Action Research Lessons from Scholar Practitioners

The first scholar I selected was Dr. Timothy Chargois, Director of Research, Planning, and Development, Beaumont ISD. His action research topic was “What are teachers doing to show their ethical responsibilities to students and their achievements?” By performing this action research, he plans to make his teachers “data driven”. He plans to move his district into becoming a performance management group. He believes that this data will show him effective and ineffective teachers. He also wants to compare or find the connection between number of years experience of teachers and to their higher education degrees. He wonders if it shows in student performances. From watching and listening to Dr. Chargois, I have learned that he is a data driven, numbers person. I have learned of the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation grant that is to fund the action research that he is planning to do. I plan to research the grant further.

The second scholar I selected was Dr. Kirk Lewis, Superintendent Pasadena ISD. His action research topic is: “Expectation Graduation” If we change how we deliver instruction, and beef up the core curriculum for incoming freshmen, will it result in more freshmen understanding a deeper meaning of the content being delivered and keep them in line for graduation? With a grant provided through the Bill Gates Foundation, he hopes to see the effectiveness of beefing up instruction, looking at data from elementary to high school, and changing how they deliver instruction based on data. Through listening to Dr. Lewis, I have learned that the Bill Gates Foundation grant is a research based grant. Dr. Lewis and his staff see the same data that the teachers, principals and office staff look at on each student. This seems to be an effective program. Again, I would like to research this grant to see how to obtain one and if it would be useful to my district.