Action Research & Teacher Leadership

Convention HallIt was a good day in Houston yesterday.  Transportation even worked.  With a rental car place a short walk from the airport hotel, I was able to rent a small car for $60 (including insurance), plus $8 worth of gas; instead of a $120 cab fare into the city and back.

I got to the Reliant Convention Center a couple of hours early, and enjoy the magnificent hospitality of the central office folks for the Houston ISD before my keynote.  Particularly, I met a Mr. Cruise.  Apologies for not remembering his first name, and I can’t find him in the HISD directory. But he told me about two programs that he is involved in that intrigued me to the point of sharing here — at 4:34 AM 😉

First of all, like North Carolina, HISD is experience the challenge of attracting enough new teachers to the district to fill their yearly needs.  They, like NC, are having to even go the Central America and Europe to recruite.  Cruise is involved in a program to develop teacher leadership in the schools.  They are finding, like many of us, that it is not necessarily the less than professional salaries that teachers receive, that is driving them from the classrooms, nearly as much as it is the condition of the job.

Picture of face with I’ve said many times that teachers choose this profession because they want to succeed.  But their measure of success is not the same as the governments, and they often clash, costing educator’s their professional integrity.  One of HISD’s strategies is to cultivate leadership among the teachers in their school, not to groom future administrators, but to build sustanable teaching and learning cultures in their schools. [Image ((“55:366 – February 28: Teach.” Emtboy9’s Photostream. 28 Feb 2008. 7 Aug 2008 <http://flickr.com/photos/justageek/2300396608/>. ))]

Another program that intrigued me is action research. Educators are being trained to perform research studies within their schools to explore and discover problems and the often hidden causes of those problems.  He told me about one school, that, by most measures was a success, but not a resounding success.  They’d not been able to make Exemplary Status.  They discovered, through their action research, that devoting more resources to ESL learners in grades K-2 would would bring all students up to a more even keel.

He said that when folks at the central office learned of this, their response was that, “We could have told them that.”  But the difference was that the school invested itself in learning the problem, and, as action researchers, were more intune with the probable solutions.

On another note
: I’m sure, over the coming weeks and months, I’ll be seeing a lot more presentations and workshops at the conferences that I work, on writing grants.  Not all — but many of the states I’m working in are experiencing crippling budget cuts.  I’ll never forget the principal of my children’s high school telling us how their central office was mandating this list of expectations, but simultaneously saying that there was no money for them — that you have to apply for grant money to pay for them.  It’s a question I’ve asked before,

“Why has education in America, institutionalized begging?”

It occurred to me this morning — what if our classrooms received all of the resources they needed, by virtue of being a future investing, citizenry inspired, government service.  What if the grant money was going to the students to conduct their own action research?

2? Worth!

3 thoughts on “Action Research & Teacher Leadership”

  1. Thank you for another relevant reason to use action research in the classroom – ownership of the solution and the results thereof.

  2. David,

    I’m sure the educators you worked with in Houston are dedicated professionals with he best interests of kids at heart, but it is well worth remembering that HISD is ground zero for the worst education policies and practices of the past decade.

    The fraudulent “Houston Miracle” was the inspiration for the equally bogus and no less destructive No Child Left Behind Act. Google Houston Miracle and learn more. The only person punished was the whistleblower. George W. Bush became President, Rod Paige became Secretary of Education and Margaret Spellings continues the reign of error.

    Still today, the Texas Education Agency hasn’t found a standardized test or top-down curricular edict they don’t love. Kids and their teachers pay the price.

    Hate to inject politics into the discussion, but we live in politicized times.

  3. Gary,

    You are correct to point out the history of “issues” with HISD. I have worked in HISD for the past 8 years and I agree that there have been many problems with some policies and actions by various district/school administrators.

    However, I would ask you – and others who are only aware of what they hear in the press – to consider the size of the district and to understand that there are MANY intelligent and dedicated educators who give their all on a daily basis to improve student learning in Houston. The press tends to focus on the “scandals” which are usually limited to a small number of administrators or teachers (given the size of the district), and it is rare to hear good stories in the press about the effective and innovative programs that are being implemented successfully in our schools.

    I am certainly not trying to excuse the district for the mistakes that have been made, but I work daily with hard-working individuals who are highly ethical and who are dedicated to doing what is best for our students using research-based best practices.

    I am not always happy with some of the upper level decisions that are made in my district. I am not always happy with some of the campus level decisions that are made. But I work hard to focus on the good things that are happening and I make every effort to support and encourage all of my colleagues who are involved in more innovative efforts such as the teacher leadership and action research that David highlights in this post.

    I was happy that our district leaders had the courage to invite David Warlick to speak to our campus leadership teams. It was a step away from the intense focus on testing that has dominated our leadership institutes for the past few summers. This past week was refreshing in it’s focus on literacy and effective instruction for all students. I continue to have hope that educators in our district will increase their efforts to be learning professionals who are interested in changing their practice to increase student learning for ALL of our students.

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