Orangefield Elementary (OES) has been ranked as a recognized campus for the past several years. The school has missed the rank of exemplary because the economic disadvantage students have not met the exemplary standard set by the state of Texas in the area of Mathematics. As I discussed this issue with Dr. Larry Haynes, Principal, we determined that the school needs to bridge the achievement gap in mathematics. With the state of Texas implementing the new and more rigorous standardized test, STAAR, in 2012, we need to take a proactive approach before the achievement gap grows further.
Question
How can the existing technology be used to bridge the mathematics achievement gap that exists between the economic groups?
Sub-questions
- What technology does OES currently have?
- Does a language barrier cause the mathematics achievement gap?
- How does being an ESL student affect test scores?
- Do the economic disadvantage students have a sense of belonging to the OES community?
- How does the teacher/student relationship affect test scores?
- How does the student/student relationship affect test scores?
- What are the effects of not having or having a limited access to technology after school hours have on test scores?
Methods
A school improvement committee will be formed to collect and analyze baseline data from TPRI and TAKS scores from 2009 to 2011. Surveys will be conducted to determine what technology is being used in and out of the classroom, as well as surveying students for a sense of belonging.
Data Collection
- Identify number of economic disadvantage students at OES
- Collect TPRI and TAKS test data from 2009 - 2011
- Collect STAAR test data from 2012
- Survey parents and students on accessibility to technology after school hours
- Survey students on their sense of belonging to the OES community
- Survey math teachers on use of technology during math lessons
- Interview teacher from neighboring district that has exemplary scores
- Literature reviews
Data Analysis
Data analysis will be on going through out the entire project. The improvement committee will make recommendations for change based on the data analysis.
Person(s) Responsible for Implementation
I will be the primary person responsible for the implementation process. However, there will be an improvement committee made up of teachers from the different grade levels.
Timeline
2011
- September
- Initial meeting of Improvement Committee
- Determine number of economic disadvantage students are enrolled at OES
- September/October
- Gather notes from readings
- September/November
- Gather data from TPRI and TAKS tests from 2009-20011
- Input data into an Excel Spreadsheet
- October/December
- Technology Inventory
2012
- January
- Create survey of parents (technology access after school hours)
- Create survey of students (technology access after school hours and sense of belonging)
- February/March
- Conduct survey of parents (technology access after school hours)
- Conduct survey of students (technology access after school hours and sense of belonging)
- Input data into Excel Spreadsheet
- April
- Create interview questions
- Create survey of math teachers (technology used in classroom)
- April/May
- Interview teacher from Bridge City Intermediate
- Conduct survey of math teachers (technology used in classroom)
- Input data into Excel Spreadsheet
- May/July
- Gather data from STAAR test
- Input data into Excel Spreadsheet
- August
- Prepare results and findings
- September
- Share results with principal and improvement committee
- Prepare recommendations for improvement
- October
- Share findings and recommendations with teachers, superintendent, and school board
Carol, I like the sub questions that you have formatted to support and think through your inquiry. It spurred some thinking on my part and the need to think beyond the main question. I have used surveys before and like the www.surveymonkey.com website. It is free and they give you the results as soon as the surveys are completed. If you are not familiar with the site, check it out. If you know of another one, I would love to hear about it. What are existing technology do you already have in place?
ReplyDeleteDo you want to see what technology can help only or are you going to find what would work best with your students? Mary's idea of using surveymonkey is great. Very easy to use.
ReplyDeleteHi Carol,
ReplyDeleteI'm a little confused about what you're looking to discover. Are you trying to use technology to uncover the causes of the achievement gap or use technology to support instruction to bridge the gap? If it's the latter, I'm unsure of how you plan to go about it based on your plan. I may have misunderstood something though.
Mary and Carol - Google docs is another survey admin program. You create the survey in a Google docs spreadsheet and send out through email then when people take the surveys, Google docs drops the data into an Excel file. Pretty cool.
Hope that feedback helps. :)
Have you given thought to how you are going to handle the difference between the TAKS (your baseline data) and the STAAR (your culminating data)? I have had to thoroughly study the breakdown of each for the different content areas at the junior high level and the difference are quite extent.
ReplyDelete