Leadership for Supervision Web Conference

I was able to actually participate in this week’s web conference and so glad that I did! Dr. Borel was wonderfully helpful with the assignment for this week as it pertains to APA citations. I had already tried several of them earlier in the week, but working through some of them together was so helpful.

 

In addition to helping us with our assignment for this week, Dr. Borel addressed our concerns that our site supervisors had not yet received the emails from TK20 with the PISE and Dispositions for Educators Survey. She assured us that she would let us know when the email goes out or she would provide us with alternate directions if TK20 is not able to get them sent out to our site supervisors.

 

Finally, Dr. Borel was very clear on what we need to upload to TK20 by the fifth week of class so that we do not receive an incomplete grade. She also strongly suggested that we get started this week on our week four assignment as it will take us quite a while to complete.

Action Research Status for April 2013

Homework and student achievement…does it make a difference for our students? This was the topic my site supervisor and I settled on as a topic of interest for my Action Research project. After my site supervisor attended a viewing of the film “Race to Nowhere,” the issue of homework and students’ ability to find balance in life bubbled to the surface. Is homework something that really adds value and impacts learning? If a school does not give homework at the elementary level, does that then hinder students when they transition to junior high when they will encounter multiple teachers, homework and balancing extracurricular activities?

 

There is much debate regarding the value and effectiveness of homework as it relates to student achievement. This was a topic we felt I would be able to compile both primary and secondary research through literature, surveys and data evaluation around district benchmarks and state testing. My working question at this time has evolved, thus far, to the following:

 

As a result of viewing the film “Race to Nowhere,” we are left to question what is the impact and effectiveness of homework on student achievement as measured by district benchmarks and state testing?

 

My progress to-date has been slow at best given my travel schedule for my current job. In fact, work on my project was postponed from January through April until I will be back in town to conduct the surveys I have planned. However, a few steps in the Action Plan have taken place. One, the parent survey was sent out and I have reviewed the results from that survey. Based on those results, I have created questions that need to be programmed into Survey Monkey for campus teacher response. I have also created the student survey questions that will be programmed into Survey Monkey.

 

Once the teacher and student surveys are programmed and sent out for response, I will collect and analyze the data/responses. This may net enough information to create a proposal; however, it may require some follow-up with in-person focus groups. I don’t know that it will be realistic to collect classroom specific data on homework completion on this phase of my action research due to student privacy issues and simply the time it might take for me to work with teachers to create an anonymous method of reporting and then for them to actually complete the reporting. Therefore, I may need to revisit my project with my site supervisor to streamline and simplify the focus for this initial stage of the research project. I am looking forward to my travel schedule slowing down just a bit so I can get back on campus and re-focus on completing my project.