A QUICK VIEW

Context

Seventy percent of our student body is considered at risk which classifies my school as Title 1. A large portion of our students are in need of assistance at school and at home. Our student’s parents are usually not home when their children get there and they are normally gone or asleep when our students are getting ready for school. Many of our students are being raised by their older brothers and sisters who are not much older than they are. In my school the mistreatment amongst peers is very evident and even at times more evident to the students in the school but out of sight of the teachers. The Safe School Ambassadors program (SSA) will focus in on the students who have more clout with their fellow peers and train them to use nonviolent communication and intervention skills to prevent, de-escalate and stop mistreatment among their peers. This will hopefully decrease AP/Counselor Referrals as well as decrease the tardiness to classes and Truancy percentage of our student body.

Target

My target will be 70 students who will go through the SSA two day training and continue through the year in small family groups lead by two family facilitators (Staff Members). The student ambassadors will target the whole student body over a period of eight months.

Sample Selection

The faculty has been asked to give recommendations to the counselor of students they feel have a major impact on our student body. These names that are given are then looked at by the counselors, family specialist, ISS monitor, and our administrators. Seventy names are decided on to participate in the student ambassador program. Once the two day training has taken place then the family group facilitators select their group of seven to ten students who will reside in the family group for the remainder of the year. These groups will meet on a bi-weekly time frame.

Sample Size

Starting out small to see if the program makes an impact is kind of where my school has started. The data collected from this group of seventy students should give us a better insight as to the students concerns on our campus. Knowing the culture of our students and getting feedback from them as their fears should help us to make a better decision to help our student’s climate and feeling of safety. We would like to administer this program to the whole campus but it is too early and costly at this time to do so. Mini “cliff note” version assemblies to show our whole students body are being worked on at this time. Eventually we want to have all the students trained in the SSA strategies but for now the sample size is on a lower scale.

Research Description

The student ambassadors will be placed in a family group of about seven to ten students. These family groups will be run by family group facilitators. They will conduct a bi-weekly meeting with these students and document information given within the group time. The information given is strictly confidential to the group unless the facilitator has to act according to law and notify the appropriate people. The student ambassadors are notified of this during their very first meeting so not to have any surprises when some information has to be released to the appropriate people. They are also notified of the confidentiality policy as well. The student ambassadors have to keep an action log of any situations they took the role of an ambassador in. These logs state the situation, what actions the student took and what the outcome was with the situation. This will be the data I will use to narrow down the tardiness, AP referrals and counselor referrals. This should also enlighten us about any other situations being conducted on the campus that we are not aware of or have not been able to catch in the act. We hope to also decrease the amount of truancy’s on our campus to where the students want to come to school.

Insight Into My Action Research

The purpose of my action research is to glance into the roles that students play with their peers. I will be taking an "inside out" approach, which harnesses the power that students have to change things from within and puts them at the center of the solution. The students are typically the first responders on the scene of mistreatment and violence, and can intervene in ways adults can't. While adults may make and enforce the rules at school, students create and maintain the social norms that allow peer mistreatment to happen. As a result of implementing the Safe School Ambassador program, I will be looking for a reduction in violence, mistreatment and tension among students. I will also be looking for a reduction in tardies, truancies, AP referrals and Counselor's referrals.

The significance of my proposed action research study is to try and alleviate the number of referrals to the Assistant Principals office and also to the Counselor's office for mediations. To build student pride within the school setting. To make the students feel safe at school so they want to come to school. The data collected from my research hopefully should assist in giving some insight to our administrators and counselors validating the core focus of the state of affairs on our campus with our student body. To delve into the main concerns that our students are expressing is a major priority. The student ambassadors will fill out action logs of situations where they used the tools given to them and what the outcome was to using those tools. These logs should give some insight on student referrals, situations occurring on campus and also student's reasons for truancy and tardies.

I have learned over the course of this week that action research is strongly needed in the school system. Many things have to be taken into consideration, like student confidentiality, but the accumulation of data and collaboration to come to a viable solution for many issues on the campus is needed.

Educational Uses of Blog's

Now days many administrators are using blog's to communicate with their staff. One on one meeting are always better for learning but when that is not possible the blog is the next best thing. Administrator's can use blog's to help aleviate frustration for some teachers. Blogging about helpful strategies and the how to's can be very helpful for a quick reference. Blog's can also be helpful in building morale within the staff. The blog's are also used to reflect on responses given in the blog prior to that day.

Action Research Uses

Action research is an inquiry used to focus on the concerns of the practitioner, and engages practitioners in the design, data collection, and interpretation of data around their question.(Carr and Kemmis 1986) Action inquiry is meant to create questions which lead to theories. These theories create research and collaboration to investigate possible problems. Once the problems are determined then implimenting action strategies to incite possible change and evaluating their effectiveness. The key goal of action research is intended to bring about change of some kind. The use of collaboration from multiple parties of interest makes for more informative data  to build stronger strategies and ideas for improvement or to better understand what works. The use of action inquiry can be used in many ways within the schools. From the biggest issues like safety of all students in our school, building the morale of the faculty, working on wellness initiatives for our students and faculty, and attendence rates to the small issues like which side of the hallway to walk down or what stairwell should be used and in what direction. I feel that the collaboration of many will help to create change that everyone will embrace and uphold. The action research is a tool to help organize and build the steps to making changes effective.