Using the CARE Model to Address Campus Concerns

This week we studied strategies to sustain current improvements on our campuses and to identify future areas of study.  Based on my completion of the CARE model below, I feel that my topic (New Teacher Academy) is a valid topic of study for my campus and one that will help to address some current concerns.

Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools Sandra Harris, Stacey Edmonson, Julie Combs

Tool 8.1 CARE Model: Planning Tool

Identify Concerns that must change

1. Student discipline referrals must be decreased.  Too much instructional time is lost currently due to discipline.

2. Teacher efficiency and management of classroom duties and procedures must be improved.  Currently there is a great deal of down time between activities and assignments, which wastes instructional time and increases the chance for discipline issues to arise.

3. Various disciplinary consequences (ISS, lunch detention, after school detention) need to be modified to increase effectiveness.  At this time, none of these options effectively decrease inappropriate behaviors.

Identify Affirmations that must be sustained

1. Grade-level teaming within the school day needs to be sustained.  This is a time for teachers to meet and discuss both positive and negative aspects of student performance in order to increase student achievement. 

2. Professional Learning Communities within the school day need to be sustained.  This is a time for each content area to collaborate and discuss effective instructional practices in order to increase student time on-task, and in turn, learning and achievement. 

3. Progressive Discipline Sheets on students who are sent to the office need to be sustained.  This is an excellent way to easily keep track of the number of times and consequences for each trip to the office, as well as an excellent tool to use with parents of students who consistently come to the office.

SMART Recommendations that must be implemented:

1. In the 2011-12 school year, the number of discipline referrals will be reduced by 25%.

2. In the 2011-12 school year, teacher time on task will be increased by 15%, as measured by administrative walk-throughs and evaluations.

3. In the 2011-12 school year, student time on task will be increased by 25%, as measured by teacher observation and evaluation and administrative evaluation.

EVALUATE – Specifically and Often

1.  Regular monitoring of the discipline log.

2.  Regular walk throughs by the administrative team to evaluate time on task for both students and teachers.

3.  Regular evaluations by teachers of themselves and each other to evaluate student time on task.

My Action Research Plan

Based on my decision to implement a New Teacher Academy on my campus to improve classroom management and decrease discipline referrals from new teachers' classes, I have created the following Action Research Plan.

GOAL:  To examine the effect of regular weekly meetings with teachers new to the campus on discipline referrals from these classes.

Action Step(s)	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Research articles and other sources for information related to new teacher performance.	Myself and other campus administrators	March-May	Professional journals and databases, Internet seach engines and other resources	Does the research support a need for regular meetings with new teachers?
2. Analyze previous year’s discipline data to determine number of referrals from new teachers.  Compare with TAKS and other testing data to establish level of student performance.	Myself, site supervisor, and data clerk	May-June	Discipline referral data, TAKS data, other testing information from Eduphoria	What percentage of discipline referrals come from new teachers?  Will regular meetings decrease this number and increase student time on-task to improve TAKS scores?
3. Survey new teachers concerning perceived areas of strength and weakness and areas that they would like more information and guidance to improve their performance.	Myself and site supervisor	May and August	Surveys for teachers to complete	In what areas do new teachers feel they need support and guidance?  Does the data support these perceptions?  Will NTA help to improve these areas?
4. Plan and implement lessons for New Teacher Academy based on results of surveys and information gathered from research on this topic.	Myself and various administrators and teacher leaders throughout the school year	Weekly throughout school year	PBS and CHAMPS information and activities, various classroom management and discipline management resources	Are teachers implementing PBS and CHAMPS strategies introduced and discussed in NTA?  Are these strategies improving classroom performance and decreasing discipline referrals?
5. Analyze discipline referral data for new teachers throughout the year.  Compare with TAKS and other testing data to determine the effect of NTA on student behavior.	Myself, site supervisor, and discipline office secretary	Once every six weeks throughout school year	Discipline referral data, TAKS data, other testing information from Eduphoria	Have discipline referral numbers improved from the previous year?  Have TAKS scores and classroom performance improved in new teachers’ classrooms?  Is this program effective, and should it be continued for future new teachers?

Week 2 Reflection

This week I finalized my plan for my action research project.  Based on my Internship Plan, I identified the following three areas as potential action research projects:

1.      Analyzing the use and effectiveness of our math intervention classes to improve student and campus TAKS passing rates.

2.      Working directly with new teachers to improve classroom management procedures and lower discipline referrals from these rooms.

3.      Analyze test scores, absences, discipline referrals, and anecdotal information from teachers to determine the highest needs students on our campus and work with teachers to come up with student-specific interventions to meet their individual needs.

In discussing these topics with my site supervisor, we agreed that these were all areas of concern on our campus.  We discussed each topic separately, identifying what elements were already in place to address the issue, to help us determine which topic should be my area of research. 

·         With the math intervention classes, we have a regular interventionist who works with our teachers and we will be getting a full-time person on our campus next year to help address this problem.

·         Our assistant principal has in the past met regularly with the new teachers to address areas of concern, but due to other obligations our of her control, has not been able to do this to the extent she would like this year.  Each new teacher has a campus mentor, but because they are teachers as well, it is difficult for the mentors to be in new teachers’ classrooms to see what areas need to be addressed.

·         Data analysis is very important on our campus.  Our teams already do a great job of looking at this information to identify areas of need with our students.  Our district has also implemented new software that makes compiling all this data quick and easy. 

After identifying these factors, we determined that working with the new teachers would be the most beneficial topic to our campus and would provide me with the most information for discussion and analysis.  The other two topics are important as well and ones that I want to be involved in, but due to the supports already in place for them, would probably not yield as much new information.  Therefore, the topic of my action research project will be, “Does conducting regular meetings with new teachers to address classroom management and discipline procedures result in an improvement in classroom performance for students and a reduction in office referrals?”