The PLAN...

The goals of this action research project will be to improve upon the PLC meetings with regard to the use of disaggregated data analysis to improve student achievement. Through collaboration during PLC meetings, the issue of common assessment data analysis will be addressed and defined as an area of concern. The use of data should be to improve student learning and achievement through strategically enhanced lesson planning. By looking at the weak or inefficient areas of the meetings, the researcher can better facilitate professional growth.

Participation in my core curriculum PLC will be the main activity conducted for this action research project. Common assessments are required once each 6 weeks and will lay the foundation for collecting data through a program that can show the teachers within the PLC, by TEKs, how their students are performing. They can then look at the level of question, the objective and the individual student and try to better understand the error. From this analysis the teachers can share successful lesson plans and learn from one another. This also allows for re-teaching of difficult objectives. The disaggregation of data will allow for the educators to design better lessons plans as they learn from one another and reflect on their perceptions of professional practices.

The second aspect to the action research plan will be to observe a PLC from another subject area. Cross-curricular PLC observations, surveys and interviews will provide further insight into the productivity and use of this time. The 8^th grade English team has agreed to allow me to observe their use of PLC time as well as the process in which they use the relevant data to further develop the quality of lessons delivered to students.

The school has currently purchased a new program called Aware that allows the teachers to input the question, answer, TEK, and then can run the student answer scantron to see their individual scores. This allows the teacher to see the exact TEK that gave the students problems. The same program will disseminate the data and provide insight into the actual breakdown between teachers. This will help in the collaborative aspect of this project. Through meaningful discussions and sharing the team can then improve upon existing lesson plans or design new and effective activities.

I will complete the project after several PLC meetings throughout this year and into the following school year. The PLC meetings occur each week and will require extensive research both through observations and through research outside of the PLC groups.

The 7th grade science team (consisting of myself, Joe Mikulas and Kathy Coleman, the 8th grade English team (led by Ann Prados), administrators (Jeff Stocks and Marsha Dufner) and the instructional coaches (Stephanie Montez and Nina Anderson) are all going to aid in the action research project. They are going to actively participate in the meetings, allow for observations and will be interviewed throughout the process.

Through the use of surveys, observations and interviews the progress can be monitored closely. Periodic surveys will allow for assurance that the project is relevant and meaningful. It will also ensure that the alignment and direction remains rooted in the initial objectives and purpose.

The assessment tools will include the Aware program and will allow for individual student progress to be charted. Objectives that were difficult can be retested and further analyzed. Reflection upon the collected data will further assess whether the implementation of deep analysis is effective in increasing student achievement and performance.