Action Research - Week 2

I meet with Wanda Figueroa, an assistant principal at Cypress Falls High School. We discussed several issues during this meeting in a form of brainstorming ideas for action plans. Since Mrs. Figueroa is also the band administrative liaison, we discussed ideas that served the band program as a whole and a few that served the campus. We were able to narrow the list to three possible ideas for the action research.
The first was to research the way in which we design our marching band show. This is typically done in November at the conclusion of the marching band season. The research would include a complete study of this year’s design trends within several successful programs, a complete analysis of our product, a review of what we did well, not well, and what changes we implemented during the season that we did not account for. This project would utilize four faculty members and four consultants on our design team.
The second was to research the correlation between students in L-level, K-level, H-level and AP classes to their TAKs scores. Data research to find passing rates of students in each level of coursework per subject and compare with like-level classmates. In addition, research will be done as to why students are at each coursework level, background information on the teachers that teach each level and those comparisons with others. The third idea and the topic we agreed upon is to action research selections for the concert season. A similar task to the marching band idea, this relates specifically to the concert band setting. This research would be student achievement and data driven and would involve three staff members and the music supervisor for CFISD. Past programs would be analyzed comparing strengths and weaknesses of the group coupled with the perceived success of those groups. Given the current make-up of the concert bands, select appropriate literature for these students that will enable them to achieve at the highest level and be acceptable to the community and competitive arena. This topic was chosen because of the direct benefit to the current band students for this school year and the perceived area weakness in the band program from 2010.