Meeting with my site supervisor-Principal

As I contemplated the thought of reforming or changing my research question, I now think that it would be better to remain with the same question. When I met with my site supervisor, we discussed my plan and he recommended that I continue to monitor this process with the administrator responsible for the at-risk students, even though many actions and resources have already been taken place to improve their test scores at the school level. He suggested that I get with the administrator and look at the data available in our program, randomly select different students to follow their results after all the many interventions have been done, and record the results accordingly. Basically, he agreed to the plan that I have in place, and will support my endeavors. 

Foreseeing challenges of action research plan

As I think more about my action research plan, I can see different challenges that may hinder me from conducting an effective and successful research. Those obstacles may include support from the designated administrator that I'm assigned to work with, access to, and preparation of data. and simply the time to do it, even though this is a project that will be stretched out throughout the program...I also struggle with trying to decide on what the size of my sample should be, or if I need one.
My research plan is very simple in nature; what procedures or plan can we put into place to help at-risk students achieve passing or higher-level scores on state tests? Is that even a worthy research plan? I don't know for sure.

I may have to re-do my question or choose or pick another topic all together. what I do plan on doing is talking to the administrator I was assigned to work with, and monitoring that situation a bit more before scratching the plan completely. Any ideas would be appreciated..

Action Research Plan in Progress...

OUTCOMES	ACTIVITIES	RESOURCES/ RESEARCH TOOLS NEEDED	RESPONSIBILITY TO ADDRESS ACTIVITIES	TIME LINE	Benchmarks/ ASSESSMENT	Revisions to SIP/PIP based on monitoring and assessments
Students increase test scores	Focus group to determine what type of assistance needs to be implemented in order for success to occur.	Prior standardized test scores, interview with stakeholders, field notes, journal writing through blogging, and literature.	Gerald Love, Ricky Nicholson, and Evelyn Ridgeway, Dr. Coleman	Present-August 2013	We will collect student test scores results from the previous year to compare with the upcoming year of test results. Monitoring the students’ progress by looking at benchmark scores, and how students are engaged in the classrooms
Students graduate	Setting up a tutorial program for low performing students
School achieves the goal of making AYP	Have a celebration of student acheivements

Lessons learned from week 2: Action Research

The purpose of my research project is to work with other administrators to assist in helping develop a strategy or plan to improve state test scores. The groups that I would like to focus on, are the LEP (limited english proficiency), at-risk, and low socio-economic students. There are a couple of benefits in conducting this research. These students are sometimes given a negative label regarding their future, which is why it's important to work with them, so that they can feel accomplished and confident in their abilities as a future contributor of society. A big purpose in making these groups a focal point, is to improve the success of the school as a whole to be able to make AYP, which is also a concern for many public schools in the state of Texas. As we all know, scores from special ed and some LEP students didn't count for AYP before, but now everyone's  scores are calculated in the equation of meeting AYP. 

Ultimately, graduation is the goal for us and the students. However, they can't need that goal without having success with the state tests. Our school already has things in place to help these kids, but I believe we can do more to improve the passing rate.