About the program
Launched in 2013, the Cleveland State University (CSU) Action Research Program supports PK-12 practitioners to conduct action research projects in partnership with university faculty. This project is a collaborative effort between CSU and Cleveland Public Schools. The participants include school practitioners and university faculty.
Unlike more traditional PD, this is a practitioner-driven PD. Teachers identify a topic and a research question that is authentic to their own practices. Each research team identifies a specific problem, asks questions, plans, and implements the intervention, collects data, analyzes data to answer the questions, and identifies a strategy to resolve the problem (Bruce, Flynn, & Stagg-Peterson, 2011).
The primary aims of these research projects are to: enhance educational practice, improve student learning, empower practitioners, and transform school cultures.
Program Goal
The Action Research Program is practitioner driven professional development that provides individualized professional development for K-12 school practitioners through action research for the benefit of teachers and students in the program.
Participants
CSU MUST Students
Work alongside the mentor practitioner and the CSU faculty member
K-12 Practitioners
Work alongside university faculty members
CSU Faculty
Work alongside the lead Action Researcher(s) and provide support as needed
After being paired with university faculty, school practitioners participated in the collaborative action research process. During the year-long process, university faculty meet individually with teachers to support teacher-led projects that are relevant to practitioners’ local practices.
Information Sessions
The Co-Directors of the Cleveland State University Action Research Program, Professor Diane Corrigan and Dr. Grace Huang, provided more information about the program in their virtual presentations to various audiences. Click the buttons below to view the most recent recordings of their information sessions.
Martha Holden Jennings Foundation
The Martha Holden Jennings Foundation was founded in 1959 by Mrs. Andrew R. Jennings, a Cleveland native with a deep interest in improving elementary and secondary public school education in Ohio. She envisioned the Foundation as a means to provide greater accomplishment on the part of our youth and their teachers. She hoped this would also bring greater recognition to the teaching profession.