PBIS Action Research Plan (Draft)

Goal:
To determine the effect of the school-wide program Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) on the students of Cy-Creek is regards to their academic performance in their TAKS classes (science, math, social studies) and other entities such as attendance, office referrals, suspensions, and detentions.

Hypothesis:
PBIS has had a positive effect on Cy-Creek in increasing TAKS scores, reducing office referrals, suspension, and detentions, while also improving attendance.

Action Steps
1. Meet with PBIS committee to discuss how to create a timeline, evaluation tools, and possible survey questions for data collection. 2. Data Collection-Split PBIS committee into sub-committees in charge of obtaining data. Sub-committees include: TAKS results, suspension, attendance, tardies, detention, and PBIS lesson implementation.
3. Develop survey questioning the students’ perception of PBIS lessons regarding their experiences and thoughts on PBIS and has it affected them or not. Also determine if it has improved the school or not.
4. Data Analysis-Design three to four specific questions to cover the following areas:TAKS Results (Science, Math, Social Studies)
Suspensions
Office Referrals
Detentions
Attendance
Most of our data will be quantitative, so analyzing the data will be easy. Afterwards, in testing our hypothesis, we will plug the data into the computer and produce a graph of the survey. The final step will be to separate our data into the specific areas, generating and measuring a graph. 5. Data Analysis II-This section of the data analysis will discuss the results and findings of the surveys.6. Reflection and Insights-What is the student’s perception of PBIS? Has it helped them outside of school? Does the way the teacher teaches PBIS lessons have an impact on how the student feels about PBIS? Why do some kids change and why do others not? How do we reach those kids who are not affected by PBIS? Persons Responsible1.Project coordinator, PBIS Committee, Administration2. PBIS sub-committees3. PBIS Committee and sub-committees4. Administration, Department Heads, Team Leaders, PBIS sub-committees5. Project coordinator, PBIS Committee, Administration6. All involved in the research project.

Timeline: Start/End
1. August 2010-ongoing meetings as needed until end of project2. September-May activities will be incorporated throughout the year 3. December 2010 for end of 1st semester4. December 2010-January 2011 to analyze 2009 to Fall semester 20105. May 2011 with receipt of TAKS results
6. August 2011 with complete data collection of 2010 school year.

Needed Resources
1. PBIS lesson plans. Collection of AEIS reports, Attendance, and discipline data2. PBIS lesson plans. Collection of AEIS reports, Attendance, and discipline data3. Free response surveys, computer labs, time built into school day4. Surveys, data analysis program.5. Data6. All analyzed data, reflection questions.

Evaluation
1. Reflection on chosen activities.2. Teacher observation and data collections on observations, student surveys, sample assignments.3. Analysis of surveys.4. Data Analysis.5. Data Analysis of cultural perception, group academic activities, and group social perceptions.6. Group observations, sample materials, surveys, and discussions.

Reflection:
How does PBIS expand do outside of the boundary of the school? Are students exhibiting positive social behaviors learned while off school grounds?

Proposed Action Research Study

My campus has recently become a PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention System) campus where the focus is placed on positive interventions for our students and behavior has shown some improvement since its inception in the Fall semester of 2009, however I'm interested in action researching the correlation between the implementation of student incentives as part of PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports) and their effects on how they relate to academic achievement and success on as TAKS scores, retention rates, and attendance rates.

Researching PBIS may potentially improve teaching and learning across the campus and for all classrooms by implementing a more consistent discipline process that is effective in helping students change their behaviors. This program would identify and teach expected student behaviors. It will also offer ways to reinforce and reward those behaviors and enforce consistent meaningful consequences when violations occur.

Action Research and How I can use it

Action research is the process of a principal engaging in systematic, intentional study of his/her own administrative practice and taking action for change based on what he/she learns as a result of the inquiry. This is nothing new to me. As a football coach, I do action research all the time, but now I have a term to call it.

There are a number of ways action research leads to school improvement, as well as professional educator improvement. A list of possible action research endeavors by specific stakeholder follows:

1. Action research allows teachers to investigate issues related to student achievement, classroom management, students with special needs, and motivation.

2. Action research provides media specialists a way to increase interest in reading, utilization of the media center, use of technology for student and teacher research, and collaboration in developing lessons and lesson planning.

3. Action research allows coaches ways to examine and increase their skills in sports, evaluate the effectiveness of their coaching styles, increase persistence and perseverance, and include students with special needs in athletics.

4. Action research enables counselors to study the usefulness of counseling programs such as character education, bullying presentations, student advisement, and career counseling. Additionally, counselors may want to investigate ways to identify students who need advocates, and ways for more effective communication with teachers, students and parents.

5. Action research provides a means for principals to conduct their own school improvement studies related to school climate, professional development, school-community relations, working with parents, curricular programs, student achievement, attendance, and discipline.

6. Action research provides a means for district administrators to focus on issues related to training and induction of new school administrators, teacher and administrator recruitment, attrition, student achievement, curriculum reform, and budget issues.

How Educational Leaders Can Use Blogs

Educational Leaders using blogs to communicate with school stakeholders is an underutilized resource. Blogging has become a journalistic tool. It is a great a way to publish news, ideas, rants, announcements, and ponderings very quickly, and without technical, editorial, and time constraints. It essentially makes anyone a columnist. Blogging will allow more people to contribute, which only makes schools and educational leaders to become more efficient with their own time and money. It is also a great way for educational leaders to communicate directly with school personnel and create two-way online conversations rather than just one.

People can follow blogs quickly through mobile devices or through reading on the internet. They can up-to-date information very quickly. Even if they aren't directly viewing the site, they can get updates from the blog through facebook or twitter.

How can you use blogging to communicate with school stakeholders?

Using blogs to communicate with school stakeholders is an underutilized resource. Blogging has become a journalistic tool. It is a great a way to publish news, ideas, rants, announcements, and ponderings very quickly, and without technical, editorial, and time constraints. It essentially makes anyone a columnist. Blogging will allow more people to contribute, which only makes schools and their stakeholder to become more efficient with their own time and money. It is also a great way for school stakeholders to communicate directly with school personnel and create two-way online conversations rather than just one.

What are the concerns of blogs and blogging in education?

I believe that the concerns of blogs and blogging in education is that you are never sure what you are going to get, or who is going to contribute. Blogging allows opinions to come from anywhere and sometimes opinions are shared that are not necessarily “school appropriate”. Having access to blogging will also allow access to blogging sites that are not regulated and could be used in a wrong and harmful way by some students. Students have to be educated on how to correctly blog and how to identify blogs that are not for educational use.

What is the educational value of blogs and blogging to the 21st century learner?

I think the educational value of blogs and blogging to the 21st century learner is going to be an important resource for teachers in the near future. Blogging is a way to bring the world to the classroom. It is a great tool for not only collaboration with others inside the classroom, but you can also use blogging to bring experts from outside the classroom to contribute as well. It is going to allow for more collaboration, more student-centered learning, as well as, allowing the teacher to expand lesson plans and assessments. I believe it is going to revolutionize the education system.