March 2013 Action Research Progress

Our school in located within a residential treatment center for youth with a wide variety of mental health issues. Many of our students suffer from test anxiety which can have a substantial negative effect on student performance on standardized exams. Fortunately, our school has adjusted the school schedule to include one hour of tutoring class per day to assist students with their academic performance. I am utilizing this opportunity to attempt to reduce student anxiety with the goal of maximizing performance on standardized exams. Thanks to the suggestion of a colleague, I am utilizing a free software program called Google Forms for data collection and analysis. Our science department has administered anxiety surveys in which students respond to a series of statements using a scale of 1 to 5. A response of 1 means never, and 5 means always. The surveys were submitted digitally and uploaded to a spreadsheet for data analysis. I will evaluate the data and place the students into categories based on their current levels of anxiety. I did not let the students know the survey was about anxiety because of concern that it would lead to skewed results. The tutoring class began in January of 2013. I will conduct periodic student surveys to monitor student progress and attitudes about the tutoring class and to identify possible changes to the tutoring program to reduce anxiety and improve student achievement on standardized exams. I will also survey teachers to assess their perceptions of the benefits and areas of need of the tutoring program. I am unsure how to document the number of hours I have spent implementing this project. I tutor students for 5 hours per week, and I have spent several hours researching and developing surveys.