Data Collection

The data collection method or methods used are important aspect of the research. One of the most important aspects of data collection is attaining permission not only from the site but also the participants’ parents. To gain permission from the site letters will be sent to the superintendent of the independent school district in a large city in the Panhandle of Texas for entry into two of the schools in the district. Once permission is gained from the site then letters will be sent home with the at-risk at these two schools in district explaining the research. Permission will also be attained from the Institutional Review Board for this study.

The method or methods used to collect the data will need to be reliable. The qualitative research data collection methods are growing and involving active participation of the researcher with the students and sensitivity to the students in the study. The data collections used in this qualitative study will be: surveys, interviews, observations, bench mark ninth grade math TAKS tests and the TAKS ninth grade math taken towards the end of the school year. In using these data collection methods will provide a better understanding of the students and their needs in math.

The next aspect of qualitative collection of data is the selection of the site and participants. This study will be using the purposeful sampling. The reasoning for this type of selection for the site and participants is that the city has four high schools two that are in vary affluent areas of the city and two that are in low-social economic areas of the city. In selecting one school from each area will give a clearer view of how at-risk students perform across the city not just in the affluent or low social economic. In the table created by Creswell will provide a clearer understanding of the reasoning to use purposeful sampling.(p 214)

Purposeful Sampling

surveys

The qualitative interview questions will be open-ended. The open-ended questions enable the participant is able to state their experiences unconstrained by viewpoint of the researcher or past research results. The open-ended questions permit the participant to form options to reply to the question.

Observations will be used to determine the uses of researched based differentiation instructional methods the teacher uses during a class period. The researcher will spend no less than five class period to record the differentiation instructional methods. The observations of the participants views the number of times the participant request help from the teacher and how the different differentiation instructional methods have an affect on the participants.

bench mark ninth grade math TAKS tests and the TAKS ninth grade math

Reference

Creswell, J. W. (2008) Educational research planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ

Draft Proposal

Talk about having to do several different task the last couple of weeks has taken its toll. I became sick. I had to take off work one day to go to the doctor.

I had kept the poster that I created at the last day at the Track 3 colloquia in Phoenix, AZ. I went searching for the poster for this assignment. I looked in the binder that I was given for the colloquia, it was not there. I had my husband bring in the suitcases that we have to see if I left the poster in the suitcases. The poster was not in any of the suitcases. So where did I was as a safe place to keep the poster so that I could find it when I needed the information that was created on the poster.

I found my poster it was in a binder that I created to keep information for Capella courses. Now I can get started with Unit 3 assignment and discussion.

Problem Statement

When the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was enacted this holds schools accountable for the students reaching grade level skills in all areas of academics such as math. NCLB also holds schools and school districts are being held accountable for graduation and dropout rates.

Purpose Statement

By using Researched based differentiation instruction used in the classroom help students reach grade level in math. With the intervention in the middle school (fifth grade to eight grade) the student when entering high school in the ninth grade will have confidence in all of their academic skills especially their math skills.

Formulation of the Research Questions/Hypotheses

It is not known and to what extent researched based math differentiation instruction affects dropout rate for high school students. How would a Texas Assessment Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) supporting class improve math achievement of at-risk students?

Editing for a research journal

In reviewing articles for either for the research project or for publication the criteria are: the topic, research question, the study group, and the readability of the statistical aspect of the research. The research project select to be review is: The Effectiveness of Out-o-School-Time Strategies in Assisting Low-Achieving Students in Reading and Mathematics: A Research Synthesis.

The authors of the research synthesis searched for published and unpublished researches that were conducted after 1984 which addressed to success of the strategy. The groups of interest are the low-achieving or at-risk K-12 students, the measurement of student achievement in reading and/or mathematics which had control/comparison groups. In order for the research to be included it was coded and the characteristics of the Out-of-School-Time (OST) strategy and the students the research addresses, design of the research and methods, data analyses and findings and the quality of the research in the degree of four types of validity. The research studies were the analyzed concluded using meta-analyses that were supplemented with narrative descriptions. Results with then analyzed to see if the moderators influenced the effectiveness of OST strategies.

At first the search found a total 1,271 citations which were then narrowed down to 371 studies. In using the above mentioned methods the studies were narrowed to 56. There were 47 that had reading outcomes, 33 with mathematics outcomes and 24 that addressed both the reading and mathematics outcomes. The moderators of the studies included timeframe, grade level of the students, focus of the OST activities, duration of the OST program, and the type of groupings of the students. The moderators also include research quality, publication and the score type.

This synthesis is the third annual report that Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL). McREL does research in the area of leadership area of standards-based educational practice. This year’s synthesis focus is on the two areas that most schools worry about is reading and mathematics. The McREL’s emphasis and NCLB’s requirement concerning the quality of research, meant that McREL place all of the results through another evaluation that meet the NCLB criteria.

The study is to examine the characteristics and outcomes of school-based programs that are involved with the 21^st Century programs, the evaluation addresses the usefulness of the funding resource of the 21^st Century grant program and not the success of the after-school strategies. The National Institute on Out-of-School Time is concerned with development of the whole child.

Reference

Lauer, P. A., Akiba, M., Wilkerson, S. B., Apthorp, H. S., Snow, D., and Martin-Glenn, M. (2003) The effectiveness of out-of-school-time strategies in assisting low-achieving students in reading and mathematics: a research synthesis retrieved October 13, 2008 from http://www.missouri/~akibam/html/pdf/TheEffectiveness.pdf

Creswell, J. W. (2003) Research design qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches 2^nd. Ed.

One Burning Question where I am today in the process of moving toward my doctorate

Since I attended the first colloquia is the topic for my dissertation. The one topic that keeps coming up in education is students dropping out of school. Yet, most of the educators that I have taught with seem to think that it is the student that has the problem and not the education system. In all of the reading that I have done on the subject I have come to believe that it is a combination of both the student and the education system.

I have had superintendents that say that they are willing to go out on the limb to change the way school begins and ends. They will have varied starting and ending times that meet the needs of the students in the district schools. After three years under that superintendent there was not a change in the way school started or ended. Now as a teacher is there something that I can do in my classroom to meet the needs of my students.

Now I am close to the end of a long and enjoyable journey I have a chance to make my stamp in the research that I will be doing. My question is: How and if I find earth shaking answers about dropouts and the dropout rate will there be educators that are willing to chance to stand out on the limb and really use the research to make a difference in the life of a struggling student?