Goals and Expectations

All educators are challenged with the issue of ensuring that their students remain highly motivated in their classroom activities. The lack of motivation is one of the major reasons that cause students to drop out of school. This makes it necessary for the education system to ensure that their students remain highly motivated to participate in the process of learning, through both external and internal resources. The goal and expectations for this action research is to ensure that at least 75% of the students in Drew Charter School Junior academic are passing all of their classes with a 70% or higher each semester and on a yearly basis. This is based on the concern that many students in the academy are unmotivated to learn and have dropped out mentally from the educational system.

Expected Outcomes

The following are the expected outcomes for this study

• Grades on assignments: The performance and grade obtained during specific assignments will be used as indicators for improved motivation.
• Test scores: Scores in tests will also be examined to identify performance trends that indicate trends in motivation levels as well as the retention of content for an extended period.
• Report card grades: This will also indicate performance trends of the learners over an extended period.

Chapter III – Kelsey Cleveland

Goals

The goal of this study is for 80% of world history students to turn in their assignments on time and raise their grade in the class.  The purpose of this study is to understand why students are not turning in their homework and change their behavior so that they are turning in their homework on time.  By not turning in their assignments, student’s grades are affected greatly.  Many students who are missing five or more assignments are failing the class.  At the end of the study, students will turn in their homework on time and will raise their grade from an F to a passing grade.

Expected Outcomes

            Several specific outcomes will be achieved by students who are performing at or below a C grade in their World History class.  By the end of the study, three outcomes will be present once all solutions have been implemented.  The first outcome involves students’ grades on their daily work and homework.  The second outcome involves the percentage of homework each student will complete in a semester.  The final outcome concerns students’ grades on their report cards at the end of each semester.

Once the solutions have been implemented, no less than 39 out of 41 (95%) of students will receive passing grades (70% and above) on all daily work and homework.   When given assignments in class or work to take home, students will complete that assignment with no less than a 70% competency rate.  This means that students will complete the entire assignment and will get 70% or more of the assignment correct.  By doing this, students will be able to raise their grades by receiving higher grades on their assignments.

The second outcome is that no less than 39 out of 41 (95%) of students will complete an average of 85% of their homework as recorded by the classroom teacher.  The classroom teacher will record each assignment given to the students in the grade book.  At the end of each semester it will be calculated to determine if each student completed and turned in 85% of the homework assignment assigned during that grading period.   Every two weeks a progress report will be given to the students in order to ensure that all students know what assignments were given to the class and which assignments they may be missing.  This will keep every student aware of their grade and allow them to make up any assignment that they may have missed or failed to turn in.

By the end of the study, the final outcome from the implementation of the solutions is that no less than 39 out of 41 (95%) of students will earn a passing grade on their semester report card  (Pass/C or above) in their World History class.  At the present time, students that are missing five or more assignments are failing their history class.  Because of the lack of assignments turned in, students’ grades are being affected greatly. By turning these assignments, their grades will raise from a failing grade to a passing grade.  From the evidence shown in previous sections, students are not failing the class due to a lack of competency, but are failing because they are not turning in their assignments.  Once this problem changes, the outcome will show that by turning in these assignments, the students who are failing will receive passing grades as long as they are turning in assignments are receive passing grades on those assignments.

Chapter III:  Outcomes and Analysis – Laura Schons

Goals and Expectations:

The goal of this study was to increase significantly the number of students who make benchmark goals in the area of phonics skills in kindergarten students through the use of visual phonics.

Expected Outcomes:

There are two specific outcomes for kindergarten students receiving visual phonics lessons.

First, that students in the experimental group will score 20% higher than those in the control group on

classroom assessment skill sheets in the area of phonics (letter naming, letter sounds and rhyming

words).  Second, students in the experimental group will score 20% higher than those in the control

group on AIMS web assessments.

The hard of hearing student will score no more than 2% lower than the mean score of the experimental group.

Chapter III: Outcomes and Analysis-Sharondo Houston

Goals (Expectations)

The goal of this study is to increase the number of successful readers in fifth grade.  If a student is reading three years or more below grade level the goal would be to decrease the gap by at least one year.  If a student is reading two years or less below grade level the goal would be to decrease the gap by at least one-year or to get the student on grade level.  The participants in this study will have a better understanding of reading and what it means to reads.

Expected Outcomes

“The school which can identify a problem that is endemic within it must attack the problem in a more concerted way than the reading problem” (Shurman, 2006, p. 219).  The fifth grades students who read below grade level will decrease the gap in his or her reading levels by at least one year.  Every student should be able to read a short passage or book at a higher grade level by the end of this study.  Students should have more comfort and confidence in his or her ability to read independently, privately with peers, or in a small group.  The writer plans to achieve four expected outcomes from this action research:

1. At least 20% of the struggling readers in fifth grade reading gap will decrease.
2. Approximately four students, which are the, 10% of the 38% will be reading on grade level by the end of the academic school year.
3. Approximately four students, which are the 13% of the 29% will be reading only one-year below grade level by the end of the academic school year.
4. Approximately four students, which are the 25% of the 16% will be reading only two years below grade level by the end of the academic school year.

A total of 103 fifth grade students were assessed and out of the 103 grade students 62 of the students cannot read materials on grade level.  Table 4 in Appendix D illustrates the current number of struggling students.  The expected outcome for the research is to have at least 20% of the struggling readers in fifth grade reading gap will decrease by at least one grade.  The plan is to have at least 12 out the 62 students reading one grade level closer to fifth grade.  Table 5 in Appendix E illustrate the planned outcome after all data is analyzed

Approximately four students, which will be, 10% of the 38%, will be reading on grade level by the end of the academic school year.  These are the students who read on a fourth grade level but are currently enrolled in fifth grade.  These students will learn the appropriate reading skills for learner starting with the fourth grade reading curriculum.  The students will learn the comprehension skills needed to understand a passage written on fifth grade level.  The students will learn the integrated fourth grade reading curriculum along with the fifth grade curriculum to achieve the expected outcome.

Approximately four students, which will be, 13% of the 29%, will be reading only one-year below grade level by the end of the academic school year.  These are the students who currently reading on a third grade reading level but are currently enrolled in the fifth grade.  The students will learn strategies to improve his or her comprehension skills.  The students will learn to decode words that may be hard to pronounce.  The students will learn to use context clues to understand the meaning of a word or words found in a reading passage.

Approximately four students, which will be, 25% of the 16%, will be reading only two years below grade level by the end of the academic school year.  These are the students who read on a second grade or lower grade level but are currently enrolled in fifth grade.  The students will learn to recognize sight words starting at his or her reading level.  The students will learn the basic skills needed to decode words.  The students will learn to retell or act out a story are reading passage to improve his or her comprehension skills.     

Chapter III: Outcomes and Analysis-Pam Sanders

Goals

All standardized tests will be student centered locating students within their own culture; so that they can relate socially and psychologically.

Expected Outcomes

The infusion of African American and other minorities cultures content into the curricula, will show year to year progress on high stakes tests.

1. Increase in tests scores of 85% of African Americans
2. No more than 15% of African American students will perform at the lowest level on state exams
3. No more than 20% of Hispanics students will perform at the lowest level on state tests.
4. Decrease in number of schools being put on academic probation or receiving the letter grade of F.
5. Increase in percentage of school district making annual yearly progress (AYP)

6. Increase in school district’s graduation rate.