great venues for sharing.  From these two resources, I was able to quickly and easily dialog with my colleagues and receive some positive feedback that effectively helped to make my action research plan a success.  Also, the blogs will allow for ongoing discussions and communication after the discussion board is closed.  Reflection is a key for leadership success and absolutely necessary for professional growth.  I received some very good feedback on my assignments and was able to look back and reflect on my assessment of what I had learned. As I reflected about the pros and cons of my action research, I realized the importance of data collection and analysis in a successful research project. I feel these two pieces of the process are the foundation and the research will only be successful if done by following the steps taken in this course.  Aspiring administrators, teachers, and students can use action research to build successful social and academic growth on their campuses.

Site Supervisors Review of my Action Research Plan

I met with Ms. Muzzicato to discuss my action research plan.  She is very excited about my research and is anxious to see the outcomes.  We both feel that student achievement at all levels education and socio-economic status is a direct correlation with parent involvement.  But, the research is going to provide educators and administrators ways improve parent involvement and thus increase student success in the classroom. We discussed my possible challenges (1) assembling the group of members for my action research committee because it’s a busy time for teachers and the possible lack in passion for the project, (2) making sure that we get an equally likely and fair sample of the student population. At this time, we agreed not to make any changes to the initial action research plan until after the campus in-service ends on August 24.  This will give me an opportunity to provide some professional development so that the perspective participants can see the benefit of the research and hopefully buy-in. During this time, I can also discuss the scope and sequence of the project and attain some feedback on ways to scale down the scope if needed. I left the meeting feeling very good about the prospect of the research.  I felt supported by Ms. Muzzicato and this will allow me to press on even when the project becomes difficult or has potential snags.