Action Research Project Progress Report
Action Research Project Summary (9-20-12)
Action Research Project: Developing a Points System for Determining Exemptions for High School Students
AR Project Summary (at least 250
words):
The purpose of my action research
plan is to investigate whether improving our current exemption policy for
students will affect test scores, attendance, and classroom behavior. Our
current policy was not very successful last year and I wanted to see if
including more incentives in that policy will help our student performance. We
had a great number of students have to take final exams because exemptions were
only based on absences. Our campus principal looked at grades and behavior as
well, but they were not final determining factors. Most of our students were
not exempt because they missed too many days of school or had too many tardies
to 1st period. We wanted to come up with a more comprehensive plan
that would encourage our students to perform better by rewarding them with
something that means a lot to them. We wanted to develop a program that would
be acceptable to the teachers, students, parents, and community.
At present, we have made some
progress in the development of the plan. We actually plan to present it to the
student body on Monday. We have visited with our student council about the plan
and now we need to approach our campus site based committee with it to make any
final adjustments before presenting it to the student body.
We have developed our points
system that we will use to determine the exemptions. We wanted to deduct points
for the things that we feel are non-negotiable on our campus. Those are the
things that we enforce the most and hold the most dear to success with our
students. We will deduct 1 point for any absence, excused or unexcused, and for
any office referral. We will also deduct 1 point once a student has accumulated
3 tardies. We will deduct 2 points when a student is sent to detention for or
during a class period and also for being placed in ISS. They will be deducted 2
points for every day of ISS placement they receive. If a student is placed in
DAEP or they receive a failing grade in any six weeks, they will not be
eligible for exemption. They will also not be eligible for exemption if they
are placed in out of school suspension.
We are also going to award points for perfect attendance, A
Honor Roll for every six weeks, and for extracurricular participation. Those
things will allow for students to make up for points that they lose. We wanted
to reward points for the things that we feel are very important to not just
success, but performing at the highest level possible. We felt like students
doing things that require going above and beyond what they are normally asked
to do should get rewarded. We want to encourage more students to participate
and give of their time to be part of something bigger than themselves. We also
want to reward the students that make exemplary grades because those are the
things that will allow them to attend college. In this day and age, making the
A Honor Roll in high school is an impressive feat because of the new curriculum
guidelines to prepare for the end of course tests. We want to recognize those
students for their extra effort.
We have also decided to include
every student, freshman through senior, in this exemption policy. In the past
we only gave juniors and seniors the opportunity to be exempt. We are now going
to give every student that chance in hopes of improving student achievement. We
also feel that this will become an incentive for students to achieve on a larger
scale throughout their entire high school career. We want them to be involved
in as many activities as they can handle for as many years as possible. We are
a 1A school and we need all of our good students to participate in as many
things as possible. We feel that this program will encourage and promote that
and allow them to get a reward for their sacrifice to better our school.
We will present that plan to the
site-based committee to see if they would like to make any further adjustments
to it. We will then present the final plan to the students and start tallying
the point totals next semester. That will give us the rest of this semester to
run some trials with the system and get students used to that system of
guidelines.
