Why is action research important?

My whole family is in education. My dad is a principal if a 4A high school in Mesquite. My mom is a principal of an elementary school in Mesquite. My sister is a high school Spanish teacher and coach at a high school in Mesquite. My wife is an elementary school teacher in Mesquite, and I am a middle school math teacher, coach, and aspiring administrator in Mesquite.

I have had many long conversation with my parents about being in leadership roles in the schools. I have asked my dad several times questions like this:

• How did you create such a change and turn that school around?
• How do you get your teachers to "buy in" to the new policies and procedures?
• How did you come up with that idea!?
• What made you want to make that change?
• If something is not up to par, how do you fix it?
• How do you identify the sources of problems, and what process do you take to fix those specific problems in an effective and efficient manner?

I understand that school leadership is not an exact science, and I always thought that effective school principals were just really creative and had some sort of "power" that helped them achieve results when things were looking bad.

As I have begun to learn about action research, the answers to some of these questions are becoming much clearer.

Action Research involves an initial inquiry when a problem is put on the table. Through thorough investigation of data and research of literature on the topic at hand, it is much easier to start to "fix" on little problem at a time.

There is no magic power or extreme creativity that usually fixes problems on a campus. It is intentional inquiry, research, and implementation of research based strategies that improve most situations.

Why educational leaders should use blogs...

Blogging is the 21st century journal, except all of the entries can be viewed by manny followers. This allows educational leaders to write freely about their experiences, share ideas, and get feedback from others. It extends traditional journal reflection to a collaborative experience, and has the ability to benefit many people. Collaborative interaction has always been an effective tool, and blogs help us take collaboration to a new and very usable level.

What is Action Research?

Action research is a type of research that "highlights the role practitioners play as knowledge generators" (Dana, 2009). It allows the leaders the opportunity to inquire, collect data, implement strategies for improvement, and assess and interpret the data according the the original inquiry. The idea is to have the research done by leaders in the organization as opposed to outside researchers analyze the group's data.

As an educator, constant analysis of campus data is imperative to become or remain successful. The students seem to be constantly changing learning styles and standardized, high-stakes tests are always getting more and more challenging. In order to stay on top of the changes in student learning and testing, principals must teach the teachers how to implement action research. Proper inquiry, data analysis, strategy implementation, and assessment of changes are necessary skills to effectively use an action research plan.

The first part of action research in inquiry. Administrator inquiry is the process a principal takes to engage in "systematic, intentional study" of a specific area that needs improvement and taking action to implement and change as a result of the inquiry (Dana, 2009). Inquiry is important because without digging into the data, the principal will not know the areas that need to be addressed.

According to Ringler (2007), there are four steps to effective action research:

1. Defining and Issue to study- this is decided through the process of initial inquiry

2. Review of Professional Literature- that discusses strategies to implement or case studies related to the item(s) in question

3. Take Action- implementation of chosen strategies for improvement

4. Use and Share Results- assessment and analysis of the strategies implemented and the new data

Action Research has many benefits. Conducting action research constantly helps principals stay detail oriented with the day to day maintenance of the learning environment. Education is like a used car, without proper maintenance, little things will start to go wrong. These little breakdowns could lead to complete vehicle failure if not properly fixed. Education is the same way. Action research allows the principals to constantly analyze what needs to be fixed or improved in order to run a successful campus. One of the reasons that action research is beneficial is that the administrators and teachers play the key role in the research process instead of outside researchers. This is often more effective because teachers and administrators know the students and the campus data better than anyone else, allowing the to facilitate, imlement, monitor, and assess the changes necessary to student success.

*Dana, N. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge:the principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

*Ringler, M. (2007). Action research: An effective instructional leadership skill for future public school leaders. Journal of Scholarship & Practice, 4(1), 27-37.