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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Action Research Plan


Action Planning Template
Goal: Reading comprehension is a nation-wide concern. Students taking college entrance exams are finding themselves forced to take remedial courses because they do not score high enough on these entrance exams. My school is no different than any other, our students struggle on the reading portion of these tests. My goal is to determine and suggest strategies or programs to improve reading comprehension in order to ensure college readiness.
Action Steps(s):
Person(s) Responsible:
Timeline: Start/End
Needed Resources
Evaluation
Determine what college entrance test to use for my research.
(Accuplacer, SAT, ACT)

Jay Ragland
June 4-June 11
2010
Test Scores from tests chosen for this project.
(Accuplacer, SAT, ACT)
This will give me appropriate information on reading comprehension.
Gather baseline data on the Accuplacer, ACT, and SAT s




Jay Ragland

Shana Hallmark-HS Counselor

Kathy Young-Accuplacer Facilitator.

June 12-June 21 2012
Scores from the past 2-3 years on students that took the Accuplacer, ACT, and SAT
This information should provide me with the data I need to compare to this school year we are approaching.
Discuss reading strategies, and discuss new ways to improve reading comprehension  with English Teachers and Reading Teacher

Jay Ragland

English Department

Reading Department
August 27-August 31
English and Reading Teachers
Look at what strategies are being used for reading comprehension and discuss new ideas to try and increase the comprehension level.
Research previous articles on reading comprehension
Jay Ragland
June-October 2012
Look at previous strategies that have been proposed and find several that can be implemented as well.
Apply reading strategies
Implement new reading strategies agreed upon by English/Reading Teachers

Jay Ragland
August- 2012 to May-2013
New strategies for reading comprehension
Monitor the student’s progress by checking on test scores.
Survey Students that take the Accuplacer, ACT, and SAT and look at issues they have with the reading portion of these tests.
Jay Ragland
August 2012
Completed Surveys
Find common problem areas listed in the surveys.
Analyze new test scores as they become available for the Accuplacer, ACT, and SAT
Jay Ragland
October- April 2012

Compare new scores after implementing reading strategies with last year’s scores
Determine if any new strategies may have helped to improve or lower scores.
Survey students to see if new reading strategies helped increase their reading scores on the tests.
Jay Ragland
April 2013
Analyze new survey’s
Compare results with previous survey.
Present Findings
Using data collected present findings of my research.
June 2013
Final research product ready to present.
Evaluation by my site supervisor, school superintendent, and school board.

5 comments:

  1. Your template looks good! I like the topic you are digging into. As you noticed, I'm following your blog. :) Good luck with your studies!

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  2. I like the idea for a project. My only question is whether it would be terribly difficult to research ACT and SAT? What is the reason for only choosing one? Do you anticipate the strategies for the two tests being so different that only one can be focused upon at one time?

    That is the only question I have. I think your plan looks very thorough, and I look forward to following it.

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  3. Your research plan looks great. Very interesting topic that has the potential to have a major impact on student achievement at your school.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jared,

    I am planning on using all three of the tests to get my baseline data. I am finding that the Accuplacer provides the best source because it gives a clear cutoff point for passing and failing the reading comprehension part of that test. The ACT and the SAT scores are a little more difficult to get a gauge on. Schools want a combined score for the ACT a SAT so judging what the reading comprehension level in these two tests is a little more challenging. So I will have to keep an open mind when looking at certain scores.

    Thanks for our input I really appreciate it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wishing you well on your project. I hope you find strategies that work!

    ReplyDelete