Week+Four+5301


 * The Blueprint of Your Study, Part 2 **  The specific challenges that I foresee in implementing my action research study are the possibilities of student and staff turnover. Once existing staff are trained in using the new motivational methods for first generation students, then changes in staff would make it difficult to maintain consistency in working with students toward positive results. One of the challenges faced by our program in the past has been frequent changes in staff. As students drop out of the program this may decrease the likelihood of their academic success.

Also, the time factor and daily demands of working with students could negatively impact the results.Often there is a window of opportunity in working with a student during any given semester and if they are not willing to cooperate by meeting with their advisor to discuss their individual goals and to develop and monitor a plan of action, then they can quickly slip behind their plan. One way that I plan to address these challenges it to present the information on an annual basis and to make copies of the brochure for distribution to advising staff. We will also begin requiring students to complete their semester plans and mid-term check up with their advisor in order to remain an active participant in the program. I would recommend that we use the CARE model with a small group of retention advising staff as a way of examining what areas we need to focus on to sustain continual improvement.


 * Professional Development**

Something that my director did with our staff when trying to add some internal professional development was simply to print out several articles for us to read on the subjects that she thought were important. She then allowed us to choose our own topic and then very informally present the information to the rest of the staff at our weekly staff meeting. In this way, we each knew that we were accountable to read and present the information to the other staff and to lead in the discussion of the topic. We also had some control over the topic we chose by being allowed to select a topic that interested us. In your situation maybe you could also have the teacher create and share one way that the content they learned about was made practical in the classroom with their students. I think teachers would be more likely to be willing to present to each other in an informal setting rather than in front of a principal or someone in a place of authority over them.


 * Curriculum Development**

Michael, I like your idea of taking a collaborative approach to the problem of creating a standard rubric. I had an experience very similar in that I worked in the social services field and we were required to create individual employment plans (IEP) for our customers. Every career coach had their own ideas about how to write an IEP with their customer. So we were asked to come together to form a committee to come up with an ideal format to use. The desk aid / tool that we came up with included what I will call a smorgasbord of ideas to choose from but it provided an overall outline of what main goals and actions steps should be included in the plan. It was a huge success because it had the collaborative expertise of seasoned case managers and it made things alot easier when training new staff to create IEPs.

and Addressing Challenges in your Action Research Plan
 * Week 4 Assignment - Developing Consensus**