EDLD 5345 :Reflection - Administrator Interview-strategies for recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers and administrators

Recruiting and retaning high qualified staff is very difficult in a rural area with high minority and low income households.  My district has put into place a stipend for teachers that are certified in areas such as bilingual, math, and science.  It is very difficult to keep these high qualified teachers when competing districts are promising more money and better conditions.  My district currently has hire freeze but usually organizes job fairs at regional colleges and Education centers to obtain teachers.  We also recruit a lot of teachers from the North and Midwest to come to our district because our state pays more to teachers.  My district also participates in the alternative certification program in order to obtain highly qualified individuals with college degrees from the business world.  In hopes of retaining teachers, my district has in place a loyalty stipend where you are paid more for every year that you stay with the district.  At this time the loyalty pay is on hold due to the lack of funds.  Due to the current economic conditions it is difficult for any district to hold on to qualified teachers because many are running back into the business world. Many teachers are feeling underappreciated and underpaid. 

I found that recruiting and retaining teachers is very difficult for many districts.  I would try to recruit former students of the district.  I say this because I am a former student of the district and I was recruited by an old principal.  The idea that I would be helping the students that were just like me actually was a deciding factor for me to choose my current district.  The grow your own method may be helpful.  Since salaries and location is not really optional, we must be creative and assertive with our goal of recruiting and retaining the best.  I think showing appreciation to your current teachers for their hardwork is essential to retaining teachers.  Ensuring that your teachers knowing that you value their efforts and commitment could retain the best teachers who just wanted some acknowledgment for their hardwork and dedication. 

EDLD 5345: Reflection on Mentoring Programs at My School

Teachers that are new to the district but not to teaching are usually assigned a buddy to help them better understand the district policies and procedures.  All teachers new to teaching and to the district are assigned a mentor teacher for two years usually a teacher in the same grade and subject area.  Mentor teachers help guide the new teachers with various issues through out the school year from lesson plans, daily activities, rules and procedures of the campus.  Mentor teachers are the “go –to” people when the new teacher has a need.  Often new teachers become overwhelmed with the day to day expectations of a teacher and the mentor is there to help with stress and time management.  My district works with several alternative certification programs who also provide mentors so often times new teachers will have more than one mentor, one on campus and one off campus.  These efforts are put into place to help new teachers have a successful school year and a career as a teacher.

EDLD 5301: Week 5

This course has been insightful in that I have learned the importance and action based research as an administrator.  Action based research enables me as a future administrator to scientifically explore relevance educational topics and solutions.  The literature that I have read as a result to being in this class has functioned to serve as a creative model for conducting and analyzing data.  Being in the middle of my research project, has provided a unique opportunity to develop hands-on experience while exploring a topic that is currently impacting my campus.  

The blogs that we have used in this class offers a window into salient educational topics that are currently impacting my peers.  By participating in this process I not only have access to some of their concerns that may also be relevant to my situation but may also be avenue by which potential solutions can be shared.  Although scientific theory is vital to research, real world relevance is often an important aspect that is missing. 

Overall I do plan to continue this research project and I think by using a predetermined time frame will aid in my being successful. When this class is over and I no longer have set deadlines or assignments that are due it will be important for me to have assistance with dates and benchmarks in order for me to keep my momentum and maintain my focus. 

Adding to my action research plan....Parental Involvement vs Parental Support

We in public schools tend to overly generalize about parental involvement without examining the specific circumstances that may be relevant to each case. For example, there should be a distinction made between parental involvement and parental support.  Many of these same parents are often faced with difficult choices requiring them to accept jobs that will not allow them to have work hours that are conducive to their children’s educational hours.  Though not an ideal situation, many of these parents in between their work duties and other primary  responsibilities that are often necessary to keep the family functioning, does attempt to be as involved in the educational process as is possible and therefore they do provide parental support , they simply cannot provide parental involvement.

Sharing the Process of Research...

“Because you can name something does not mean that you understand it.  Because you understand it does not mean that it can be named” (Halcolm as quoted in Patton, 2002 p.429).  Analyzing, interpreting and reporting of the data collected for this action research project is key to allowing the stakeholders to become an integral part of the process.  By clearly articulating both a need and a plan for remediating the existing problem of low parental involvement and support stakeholders who may have once considered themselves outside of the school process will now consider themselves part of the solution.  Using a qualitative design will require me as the researcher to use methods that are designed to solicit individual true feelings on this topic.  As the primary investigator I will have to move between varying degrees of discovery mode and verification mode in order to understand the phenomenon under review.  After the data has been collected and analyzed, the data will be displayed in a variety of formats (i.e. charts, graphs, PowerPoint) to address various learning modalities.  I intend on sharing my research using my blog, school newsletter, and presentations to the staff, parents and all stakeholders.  Furthermore as I see this is an on-going process, data collection and analysis will continue to be gathered and in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions.    

My Action Research Plan

Action Planning Template
Goal: Increase Parental Involvement and Support on Campus
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Identify reasons for lack of parental support and involvement	Shanaya Kuykendahl; C. Stewart; Existing Parental involvement committee	1/2012 thru 2/2012	Teacher, staff and parent surveys with prepared interview questions or survey monkey	Is parental involvement supported on campus?  What are the effective ways of communication with parents?
Identify what needs to be implemented to increase level of parental support and involvement	Shanaya Kuykendahl; C. Stewart ; Parental involvement committee	2/2012 thru 3/2012	Teacher, staff and parent surveys; discussion forum at parental involvement committee; CD/Book: Love and Logic	What does the data display from teacher, staff, and parent surveys? How effective is the CD/Book: Love and Logic?
parental support and involvement meetings focusing on parent attendance	Shanaya Kuykendahl; C. Stewart ; Parental involvement committee	3/2012 thru 5/2012	Discussion and implementation of new ideas to enhance parental support	Are there sufficient ways for parents to provide feedback?  Are they effective?  Are there other resources to increase parental involvement?
Assess success of parental support and involvement	Shanaya Kuykendahl; C. Stewart ; Parental involvement committee	3/2012 thru 5/2012	Survey Results, Parental Involvement Meetings Sign-In sheets: campus activities Sign-out sheet; Teacher feedback	Do the parents have a clear understanding of the need for parental involvement on how it relates to the campus’s vision? Do they understand their role in the process and are they supportive? 4. Have the parents’opinions and ideas been validated by stakeholders at the campus level?

Reflection of Week 2

I have learned this week that ation research can be used on many topics involving education.  Action research is an on-going process and it is practical versus theoretical.  Aciton research aims to contribute both to the practical concerns of people in a problematic situation and to further the goals of the campus.  Action research is described by learning by doing such as a person identifying a problem, doing something to resolve it, and seeing how successful their efforts were, and if not satisfied, trying it again.