Week 3 Assignment, Part 3
Draft Action Research Project Progress Report
Title
Creating a Benchmark Exam for the STAAR EOC Exam
Needs Assessment
The STAAR End of Course Exam is now the measuring stick for schools to determine if students are meeting expectations in core courses. The need to prepare these students for such courses is first and foremost in many educators minds. Providing a benchmark exam in order to assess progress of students and to help in the remediation process is a critical aspect of preparing students for these tests. This past spring freshmen students took the Algebra I, Biology I, World History, and ELA STAAR exams. As we move forward, the exams that students will be taking will grow into most courses of the core content areas. The ability of teachers to prepare for these changes is very important. My action research project attemped to begin a process to create, give, and analyze a benchmark exam that we created. Data suggests that all students will need constant updates on their progress. The benchmark exam can give students and teachers the assessment needed in order to make adjustments to scope, sequence, and rigor. Our school’s past performance of academically disadvantaged students on standardized tests gives reason to investigate their progress more closely. In the 2010-2011 school year, our academically disadvantaged subgroup scored 16% below all students on TAKS tests given that year. The numbers for Hispanic(12%) and African American(9%) are equally as alarming. There is a great need for better assessment and intervention before these tests are given, and the benchmark exam can be a great tool to begin with.
Objectives and Vision of the Action Research Project
The benchmark exam that was created last spring was given in April to all Algebra I students in the 8th and 9th grade. Their score on the benchmark was recorded on an Excel spreadsheet. In the next several weeks I will secure the actual individual scores on the STAAR EOC given in May. 83% of our high school students passed the test, but I will be looking at individual percentage scores to try to find a correlation between the benchmark score and the actual score for students. My hopes are to find less than 3% of the students that passed the benchmark but failed the actual test. Also I am hoping to find a 10% increase in the passing rate of the benchmark to the passing rate of the actual test. However, I must take into account the passing standard on the actual STAAR test was only 39% correct answers. I used a 60% passing standard for my benchmark exam. I may have to modify my goals once I look at the actual scores to compare percentages instead of percent of students passing the test.
Review of the Literature and Action Research Strategy
My action research project is based on the idea that educators should always be striving to improve student performance. The onset of the STAAR exams have sent many educators into a frenzy in order to prepare their students for a new and unknown test. Todd Whitaker writes in What Great Principals Do Differently: Fifteen Things That Matter Most, “It is people, not programs that determine the quality of a school.”(Whitaker, 2003, p.8) The success of students on these new tests will be because teachers and administrators found new and inventive ways to prepare their students. This was the main factor in the decision making process to implement this project as my research project. It is an area in which I have always tried to find ways to increase my students performance as compared to other schools in the area and around the state. It has been a selfish motivation to put myself in competition with other teachers in order to improve scores. My main focus should have really been on the student. Nancy Fichtman Dana writes in Leading With Passion and Knowledge, “In fact, you probably entered teaching and the field of administration on the basis of your passion for children, your talent for connecting with them, and your willingness to commit yourself to touching children’s lives.” (Dana, 2009, p.41). I was really they only person involved in the decision making process, although some of my fellow math teachers helped to develop the benchmark exam used in the spring. The biggest consideration was to develop a benchmark that would emulate the STAAR exam, when we truly had very little information or practice material about or for the test. Decisions were made in this process based on what was best for the students in preparing them rigorously for the test. The action research project is a process that allows teachers and administrators to carefully consider helping all students in closing the gaps in oppourtunity and achievement. As Dana writes, “Inquiry can be a powerful vehicle that begins your journey toward this goal.”(Dana, 2009, p. 63)
Articulate the Vision
The main articulation of the vision in this project thus far has been verbal discussions with staff, administrators, students, and several other master’s program students. Of course, as I work toward finishing this project and this course, the results from the project will be displayed on a Powerpoint presentation. I have also blogged some of my progress with the project on my blog set up during the EDLD 5301 course. As I work toward a finished product, the articulation will be more technology focused. Articulating the project verbally, however, has helped me explain the procedures and importance of the project to other people.
Manage the Organization
I have had most of the responsibility in implementing the project thus far. Like I mentioned before, several peers helped me with the building of the benchmark. Also the 8th grade teacher at the middle school collected the scores from her students and sent them to me via e-mail. The time in building the benchmark had to be managed, because we were only given one day to find, analyze, and synthesize the questions to build the benchmark. I gave each member of the team a responsibility to help speed up the process. A priority must be given to student safety as these scores on the benchmark exam and the STAAR EOC must remain confidential as I continue the research project and analyze the data in the next few weeks. The IRB policy standards in this week’s assignment provided a great reminder of the delicate nature of student rights in regards to research.
Manage Operations
I have truly done very little managing operations thus far in the project. The development of the benchmark exam and collection of some of the data required some management skills, but the main operations are forthcoming as the actual STAAR scores are collected from the counselors and the data compiled. If it is found that my project was a success and it is possible for it to become some sort of model to be used, then I will need to build consensus, communicate the need for the project results to be implemented, and possibly resolve any conflicts that may arise. The most important time in the process will be in the next month or so as data is collected and analyzed. Priorities must be set, and a timeline should be set so as to move the project along. I hope to use the week after this course is over to do the collection and analyzation process.
Respond to Community Interest and Needs
One of our school’s main concerns is the ever changing demographics and the continued gap between all students and the subgroups. This benchmark project speaks to the need of teachers to constantly assess students performance, and most importantly, intervene if students are falling behind. Benchmark exams are just one way in which teachers can formatively assess students. Our school has not met AYP for two consecutive years and it is always the subgroup scores that have hurt our rating. We must find ways to close the gap. Even if this project falls below my expectations, it still reminds me that we must constantly try different ideas to make a positive impact. As we look at assessing students progress and performance, we must also look at our own progress and performance as educators. Are we truly doing all that we can to make our students successful? Action research and reflection are positive tools that must be used more if we are to close these gaps and insure success for all students.
References
Dana, N.F.(2009). Leading With Passion and Knowledge. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.
Whitaker, T. (2003). What Great Principals Do Differently: Fifteen Things That Matter Most. Larchmont, New York: Eye on Education, Inc.
