Week 3 - Part 4

Bus Discipline:  Implementation of Positive Bus Incentive Program

The progress of my action research project will be shared both with fellow Lamar classmates and the stakeholders on my campus.  To share with my fellow Lamar classmates, I have created a blog specifically to track the progress and share my reflections on my action research project.  I have also created a Facebook page specifically for the students with the same program entry date so we can share ideas, questions and concerns, and provide feedback on our action research project, as well as other assignments.  We are a collaborative group who in the short three weeks we have been connected has proven to be participatory group who works in the spirit of collaboration and teamwork.

Communication with stakeholders from my school will happen in a variety of ways.  The parents of bus riders will be notified of the incentive plan through a short flyer sent home with the students.  The teachers and staff will be notified of the initiation of the plan through an oral presentation at a campus team leader meeting and progress will be communicated through email and a follow up team leader meeting at the conclusion of the study.  We will notify the bus drivers and bus duty monitors by face to face communication.  Several morning video announcements will introduce the incentive plan to the students and each classroom will receive a poster with details of the plan.  The progress will be visible on the bus calendars posted on the wall in the back hallway by the bus canopy. 

Bus behavior and student safety on buses is a wide spread concern.  It became apparent that the issue needed to be addressed on our campus when the Fall School Climate Survey results indicated a high percentage of parents felt students were unsafe on our school buses.  Over 78% of our parents were concerned about bus safety.  This number increased by 7% over the previous year’s results. The safety of our students is of upmost importance so in response to the survey results we will implement a Bus Behavior Incentive Plan.

Data was collected from the aforementioned survey and the school bus discipline referrals program.   Data will be collected from bus drivers regarding bus rider behavior daily.  The bus duty monitors will record the data from the bus drivers as they arrive to pick up students.  Bus drivers will be asked to keep track of the behavior of the bus riders on the afternoon bus run and report it along with the morning run behavior upon arrival at the school.  Data will be recorded and displayed in a common area to ensure all individuals can track the progress. 

At the conclusion of the study, the results will indicate whether receiving a positive incentive affected student’s behavior on school buses.  The data we will use to determine the success of the plan is a comparison of the number of bus referrals received in the first half of the year to the bus referrals received over the span of the plan.