Action Research for School Leaders (Allyn & Bacon Educational Leadership)
This authoritative, action-oriented resource gives current and future school leaders the knowledge and research skills they need to improve schools by increasing student achievement. The focus on building-level action research gives readers technical background and skills for reading and critiquing educational research, methods for applying current research and research methods, and a framework for conducting their own building-level action research for ongoing building improvement. Based on the belief that an effective school leader is one who constantly demonstrates to staff the importance of research to the school community, the authors show how to: Get teachers and staff onboard,motivated, and empowered. Learn through examplehow others have worked to improved building and education in general. Develop the skills leaders needin their efforts to improve schools. Understand the different typesor levels of action research. Use a team approach to building-level action,use the action research team to dig deeply into the school’s data and identify gaps that need to be addressed, and use the research to incorporate past research into the analysis process. Examine and critiquecorrelational and survey research. Determine the role that the elements of qualitative researchcan play in the action research team’s efforts. Collect additional self-report datafrom teachers, staff, and other stakeholders in the school building by using tools such as surveys. Learn to work collaborativelywith the action research team. Implement the programor plan with fidelity. Gather both formative and summative datathroughout the action research process. Get a framework for using the logic modelas a tool for reflection on the efforts of the leader and the team. Learn from informative case studiesthat depict the actions of building administrators and school leaders using the five-step action research process presented in the book—adapt and apply those experiences to the reader’s particular school situation. (Chapters 14 through 17)