My initial project was to improve the after school
STAAR math tutorial that we called The Commended Club. I had conducted interviews with the students
that attended the tutorials, the math teachers and had pulled the math STAAR
score of the students that failed. Over the
summer, the administration decided to dissolve that after school program and
instead give the targeted students an extra period of math. For my new action research project, my Campus
Improvement Specialist and I came up with a teacher mentor program. The program is designed for students that are
repeating a grade, failed any of the STAAR tests, and/or failed the first nine
week grading period. The first grading
period will end in three weeks, and at that time, we will assign every teacher
on campus at least one student. The teacher
will set up meeting times that are convenient to their schedules and work with
that student on an individual basis to help set them up for success. Academically, these students have many
programs in place to help them succeed. Our
thoughts are now focusing on what we can do to build better relationships with
our struggling students. We want to show
them we care about them as a person as well as being successful as a
student. Before pairing teachers and
students, we will conduct surveys of both to see who will be the best
fits. We don’t want this to feel, for
the students or the teachers, like this one more thing they have to do. We want it to be an encouraging and
productive use of time to help build the relationships amongst our students and
teachers.