Conducting a Comprehensive Needs Assessment: The Basics

1. Conducting a Comprehensive Needs Assessment: The Basics Carly CovicAmblerTitle II, Part A Program SpecialistOffice of School Improvement(404) 623-9599cambler@doe.k12.ga.us Nicholas L. HandvilleOperations Analyst IIIOffice of School Improvement(404) 657-9864nhandville@doe.k12.ga.us The contents of this presentation were developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement.

2. Your Expectations and Experience • Expectations and goals for the workshop • Experience with needs assessment

3. Session Description This session will provide attendees with a basic framework for understanding the role and importance of a needs assessment. Topics covered will include key terminology, a basic framework for understanding the role of needs assessment, conducting the preliminary work, the role of data, and best practices for conducting an effective needs assessment. This session is ideal for those with minimal prior experience with needs assessment, but will also be beneficial to those with more experience who are interested in improving their foundational knowledge.

4. Where are We and How Did We Get Here?

6. Needs Assessment at the GaDOE Needs Assessment for Special Education Needs Assessment for MEP Special Education Migrant Title III Title I Title II Needs Assessment for Title I Needs Assessment for Title III Needs Assessment for Title II

7. Needs Assessment at the GaDOE Migrant Special Education Needs Assessment for GaDOE Title I Title II Title III GaDOE Needs Assessment Guidebook GaDOE Needs Assessment Toolkit

8. Essential Questions Answered During Session • What is needs assessment? • What should be done to prepare for a needs assessment? • How can data be used effectively during a needs assessment? • How should the knowledge gained from a needs assessment be applied to improve program outcomes and other requirements?

9. What is Needs Assessment?

10. What is Needs Assessment? Serves as a process to collect and examine a breadth of information about district/school issues in order to provide depth of understanding and then utilizes that data in structured decision making in response to the academic needs of all students for improving student achievement and meeting challenging academic standards that will determine priority goals, develop a plan, and allocate often limited funds and resources.

11. What is Needs Assessment? Desired Condition A needs assessment is conducted to determine the nature and magnitude of the gap between the condition(s) that currently exists and the desired condition(s). Current Condition

12. Why Needs Assessment? A Needs Assessment: • Unites key stakeholders in common understanding and in planning next steps to meet the mission and vision of the LEA/school • Helps determine what is impacting learning • Provides a picture of the strengths and areas for improvement of a school community • Serves as the basis for developing plans to meet the academic needs of all students

13. Additional Benefits of a Needs Assessment • Provide direction for programs, projects, and activities • Allow staff to determine priorities and allocate limited resources to activities that will have the greatest impact • Create cohesion through the alignment of goals, strategies, professional development, and desired outcomes • Enable benchmarking and monitoring of implementation and impact • Assist with continuous improvement activities by helping staff identify change, which instructional and other practices are working, and the strategies associated with the greatest success Adapted from: WestEd (2008).

14. Needs Assessment Preparation and Planning

15. Clarifying of Program and Needs Assessment • Mission and vision • Logic model • Theory of change • Theory of action

16. Building Your Needs Assessment Team • Core needs assessment team • Five to seven people • Internal/External team members • Skill sets and organizational roles to include: • Data collection and analysis • District/School/Program leadership • Program management and staff • Project management • Stakeholders • Who? • How many?

17. Project Management Plan and Structure • Needs assessments can be lengthy and complex. It is important to have a project plan to guide efforts and keep the assessment on track. • Scope and purpose of work • Timeline • Deliverables • Target audience • Constraints and limitations • Team members roles and responsibilities

18. Planning Your Needs Assessment • What is the purpose and scope of your needs assessment? • What is the programmatic question you need to answer? • What data do you need to collect? • Who can help you find the data and information you need? • What are your data collection methods? • How will you get the data and information you need? • How will you analyze your data? • How will you prioritize your results? • How will you use the results of the needs assessment? • Will the data you collect adequately answer the questions posed by your needs assessment? Adapted from: WestEd (2008).

19. Conducting Your Needs Assessment Effective Data Use

20. Needs Assessment Data Collection Within each of these multiple measures of data you will find both qualitative and quantitative elements. Perceptions

21. Common Sources of Data Quantitative Qualitative Surveys Interviews Focus groups Observations Document analysis Strategic planning documents Feedback from suggestion boxes • Surveys • Student performance data • Student/Teacher demographics • Attendance data • Graduation/Dropout data • Discipline data • Budgets • Census and community data Adapted from: WestEd (2008).

22. Analyzing Your Data: Quantitative Analysis • There are several statistical methods that can be used to analyze your data: • Chi-square tests • t tests • Analysis of variance (ANOVA) • Correlation • Regression • Factor analysis • For GaDOE needs assessments, you are only expected to perform basic arithmetic calculations (averages, comparison of means, etc.).

23. Analyzing Your Data: Qualitative Analysis • A single quote or observation is not enough to determine a pattern or trend. • A pattern or trend should be evident across multiple sources or types of data or across time.

24. Triangulation • During the needs assessment, multiple sources of data should be used to analyze each area of concern. • Triangulation refers to the use of multiple data types or sources to test the validity of findings from the needs assessment.

25. Getting to the Source:Root Cause Analysis • Purpose of RCA is to determine: • What happened • Why it happened • A course of action to reduce the likelihood of it happening again • Three basic types of causes: • Physical • Human • Organizational

26. Getting to the Source:Root Cause Analysis • Resource: Leading a Team to Analyze Root Causes Using Quality Tools (GLISI) • Five Whys Analysis • Fishbone Diagram • Affinity Diagram • Download at: http://glisi.org/resources/leading-team-analyze-root-causes-using-quality-tools-pbm/

27. Applying the Results of the Data Analysis

28. Prioritizing Needs • What needs were identified during the data analysis process? • Which needs are the most urgent? The most likely to lead to the desired improvements? • Approaches to prioritizing: • Rank ordering - used in less complex situations • Multiple criteria approach - used when needs are more complex and are judged against criteria that address importance and feasibility • Disaggregated prioritization - involves rank ordering the criteria to be used, then a need is judged by each of the criteria, beginning with the highest-ranked criteria first (this technique simplifies the prioritization process, because criteria are addressed one at a time) • Risk assessment – used to examine the needs relative to the risk of not addressing them (useful in situations where not addressing a need is related to a risk of major importance) • How does this process look with GaDOE? Adapted from: WestEd (2008).

29. Using Needs Assessment Outcomes to Guide Improvement • Use of your needs assessment should not stop when you submit it to GaDOE • The knowledge gained should be incorporated throughout your continuous improvement process and should inform your ongoing strategic planning • How can you apply your needs assessment for ongoing program improvement?

30. Needs Assessment: Beyond the Basics Collaborate Collect Analyze prioritize plan

31. References and Resources • Altschuld, J. W., & Witkin, B. R. (2000). From needs assessment to action: Transforming needs into solution strategies. Sage Publications. • Altschuld, J. and D. Kumar. (2009). Needs assessment: An overview. Sage Publications. • GLISI (2013). Leading a team to analyze root causes using quality tools. http://glisi.org/resources/leading-team-analyze-root-causes-using-quality-tools-pbm/ • Gupta, K. (2007). A practical guide to needs assessment. Pfeiffer. • WestEd. (2008). A guide for comprehensive needs assessment.

32. Contact Information Carly CovicAmblerTitle II, Part A Program SpecialistOffice of School ImprovementGeorgia Department of Education1854 Twin Towers East205 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive, SEAtlanta, Georgia  30334Office: (404) 623-9599cambler@doe.k12.ga.uswww.doe.k12.ga.us Nicholas L. HandvilleOperations Analyst IIIOffice of School ImprovementGeorgia Department of Education1854 Twin Towers East205 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive, SEAtlanta, Georgia  30334Office: (404) 657-9864nhandville@doe.k12.ga.uswww.doe.k12.ga.us