Action Research Summaries 2015

In order to increase student achievement, for students who are consistently not meeting the standards, and for those exceeding the assessed standards, the school utilized the Professional Learning Community (PLC) protocol to develop capacity in teachers to use student data to inform instruction. Additionally, Instructional coaching was implemented to support three teachers in designing differentiatedread more

Students must be able to direct their own learning to succeed in college, career, and life. As have many researchers studying high school and college populations, I found this capacity lacking in my 11th and 12th grade AP Psychology students. One recurring piece of evidence was that students regularly construct incomplete mental models, often distractedread more

Costano, a K-8 school located in East Palo Alto, serves a low –socio economic and ethnically diverse community, of which 65% are English-language learners. After conducting several rounds of classroom observations at Costano it became apparent that while teachers delivered instruction that was of high quality and mostly engaging, they were not providing enough meaningfulread more

School quality across the country hinges on high quality instruction from effective teachers. Teacher quality and development are of the utmost importance to all schools, but particularly those in low-income neighborhoods with high minority and English-Learning populations. These are areas where teacher turnover is high, and school staffs are generally more inexperienced than schools inread more

Much research has been done around the effects of non-­‐cognitive skills on student achievement. One non-­‐cognitive skill in particular, student ownership of learning, has been proven to increase academic progress significantly. At Leadership Public Schools, San Jose, many students were failing and were not demonstrating the skills necessary to improve their grades. This action researchread more

In order to ultimately decrease the Achievement Gap, this study focuses on increasing, specifically Latino parent engagement. Throughout the study I investigated parents’ institutional belief of education, their growth in knowledge and skills, participation in their scholar’s education, and their relationship with the school, teachers, and most importantly their scholars. The intervention consisted of multipleread more

Math anxiety impacts student achievement. Having taught for nine years, I have observed its effect on students in my class every year. While studies show that a number of factors contribute to a student’s math anxiety, the use of traditional assessment is a leading cause. The purpose of this action research, in turn, was toread more

Academic engagement is one of the key predictors for success in school. Disengaged students have a much higher likelihood of dropping out, becoming incarcerated or becoming dependent on social services in their future. Teacher behavior has a significant impact on the levels of student engagement in the classroom. Self-determination Theory (SDT) suggests that when studentsread more

Lighthouse Community Charter School (Lighthouse) is a K-12 charter school in Oakland, California that serves over 700 students. Our mission is to prepare all students for the college or career of their choice, with an emphasis on supporting students through college. We began our shift to Common Core standards two years ago, and participated inread more

In this Action Research Project, students in an urban high school Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish Language and Culture class were experiencing anxiety about producing orally in the classroom. The class was comprised entirely of bilingual children of Mexican and Central American immigrants, only one of whom had been in any previous courses taught in Spanishread more