Action Research...learned and thoughts.

I was so inspired to complete an action research inquiry after reading the required text. It just makes so much since to me. In my family we talk about, "It's not rocket science," but this scientific method of making life more productive and less stressful just makes since.
I have sat in many workshops that were recommended as "the best thing ever" and thought this is a good workshop, but then used maybe only one thing from it. It always seemed like such a waste of my time. Now, from reading the text it all makes since, these workshops were not made specifically for me and my class or even my campus.
Right now, at my campus, we have been making a lot of changes and our scores, all of them, are falling. I believe that this is due to lack of buy in, motivation for the teachers and students, and a wrong direction for our campus.  Sparks (2002) cited from Educational Research Service's 1999 publication Professional Development for School Principals, hits the nail on the head for me when he says, "effective staff development for administrators is long-term, planned, and job-embedded; focuses on student achievement, supports reflective practice; and provides opportunities to work, discuss and solve problems with peers" (p.8.3).
We have a leadership team at my campus, and we do analyze date, but it seems that we do not do anything productive with it. We don't even have a discussion about it. There is really no thought except..."at my friend's campus they scored better and they..." Their campus does not have any of the same demographics as we do, so it does not really help with our students. Completing our own honest research to make a productive difference on our campus seems to make so much more since.
Why have we not been doing this? I do believe, as the book states, it is because we must compete as well as we do not want others to know our short comings. With that said, then we should be doing everything we can with our own research to make a monumental difference.
Frankly, it makes me mad that this research is our there and we have not tried it at my campus. It seems that we will be making our life much less stressful in almost everything we do.