Action Research In Progress

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.