How did I get from there....to my action research topic?

One of the few good things to come out of restructuring due to budget cuts was the integration of almost all of the compensatory education programs into the department of curriculum and instruction.  In my interview for the Math Intervention Specialist position last April, I was extremely passionate about continuing the work the math curriculum department had done up to that point in clearly articulating their beliefs, guiding principles, and best instructional practices. My philosophy is that you have to know what good Tier I instruction students have received before you can carefully align and provide Tier II interventions to help all students experience success. According to Riccomini and Witzel (2010) I was definitely on the right track; I got the job and now have the opportunity to collaboratively develop a systematic intervention plan for mathematics and update the RtI manual for the district.  My “wondering” about how best to go about accomplishing this task and exposure to the IES report through several MSTAR trainings led to the following action research topic:

In what ways will implementing the recommendations in the Institute of Educational Science’s (IES) practice guide, Assisting Students Struggling With Mathematics: Response To Intervention (Rti) For Elementary And Middle Schools, increase math performance in KISD?

Using the IES as a framework for structuring our intervention program led to the following sub-questions:

• In what ways will an online book study of Response to Intervention in Math (Riccomini & Witzel, 2010) help clarify the IES recommendations and support teachers providing the interventions?
• In what ways does the math intervention budget support the recommendations in the IES report?
• In what ways can resources and strategies by aligned, yet differentiated, between Tier I and Tier II?
• In what ways will the data from the Universal Screener provided through Project Share/TMSDS be used to make intervention decisions?
• In what ways will providing an explicit and systematic approach to problem solving impact student achievement?
• In what ways will practicing fact fluency ten minutes per session impact student achievement?

References

Gersten, R., Beckmann, S., Clarke, B., Foegen, A., Marsh, L., Star, J. R., et al. (2009).

Assisting students struggling with mathematics: Response to Intervention (RtI) for elementary and middle schools. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/practiceguides/ .

Riccomini, P. J. & Witzel, B. S. (2010). Response to intervention in math. Thousand

          Oaks, CA: Corwin.