Why Professional Development as an Action Research Plan

Highpoint North is a Harris County Department of Education DAEP, or Disciplinary Alternative Education Program, located in Greenspoint in the greater Houston area. I have been a Generalist teacher on this campus and I am currently in my seventh year of teaching. During my time at Highpoint North, I have taught Math (all seven years), Science, History, Career Portals and Teen Leadership at the middle school level for grades six through eight. The student population is primarily minority with African American and Hispanic students making up the greatest percentage of students, and Asian and Caucasian students the other 2%. 85% of students are male and 15% female. Although all of the students are At-Risk of something, the State of Texas considers them to be at-risk due to the fact that they receive free or reduced lunch, and because they live in a low socio-economic area. 

Many of the students who are sent to Highpoint North are sent for issues that are out of our control or out of the control of the client district. Issues that are out of our control include drug-related problems, sexual, mental or medical problems. Because client districts fail to address the most crucial needs the students have, students tend to act and real problems are ignored and neglected. When this happens, in my opinion, client district simply find it easier to “get rid of” the students and send them to us for a short period of time and expect the DAEP to “fix” their students. Issues that are out of the control of the client district include multiple C&Ds, assault of staff, skipping school, and truancy. In my opinion, most of these issues could be handled by the client districts if staff would take the time to build relationships with the students to gain trust and show the students that they are loved and not just a paycheck. I do not believe this of all educators.

My action research delves into including effective and relevant professional development and training to engage students on the campus of Highpoint North to decrease the number of behavioral issues we have and to improve student engagement in the classroom. Our campus is unlike any other DAEP campus I have been on. Most people do not believe that our school is a school for “bad” kids. We do not have that many incidents on campus, but when we do, the majority of our behavior issues are due to lack of knowledge by student, lack of relevance to student and lack of engagement provided by teachers for students. Some teachers are excellent at providing classroom activities that engage students, but administration is not so good with providing resources for to teachers for increasing engagement although funds are not a concern. If administration provided resources that assist teachers with increasing student engagement, our already low numbers of student misbehavior issues could be decreased. Relevant professional development and training is one of necessary resources. For seven years, I have sat through the same internal in-service trainings, and can quote each facilitators personal stories and experiences. These facilitators are paid to train us, although we are not learning any new information, or taking away in relevant and effective resources to use in our classrooms with our students. Boredom has completely set in for all staff, and we would look forward to these mandatory professional development days if we, as teachers, could learn something and then turn around and implement these strategies in our classrooms. I personally do not like to be bored while I teach, and I am always searching for new and innovative ways to keep my students engaged and have them learn at the same time. I also have to have fun with my students.

So what do I want to know? In what ways can effective and relevant professional development be provided and implemented into the DAEP to minimize behavioral issues and increase student engagement?

By including professional development and trainings where teachers learn and are engaged allows teachers to be effective and make learning relevant for students and engage students. Changes in the types of professional developments staff participates in benefits, students, teachers, principals, client districts, parents and officers. Students will want to be in class causing the teacher to spend less time on classroom management which in turns allows principals to handle less discipline issues. If principals have less discipline issues then so do the officers and client districts when the students return. Parents see what is necessary for their child to be successful and can also express this to client districts, as well as be a participant in their child’s education.