Beginning Action Research Learning

Cedar Rapids Community Schools

February, 2005

Dr. Susan Leddick

What the District Is Doing

• Teaching teams of teachers and administrators to use the tools and processes of Action Research in order to make improvements in all three levels of the district system.

• Emphasizing deployment of school improvement plans – carrying out strategies that have significant impact on student achievement.

• Using Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) as standardized model.

Why Action Research?

• Compatible with adult learning theory

• Compatible with Iowa Professional Development Model

• Combines learning and improving• Works at any system level, in any

setting• Research-based; data-driven;

system-focused

Our Year in Brief – Three P’s

• Purposes– Develop knowledge and skills for

improvement by completing one action research cycle (Plan-Do-Study-Act)

– Introduce the Baldrige framework as an organizer for system improvement

• Preparation– 3 training sessions, with support between

• Presentation– All-district sharing session in April

Assignment for February 7

• Develop and test improvement theory

• Maintain data collection and analysis

• Document the theory test (and collect implementation data)

• Bring all project data and 2004 CSIP

Status

• Post your work– School improvement goal area– Name of your project – Your baseline data and insights– Your improvement theory– Your result data

• Assign 2 people from your team who will stay with your project to answer questions

Gallery Walk

• Three rounds – move to another school’s posted work … listen to the explanation … pose questions for clarification … note information that might help your team

Back Home with Your Team

• Synthesize the information you have gathered from– Questions asked by “visitors”– Observing others’ work

• Are there actions you should take based on this information?

The Guide to Action Research

3 AnalyzeCauses

4 Try OutImprovement

Theory

5 Study theResults

6 StandardizeImprovement

7 PlanContinual

Improvement

1 Definethe

System

2 AssessCurrentSituationPLAN

ACT

STUDY

DO

New Learning

• Steps Five, Six and Seven of the AR cycle

– Interpreting your results

– Standardizing

– Planning the next improvement cycle

Step Five: Study the Results• What's this step about?

Deciding whether the improvement theory was effective in raising performance.

• What do I have when I'm finished? analysis of your graph(s)—from baseline

through theory test, an explanation of why the results turned out

the way they did (whether changed or not),other insights and accidental learning.

• What tools might be useful? Various graphs, research notes, implementation notes

Analysis

• Look for patterns & trends

Interpretive Captions

• Summarize the pattern or trend in a sentence or phrase:

– “Scores reflect that about half the students are mastering the standard and about half are struggling to understand it.”

– “Scores are trending up for seven weeks in a row.”

Explain Why…Reflection

• Explain why you think you got these results. (Whether you see improvement or not!)

• Go into considerable detail – about 100 words at minimum.

• This is the place where you learn!

Accidental Learning…It Happens!

• What might you have learned by accident?

• What other questions does this raise for you?

Step Six: Standardize Improvements

• What's this step about?Making sure that the improvements you have made become a permanent part of how you operate; deciding whether your improvements could help other colleagues, and, if so, how to share the learning.

• What do I have when I'm finished? revised flow chart, showing how the process works now

(after the improvement), plans for training others who use the new process now and

in the future, updates to forms, schedules, and other documents used in

the process. (Consistency built in.) potential for transferring learning to other colleagues.

• What tools might be useful? • Flow chart, matrix, timeline

Why standardize?

• “Perhaps the most blunt and meaningful question one can ask of any research procedures is ‘So what?’ In other words, ‘Now that we know that there is a higher likelihood of Y if we do X, are we really going to do X or just talk about it?’ ”

• “Without replication, accountability is a sterile exercise in reporting and evaluation.”

- Doug Reeves (2004)- Accountability for Learning

What are drivers and barriers to standardizing practices?

What would motivate people to want to use

someone else’s method if it appears to be more successful?

What would motivate people to want NOT to

use someone else’s method if it appears to be

more successful?

Application

• Predict some of the implications of standardization for your project. Rely on the comments from the prior conversation.

Step Seven: Plan for Continual Improvement• What's this step about?

Deciding how you will focus your next cycle of improvement, sharing your learning, and celebrating success.

• What do I have when I'm finished? a plan for your next PDSA cycle,a brief learning summary to share with

colleagues,celebration, well earned

• What tools might be useful? Nominal group technique, matrix, timeline

Options for the Next PDSA

• Once more around the wheel…

• Shift focus

• Test in a different context

Application

Develop the plans for completing steps five, six, and seven of the AR cycle. Assign tasks and timelines.

Assignment for April

• Be ready to show your work

• …and tell your story.

Telling the Story

• “We’re working on… and here’s how it’s connected to our school or district plans.

• Here’s how it worked before we made any changes. The flow chart showed us that….

• Our baseline data showed us that ….• Our most likely cause for past performance

was…, so we decided to try to improve by….• We followed our plan, collected data during try-

out, and found that…. We learned by accident that ….

• We wanted to expand the use of the improved way, so we….

• We can continue to improve by doing our next PDSA cycle on….”

The Baldrige Framework

How do we communicate the mission?How do we review and use performance data?

How well do we plan and deploy our plans?

How do we usestudent and stakeholder

Information?Are they satisfied with us?

How do we organize and develop our staff?Are they satisfied?

How do we manageour learning processes?Our support processes?

Are our key results better over time?

Better than comparativeschools and districts?

How do we manage and use our data?How do we share knowledge on effective practices?