My proposed Action Research Topic...

Hi Everyone! At the end of last school year, my school was chosen as one of 6 schools in the district to participate in the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) this coming year. TAP™ was developed based upon scientific research as well as best practices from the fields of education, business and management. The TAP Elements of Success stem from research findings about effective practices in attracting, developing, motivating and retaining the highest quality teachers to the profession, and particularly to high-need schools (http://www.tapsystem.org/policyresearch/policyresearch.taf).
Basically, program, created by the Milken Foundation, has 4 components; multiple career paths, ongoing PD, instruction-focused evaluations (not PDAS), and performance pay for teachers. The staff had to vote on participating or not. Since we had to base our votes on a 1 hour presentation and the research some of us did, everyone had a million questions. The school voted yes, but by 4 votes. Nevertheless, the staff is very anxious about what we will be doing this upcoming school year.
Purpose of my Action Research: Will the TAP program improve student achievement, will it raise staff morale, and will it increase teacher retention in my school. I will be using last year's and this year's TAKS data, as well as DRA, DIEBELS, and TPRI BOY, MOY and EOY data. I will also use teachers and parents' surveys to address the morale portion of my research. Lastly, I will compare teacher turnover numbers from the last 3 years and this upcoming year.
Significance of Action Research: My research will, not only make me a better informed professional, but it will also benefit my colleagues. Since this is a 1 year program, we will have a better understanding of it's impact in our school and our students. Therefore, we will be able to make a better informed decision for following years. It will help use determine, will we stick with it for the benefit of our students and ourselves as professionals, or will we vote to not participate for lack of evidence of its effectiveness. It will also make us reflect on our practice. Some of the inquiries I will be addressing are: Did the TAP program helped me improve my practice through its professional development component?, Did my students learn more deeply as I changed my practice?, Did the mentoring component of the program helped me professionally?, etc.