Schoolwide Action Research: Findings from Six Years of Study

TLDR: The League of Professional Schools (LPS) as discussed by the authors is an initiative of the University of Georgia's Association of Colleges and Universities (ACU) and the State University of Iowa (SUIA).

Abstract: Mr. Allen and Ms. Calhoun share with readers what they think are their most significant findings related to school faculties' building their capacity to be responsive and to make desired changes. From 1990 through 1996, a collaborative research team consisting of university and school-based staff members conducted an ongoing inquiry with two groups of schools that made a commitment to conducting schoolwide action research. The schools were members of the University of Georgia's League of Professional Schools or part of the Ames (Iowa) Community Schools. By 1996, 100 schools in the Georgia network and 11 schools in the Iowa network were participating. The League of Professional Schools is a school/university collaboration designed to support democratic school improvement. Its school renewal efforts are based on three ideas: 1) shared governance for schoolwide decisions, 2) a focus on instruction and curriculum to enhance education, and 3) the use of schoolwide action research to study the health of the school and the results of its collective action. School faculties seek membership in the League and must have at least 80% of the faculty voting in favor of affiliating if they are to join. The League offers its members various support services. Three meetings each year for school teams provide a forum for schools to share best practices and to reflect on their common work, summer institutes are offered on topics of common interest, site visits allow practitioners to observe firsthand the work of their colleagues in other League schools, and newsletters describe initiatives being pursued in League schools. The League also provides access to information from the larger education community through an information retrieval system. In Iowa, a bargained agreement between the Ames Community School District and the Ames Education Association led to the creation of the schoolwide action research initiative. The agreement provided for a district instructional leadership team (ILT), to be composed of representatives appointed in equal numbers by the district and the teacher union. A per-teacher funding allocation was granted to each school to support its action research activities. The ILT arranged professional development workshops and seminars, provided out-of-district and within-district consultation services, and supplied a local teacher as a part-time coordinator of action research. To allow time for faculties to work together, another negotiated agreement arranged for early dismissal of students every Wednesday. History and Promise Of Action Research Why are these schools trying to implement schoolwide action research? Like many other good ideas, such as nongraded schools and interrelated curriculum units, action research has been around for some time as a popular initiative in some school districts. It was a topic of interest in the 1940s and 1950s, drawing largely on the work of Kurt Lewin and his colleagues and their development of a collective problem-solving cycle for improving life in organizations.(1) Today, action research is promoted as a process of individual reflection on practice, as a process to support staff development in schools, as a collaborative process to support teachers' professional development, and as a strategy to guide site-based school improvement.(2) Whether action research is undertaken by an individual, a small group, or a school faculty, part of its promise is the ability to build the capacity of individuals and organizations to move beyond current understandings and practices. In the past, action research was recognized as a tool to improve the health of a school, and the appeal remains just as powerful today. In schoolwide action research, participants live the problem-solving process themselves and model it for their students. They focus on the collection of data to diagnose problems, they conduct a disciplined search for alternative solutions, they take collective action, and they conscientiously monitor whether and how well a "solution" works. …