Action Research Plan

Extracurricular Activities:  Positive or Negative for Students?

One of the big concerns among students, parents and teachers are students that spend the majority of their spare time participating in extracurricular activities.  Many teachers believe that students who are participating in extracurricular activities are creating an environment for themselves to fail due to the lack of study time, while others believe extracurricular activities encourage students to do their best in the classroom in order to continue participation.

Coaches believe extracurricular participation helps students manage their time, increase their social skills, and help learning all around.  Many teachers don’t believe this because they feel that students could benefit more by spending time in tutorials and at home studying.  They don’t see all the positive aspects of participating in extracurricular activities.

The purpose of this action research proposal is to find out whether student participation in extracurricular activities affects their academics.  If it does affect their academics, is it a positive effect or is it a negative effect.

Research Question

Do students who participate in extracurricular activities have a higher passing rate than students who do not participate in extracurricular activities?

The sample for this action research plan will be all students enrolled in the 7^th and 8^th grade at Pike Middle School. 

Prior to beginning the data collection the investigator must obtain permission from the participating administrators and school board.

The data collected will be a regularly run grade report at the end of each six weeks.  The investigator will be responsible for calculating the passing rate of the students involved in extracurricular activities versus the students that are not involved. 

At the end of each six weeks the investigator will receive a copy of the grade report for both the 7^th and 8^th grade.  The investigator will then break down this data into the two groups: participants of extracurricular activities and non-participants of extracurricular activities.  The study will consist of one school year

After gaining all of the data and separating it, the investigator can then calculate the percentage of students that passed for the six weeks who participated in extracurricular activities versus the percentage of students that passed who don’t participate in extracurricular activities.  The investigator will now be able to answer the research question: Do students who participate in extracurricular activities have a higher passing rate than students who do not participate in extracurricular activities?

If the data is separated and calculated correctly, answering the question will be easy.  It can even be broken down so that the investigator can see the differences of extracurricular participation had on each individual course.  It can be further broken down by comparing genders and races.

The limitations of this study are simply the motivation levels of all students involved.  Some students are naturally motivated and driven to get good grades regardless of involvement in extracurricular activities.  This is a study involving one middle school and consists of two grade levels.

If it is proven that participation in extracurricular activities helps the passing rate, then action will be taken to effectively get as many students as possible involved in an activity.

Education and Blogs

Education leaders could definitely benefit from hosting a blog to keep the community up to date with school functions and to also communicate with parents.  Teachers could also benefit from creating a blog by keeping all students engaged in what's going on in class and to answer any questions that students might have about a particular assignment.

Action Research in Schools

Action research is a very beneficial tool that can help a specific school campus pinpoint a solution to an issue or simply answer a "wondering" or question.  From an administrators perspective action research is a process in which you take a step back and look at the campus as a whole and determine issues or areas that need improvement.  Once a problem is identified then one must come up with possible solutions for change.  Then based on the administrator alone or with the help of other staff members a route to the solution is picked and once implemented some form of data will be collected to determine if the proposed solution is actually the solution needed.  Along the way things might have to be revamped but the whole idea is to keep everything in house.  All ideas and change are created by the staff of a school and are geared towards helping students, teachers and administrators of that same school.
The benefits to conducting action research seem endless but some of the benefits that have been discussed thoroughly include the following:
 
1.  It helps eliminate the isolation of principals.  There is a saying “it’s lonely at the top” and there is a great deal of truth behind that.  Action research calls for the principal and all staff members to collaborate and come up with ideas, questions and solutions together.

2.  Teachers and students will look up to a principal that practices what he or she preaches.  If a principal wants his student and teachers look at themselves and find areas of question that need change then so should the principal.  Action research requires this to take place.

3.  It can help improve current practices at your campus.  For some teachers and members of a community it takes data driven research based on the particular students at your campus before they buy into certain procedures taking place.  Action research can provide reasoning and proof that certain practices are working and need to stay in place.

4.  Principals are constantly being bombarded by multiple management issues throughout the day instead of concentrating on leading a school.  Action research allows the principal time to get away from the endless duties and focus all attention on one issue or question.