Margaret B. Tinzmann

Margaret B. Tinzmann, senior program researcher at North Central Regional Educational Laboratory in Oak Brook, Illinois, talks about action research as a means of evaluation that ultimately leads to school improvement. Excerpted from an interview with Margaret B. Tinzmann (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 1997).

"A teacher could, if they chose to, and a lot of them did, they could choose to engage in action research, which was another form of evaluation and a way to improve the school. This school has no gymnasium, and so it's a little bit difficult to do active kinds of PE classes, so they would have health classes, and these were really sedentary kids that weren't really getting engaged in things and a group of teachers decided to evaluate, and a result of that evaluation effort, which was also a professional development effort, they changed the PE program, found a place close by the school that had a swimming pool and found ways there are public transportation to take the kids to and from the school, and that's a way that action research, which is a form of evaluation, helped change things."

This Critical Issue was written by Cathy J. Cook, Mathematics Education and Professional Development Specialist, Midwest Consortium for Mathematics and Science Education, North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, and Carole S. Fine, Director of Professional Development, North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.

Development and production of this Critical Issue were supported in part by the Midwest Consortium for Mathematics and Science Education.

Date posted: 1997