Action Research Guidebook

Uncover the critical knowledge and insights you need to improve your teaching practice and come ever closer to the goal of universal student success.

"The handbook demystifies the action research process and engages the reader in what becomes a viable, doable, accessible venture."
Giselle O. Martin-Kniep, President
Learner-Centered Initiatives, Ltd.

As an educator, you are committed to helping every single student prosper. The Action Research Guidebook gives you a tool-action research-to uncover the critical knowledge and insights you need to improve your teaching practice and come ever closer to the goal of universal student success.

Blending qualitative and quantitative research methods, action research is a practical tool for improvement where your school or classroom is the laboratory. Choosing the area that holds greatest promise for improvement, you will study your own professional action and make changes within your sphere of influence. Author Richard Sagor, an expert in action research, provides tables, charts, forms, and worksheets to demystify and simplify the process.

Each chapter provides concrete strategies for immediate use. Realizing the needs of the busy educator, Sagor has written this guide so that you can get started on your own action research project after reading just a few chapters. Each chapter prepares you to take the next step:

• Finding and refining your focus
• Articulating and drawing a theory in action
• Determining the research questions
• Building and analyzing a data-collection plan
• Turning findings into action plans
• Reporting and sharing action research

This book provides the guidance needed by individual teachers andteacher teams, preservice teachers in teacher education courses, principals, counselors, and other educators as they work toward their goal of school improvement.

Richard Sagor founded ISIE (pronounced "I see"), the Institute for the Study of Inquiry in Education, in 1997, to work with schools and educational organizations on the use of action research and data-based school improvement while he was a professor of educational leadership at Washington State University (WSU). Prior to joining the faculty at WSU, Sagor had 14 years of public school administrative experience, including service as an assistant superintendent, high school principal, instruction vice principal, disciplinary vice principal, and alternative school head teacher. He has taught the entire range of students, from the gifted to the learning disabled, in the areas of social studies, reading, and written composition. Educated in the public schools of New York, Sagor received his BA from New York University and two MA degrees as well as a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Oregon. Beyond his work as a teacher and administrator, Sagor has had extensive inter-national consulting experience. He served as a site visitor for the United States Department of Education's Secondary School Recognition Program and has worked with the Department of Defense's overseas schools, numerous state departments of education, and over 200 separate school districts across North America. His consult-ing has focused primarily on leadership development, the use of data with stan-dards-based school improvement, collaborative action research, teacher motivation, and teaching at-risk youth. His articles on school reform and action research have received awards from the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the Educational Press Association of America. Sagor's booksinclude The TQE Principal: A Transformed Leader; At-Risk Students: Reaching and Teaching Them; How To Conduct Collaborative Action Research; Local Control and Accountability: Getting it, Keeping it, and Improving School Performance; Guiding School Improvement With Action Research, and Motivating Students and Teachers in an Era of Standards. Sagor can be contacted at the Institute for the Study of Inquiry in Education, 16420 SE McGillivray, Suite 103—239, Vancouver, WA 98683, or by e-mail at rdsagor@ isie.org.