During and after conducting my research project, I plan to share my findings with my campus administrators, the curriculum director and our Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources.  I will present the data collection and comparisons in graph form in a PowerPoint presentation.  Although, I may not get to present the PowerPoint as a presentation, I will convert it to PDF form for others to see it.  I would also like to share my findings with the other principals of elementary campuses in our district and with the teachers on our campus.  The Inquiry template on page 152 of Leading With Passion and Knowledge by Nancy Fichtman Dana, is a good template to organize my information. By providing background information that led me to include this action research project on my campus. After having no training on our campus for district wide curriculum implementation I wondered how we could help teachers identify their instructional needs and meet the demands of the new curriculum and standardized testing.  I suggested a teacher survey on professional development during the development of my intern plan, and my principal was very supportive and wanted to use the data to plan professional development for our teachers.  I decided to combine the survey with my wondering to help include teachers in sharing their personal professional development needs and desires while also satisfying school administration’s need to provide professional development that was relevant in maintaining and improving our standardized test scores.

My elementary School campus serves approximately 500 students in grades PK-4th. We are a semi-rural/suburban school district with approximately 4000 students and a growth rate of 4%.
All grade level teachers who are required to use the CScope curriculum and giving state standardized tests will be given a survey to identify professional development needs they feel they need in order to be successful in using the CScope curriculum and on state standardized tests.  The survey will also include questions regarding recent professional development classes and their effectiveness in the classroom. It is important to note that participants will only be identified by grade level, not name.  These surveys will be completed by the end of February 2013, before professional development for the 2013-2014 school year is planned.  I will also disseminate state standardized testing data according to testing criteria or TEKS. 

After teacher and testing data is collected, I will compare the areas of teacher perceived need and test need to identify similarities and differences. I will then use this data to help in planning upcoming professional development. 

I hope to use the data collected to help my principal plan and implement effective professional development that is supported by the belief that including teachers wants and needs in the planning process while meeting the needs of administration to improve student performance will benefits all stakeholders.

Finally, it is my hope that my findings will serve as a call to administrators to include teachers in the development of professional development practices in our district. By working collaboratively, school vision statements and goals will be readily met with positive school cultures and valued school employees.