Action Research Update

My action research project is going a little slower than I had expected.  Not only am I quite busy with my classes in school and through this program, but football is keeping me very busy.  Gathering all of the data has been somewhat slow as I have to go through numerous people to obtain all of the data.  This has created a slow down as they are quite busy as well, especially since we are still early in the year, and they are tying to make sure their departments stay ahead of the curve and we stay a school that is highly ranked for academics.  Overall, some of the research I have been able to do show that the program is working.  The program is designed to bring students who either failed or were close to failing the 8^th grade STAAR Math test up to standard.  This is being done by enrolling them into an algebra 1 class that is double blocked for a class that is twice as long as our normal classes.  This is to help focus extra attention on these students and break a cycle of low performance.  In my research I still need to compare them to the general population who was placed into a regular algebra 1 class.  I am not comparing them to the advanced pre-ap algebra classes.  Overall, this action research project is showing me that there are different programs that can be set up to help any and all students reach high achievement.  I could see programs like this being set up for different subjects such as English and Science where students often have problems, especially for the classes that still have the STAAR tests as the school wants to keep as many students passing as possible.