8 Steps From Analysis to Action

SETTING THE FOUNDATION:  Some research has been written about after school tutoring.  The results have not been positive in terms of actual growth compared to students receiving tutoring during the day.  (Hattie, 2009) Not everyone agrees about the benefits of after school tutoring (Rothman & Henderson, 2011)  Within my own district I want to discover if what we are doing is working for our students; therefore, I will be comparing the data during one school year between 2 campuses.  ANALYZING DATA:  Several pieces of data will be observed throughout the school year to determine if reading levels are increasing both in fluency and comprehension.  Aimsweb scores, progress monitoring, and DRA levels will help determine to what degree scores are increasing or whether tutoring is having an effect at all. DEVELOPING DEEPER UNDERSTANDING:  Through conferencing with teachers, my site supervisor, and other curriculum specialists I anticipate having a deeper understanding of what the data means in terms of how it corresponds with what is happening during the tutoring time.  I hope to better understand what benefits teacher and student efforts so that students improve.  ENGAGE IN SELF-REFLECTION:  Embedded in each step of my action research is a blog entry of self-flection.  I want to be sure my data is providing the direction and information I hope it does. EXPLORING PATTERNS:  By looking back at the previous years to determine if the same students were tutored, I hope to see patterns in the results of the data.  These patterns will provide insight into whether after school tutoring has and is effective for these students. DETERMINING DIRECTION:  By continually looking at the different sources of data and conferencing with teachers, I hope to maintain the same direction and not let my inquiry into other areas lead me into other directions. I am comfortable with my timeline, my plan to gather data and conference with different individuals.  It may be difficult to determine what worked or what didn’t work.  Keeping focused on my purpose will be important. TAKING ACTION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT:  Through this research I hope it will bring better awareness for teachers who tutor.  By involving them, I hope to get valuable input as to what direction we need to go for our campuses.  I hope they will also see the benefit of looking over data, not as an absolute, but as part of the process.  Other variables, such as time and instruction, should help determine whether what we are doing is working or whether we need to make important and relevant changes. SUSTAIN IMPROVEMENT:  Teacher buy-in is important to sustaining improvement in the area of after school tutoring.  Time is valuable to teachers and by involving the teachers as part of the research, they will hopefully begin to see through the results of this research where improvement can be beneficial.  Hopefully, it will create further inquiry from teachers as well as myself in the areas of gender, ethnicity, and what things should continue and what things should change. Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning, a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis. Rothman, T., & Henderson, M. (2011). Do school based tutoring programs significantly improve student performance on standardized tests. (2011 ed., Vol. 34, p. 6). Portland, Oregan: RMLE online Research in Middle Level Education.