The research problem to be addressed by the project is the school’s unsatisfactory performance as per the criteria established by the Florida Department of Education. Since over half of the 9th-grade students did not succeed in their State Math FSA exam, the school did not manage to move from tier D to tier C in the school ranking. Therefore, the project will aim to explore whether a math education intervention delivered to 9th-grade students will increase these students’ FSA Math scores and help the school increase its grade from D to C.
The textbook appears to be useful for developing the research problem. Page 82 in Mills and Gay’s (2018) book is particularly helpful since it explains the characteristics of a good problem statement. First of all, Mills and Gay (2018) argue that the research problem should be interesting to maintain the researcher’s motivation throughout the study. My research problem is interesting to me as I am concerned with overall school performance. I wonder if an educational intervention in the low-performing grade is able to increase the grade of the whole school, and this interest will keep my motivation high until the end of the project. Second, Mills and Gay (2018) state that a good problem should be researchable; that is, it can be explored through data collection and analysis and does not aim to identify what should be done. My research problem is researchable because I will be able to come to a conclusion by collecting and analyzing data. I will collect data on students’ performance in math after the educational intervention and analyze whether these new learning outcomes improve the overall school performance.
There are three more characteristics of a good research problem. According to Mills and Gay (2018), a research problem should be significant and contribute to educational theory or practice. I believe that my research has significance because it will show whether schools can use educational interventions for the lowest-performing grades and subjects in their setting in order to improve their performance. Further, the research problem should be ethical, meaning that it should not include activities that could harm or embarrass participants (Mills & Gay, 2018). In my research project, I am going to use an ethical educational intervention that will not be harmful in any way for the participating students. Finally, the research problem should be manageable, which means that the researcher should be able to complete the study using his or her skills, available resources, and time limits (Mills & Gay, 2018). My research problem fits this criterion since I have the necessary skills and resources to conduct the educational interventions, and the project will fit into the specified time limit. Thus, the selected textbook page applies to my specific situation by showing that my research problem is effective according to the five outlined criteria.
As for the article, I have located the publication by Liebowitz and Kelly (2018). This source is useful in my topic because it states the importance of the school rating – the variable that I would like to improve by increasing 9th-grade students’ FSA Math scores. In particular, Liebowitz and Kelly (2018) argue that the school rating is necessary to identify the necessary government policies and education expenditure levels to achieve targeted results efficiently. The quality of schools also influences local business and residential decisions (Liebowitz & Kelly, 2018). For example, school performance may influence parents’ decisions about whether to select this particular school for their children’s education. Thus, this article will help me establish the significance of my research problem.
References
Liebowitz, S. J., & Kelly, M. L. (2018). Fixing the bias in current state K–12 education rankings. Policy Analysis, 854, 1-20. Web.
Mills, G. E., & Gay, L. R. (2018). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and applications (12th ed.). Pearson.