Federal Programs Needs Assessment: Maximize Your Data, Minimize Your Effort: The Forsyth Way

1. Federal Programs Needs Assessment:Maximize Your Data, Minimize Your Effort:The Forsyth Way Fonda Harrison and Ann Reid

2. Purpose • To provide participants with an understanding of the approach the Forsyth County School District is using to conduct its Federal Programs Needs Assessment evaluations.

3. What We Will Discuss • Why We Do Needs Assessments • What Kinds of Needs Assessments We Conduct • For Whom We Do Them • When and How We Conduct Them • Why the Process Works for Us • What We Do with the Data

4. Definition of Needs Assessment • A need is defined as “a discrepancy between a learner’s current state of knowledge, performance, or attitude and some desired state.” • Empirical evidence must be collected to verify this discrepancy or “gap.” • The needs assessment process must be conducted as the first step in program planning. (Cervero and Wilson, 2005)

5. Factors to Consider • Accountability • Requirement for Federal Programs • Challenges in Formulating • Challenges in Implementing • What are your concerns about needs assessments?

6. Needs Assessment Process • Collecting data from multiple sources • Parents • Teachers • Student Information System • Combining data from different sources • Analyzing data • Determining subsets • Rank ordering • Reporting • School level • District level Data… Data… Data… Data… Data… Data…

7. Who develops and administers needs assessments? • Nobody? • Title I District Staff? • Title I School Staff? • A contractor? • YOU!

8. What is the Forsyth Way? • Use data from teachers, parents, and our Student Information System; • Incorporate web-based surveys; • Combine all data for reporting; • Review data with key stakeholders at school and district level.

9. What groups do we assess? • Parents • Federal Advisory, McKinney-Vento, School, Summer Camp • Staff • Teacher, Specialty Staff (Tutors, Camp) • Students • In Targeted Assistance Schools • In Schoolwide Schools

10. Requirements for Parental Involvement • Evidence of LEA and individual school written parental involvement plans developed jointly and agreed upon with parents… • Evidence that schools have signed and dated school-parent compacts that have been developed jointly with parents… • Evidence of the required annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of the LEA’s/school’s parental involvement plan and activities… • Evidence that the LEA ensures all parents of Title I students have the opportunity to be involved in decisions about the use of the 1% reservation for parental involvement…

11. Parent Needs Assessment Process (1)Spring meeting with Parent Involvement Coordinators and Title I Lead Teachers to identify the goals for the survey, review previously administered parent surveys, review question bank items, and develop the district’s Title I Spring parent survey. (2)Surveys done anonymously by school. (3)Administered over a two-week period with surveys available in English and Spanish both online and on paper.

12. Our process…. • (4) Data combined into one report to be analyzed at both the school and district levels. • (5) District report used to provide data for the district’s Parent Involvement Policy and CLIP and to plan for specific district-led parent involvement activities. • (6) Individual school reports used to provide data for school-parent compacts, parent involvement policies, targeted assistance and schoolwide Title I plans, Title I funds, 1percent set aside, and the CLIP. Data shared with Local School Council, Title I parents, staff, and community members.

13. Parent Survey (Kinard)

14. Parent Survey (Kinard)

15. Parent Report (Kinard)

16. (Kinard)

18. Staff Needs Assessments • (1) Spring meeting with Title I teachers and administrators to identify goals for the survey, review previously administered staff surveys, review question bank items, and develop the district’s Title I staff survey. • (2)Surveys done anonymously by school. • (3)Administered over a one-week period. • (4)Data combined into one report to be analyzed at both the school and district levels.

19. Our process… • (5) District report used to provide data for planning technical assistance meetings and additional professional learning for teachers. • (6) Individual school reports used to provide data for the CLIP, school-parent compacts, parent involvement policies, targeted assistance and schoolwide Title I plans, professional learning plans, and budget.

20. Spring 2013 Forsyth County Title I Staff Survey (Kinard)

21. Staff Surveys

22. Staff Report (Kinard)

23. Student Needs Assessments Monitoring Requirement: Evidence of correctly identifying students for participation in a targeted assistance program… • Used to create rank-ordered multiple criteria; • Ensures inclusion of all students; • Data from multiple sources (1)Student Information System: Program Information (EIP, ESOL, Migrant, Special Education, McKinney-Vento), no pre-school experience, GKIDS, CRCT, and EOCT scores; • (2) Survey: retention or placement, excessive absences, parent or teacher requests extra help, failing grades, AIMSWeb, benchmarks.

24. Items for Consideration in Developing Multiple Criteria • Lots of data to correlate; • Amount of time involved; • Need for multiple people; • Items to consider; • Weighting the items.

25. Targeted Assistance Student Process • Rank order created twice each year: Elementary: August and February Middle: May and December; • First step: Gathering data from the Student Information System; • Second step: Assigning surveys to teachers. • Third step: Weighting items; • Fourth step: Developing the rank order report; • Fifth step: Technical assistance/monitoring of schools: checking multiple criteria and rosters/schedules.

26. Student Survey (Kinard)

27. Targeted AssistanceTeachers are assigned student surveys (Kindard)

28. Multi-Criteria Breakdown

29. Student – Targeted Report

32. Thoughts After the Assessments… • How effectively were everyone’s needs met? (students, parents, staff) • Did we ask the right questions? • Are the results valid? • What comments did we receive after the assessments? • Are we tracking results year-by-year? Do we see any trends in the data? • Are we meeting the requirements of the monitors and auditors? • What feedback did we receive during monitoring about our needs assessments?

33. Why Our System Strategy Works • Aligns with compliance requirements; • Involves stakeholders; • Streamlines process; • Provides data needed for the CLIP, 1 % Set Aside, multiple criteria, targeted assistance and schoolwide Title I plans, school-parent compacts, and parent involvement policies; • Allows for consistent reporting across the district.

34. References • Cervero, R.M. & A.L.Wilson . Working the Planning Table: Negotiating Democratically for Adult, Continuing, and Workplace Education. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing, 2005. • Kinard, Roger. “Title I Needs Assessment.” Owl Education.

35. Questions & Comments