More than anything this week, I've learned that our district has done a good job encouraging action research in its teachers and administrators. This makes me feel like a have a little bit of a head start in this process. Or, at least I hope that's what it means! However, I do feel like most of our district's teacher action research has been focused on students. The curriculum action research is done mostly at the district level and then we are told what we have to do with our students. I would like to see teachers have a little more flexibility to research what they think is best for their students and then make decisions. For example, our district has adopted the new Odyssey reading program. It is a computer based program that must be done for an hour each week with fidelity. That equates to the teachers losing a sixth or more of their language arts block each week. For the most part, our teachers have really bought into the system. However, some of them feel like it isn't the best program for some of their students. They don't have the authority to make a different decision for those students. Perhaps once we get statistical data, they will have the authority, but that is a lot of wasted time. Since I have chosen a curricular issue for my action research, I hope that my modeling the action research process for my teachers will encourage them to engage in the same process.