My action research project is well under way. I have chosen my sample classes which will be
analyzed during the study. My sample
classes closely reflect the demographics of our school based on the AEIS report
for Selman Elementary. I feel like this
is extremely important in order for the results of the research to be valid and
accurate. I have also held a few teacher
interviews regarding how they administer the I-Station program (I-Station is
the progress monitoring tool that we use for reading). So far, I have found that a couple of the
teachers I interviewed didn’t realize the importance of I-Station assessments
and therefore, were not making their students aware of how important the monthly assessments
are. They were not aware that this data
is used in conjunction with other data to determine whether or not students may
be in need of reading intervention. I
thought this was strange; however, since I heard this more than once, I now
know that this is a topic which needs to be addressed as we create official procedures
for these monthly probes. The way
teachers approach the assessment with their students could potentially cause
variations in the outcome of testing which could then cause student placement
into intervention programs to be incorrect.
I have done as much preparation work as possible and now I will wait for
final testing results to be published in May.
The majority of my study will take place in May as final I-Station
reports become available as well as standardized test results. Once I receive the test results, the data
disaggregation will begin, with the ultimate goal of determining whether or not
our current progress monitoring tool provides accurate and reliable information
to determine which students are in need of reading intervention.
