I just got off the phone with one of the administrators who expressed an interest in my action research project. I only had three express any interest at all, and of those three, only this one actually put me with a person who could research the data I need to get started. He was calling to tell me that they have encountered a problem generating the research.
My plan is about the impact of substitute teachers on student learning. I could not think of any way to research the impact a particular substitute made on learning. I had thought to compare TAKS scores with teacher absenteeism to determine if frequent teacher absenteeism affected student performance on standardized test scores. In trying to obtain this information the administrator has run into a problem. TAKS scores for last year are very easy to pull, and so are the rates of teacher absenteeism. However, the computer system has purged the records showing which students were assigned to which teachers last year. Because this information is unavailable, it would be impossible to determine whether the teachers with the highest rate of absenteeism also had students who performed statistically lower on the TAKS test.
I can't think of any other way to do this. Is there someone out there who can help me determine a better way to obtain this research, or am I doomed to scrap this project and come up with another?
Please comment.
