DPS vs.PRS

Problem:    Harmony schools have been implementing Discipline Point System (DPS) for ten years. After years of experiences and with valuable feedbacks we came up with the idea to have also PRS (Positive Reward System). This is the first year that we are implementing PRS. Since school discipline system based on DPS and PRS I would like to know how effective are these systems. Should we continue with implementing these systems or completely change it or improve it?

Questions:

                   After implementation of Positive Reward System (PRS)

1.      Did DPS points given by teachers decrease?

2.      Did number of referrals decrease?

3.      Did number of students who are getting Saturday detentions, In School Suspensions and Out of School Suspensions decrease?

4.      Does PRS encourage the students to not get DPS?

5.      Does PRS have any impact on student’s behavior in positive or negative way?

6.      Do DPS and PRS helps to teacher for their classroom management?

7.      How DPS and PRS can help the Dean of Discipline to maintain school discipline?

Action Research Plan
Inquiry Question: How Positive Reward System (PRS) affect school discipline?
Goals: I will research the effectiveness of DPS and PRS as a discipline system. I will give feedback to school principal and central office to see these systems are good tools to maintain school discipline or something need to change.
Objectives: I will gather the data from school dean of discipline and central office data manager. I will create survey for students and also for teachers. I will interview three students, teachers and school dean of discipline.
	Action Steps(s):		Person(s) Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
	Creating interview questions for school dean of discipline, teachers and students.		Huseyin Topcu	December 21st 2012/ January 8th 2013.	N/A	N/A
	Interviewing school dean of discipline.		Huseyin Topcu	January 10th 2013/ January 14th 2013.	Interview questions Notebook to take notes Voice recorder	All interview questions and answers.
	Interviewing three teachers.		Huseyin Topcu	January 17th 2013/ January 22nd 2013.	Interview questions Notebook to take notes Voice recorder	All interview questions and answers.
	Interviewing three students from different grade levels.		Huseyin Topcu	January 23rd 2013/ January 30th 2013.	Interview questions Notebook to take notes Voice recorder	All interview questions and answers.
		Creating survey for teachers and students.	Huseyin Topcu	December 21st 2012/ January 8th 2013.	Survey created with Google Forms. Computer lab.	N/A

Pulling out some data from school database.	Huseyin Topcu	December  24th 2012	Computer with administrator access.	N/A
Contacting main office data manager and requesting more data.	Huseyin Topcu	December 21st 2012 /January 3rd 2013	N/A	N/A
Analyzing data from central office, school database, and survey results.	Huseyin Topcu	February 1st 2013/ February 15th 2013	Microsoft Excel	Collect all interview results and data from different database than compare and contrast this entire year and last year data draw conclusion.

What I have learned about action research

What I have learned about action research are surprised me. First of all, I realize that all the lessons in this program are related each other. During last course, which is Fundamentals of Leadership, we discussed leadership skills. One of the most important skills is that the leader should have very good decision making process. During my reading, I deeply understood what kind of process school leader should follow when something needs to change in campus. The second thing surprised me is that the steps that the leaders should follow during action research are exactly matching with scientific research steps. Such as making small group, creating hypothesis, collecting and analyzing data. After that, writing conclusion is almost same step with writing reflection. Now, I believe that action research is completely scientific and vital to make decision that impact student success. Since I am in administrator position I can change the faculty meeting format. Instead of just making announcement we can discuss the school problems with more teachers inputs and model them how to implement action research in their classes. Whenever I face with any problems or any idea come to my mind to improve student’s success I will have small groups with teachers or students and do action research instead of making decision myself based on traditional research.

Educational leaders might use blogs to share their experiences, to collect data, and get some other peoples comments or concerns about their projects. They can also create e-portfolio.