A needs assessment or a needs analysis is a process to help identify and articulate challenges faced in a specific setting. A needs assessment is generally viewed as a systematic examination of a gap – a gap between existing and desired states – as well as the factors that contribute to the gap. The needs assessment process is an important first step in achieving better outcomes for students. In this assignment, each student (serving as the principal of the school) will develop a needs assessment specific to a particular school. The needs assessment will incorporate assignments completed earlier in the course.
Why Conduct a Needs Assessment?
An effective needs assessment helps local stakeholders and system leaders understand how the pieces of a complex educational system interact. Whether that system reflects a school, a district, or an entire state, a needs assessment can uncover both strengths and challenges that will inform growth and improvement.
The goal of a needs assessment is to help educators identify, understand, and prioritize the needs that districts and schools must address to improve performance. Identifying priority needs is the first in a series of steps that also include understanding root causes that contribute to the areas of need, selecting evidence-based strategies that address those areas, preparing for and implementing selected strategies, and evaluating whether those strategies are addressing improvement needs and achieving desired results.
There are 6 sections that need to be included in your needs assessment. Use the following numbers and headings:
1. Description of school community: Assignment 2
2. School Data: Assignment 3
3. Analysis of recent interventions: New writing
What are the recent interventions that the school has undertaken to address student needs? How long have they been in effect? What have been the results of these interventions? What is working? What is the likelihood of their success in the long term?
4. Stakeholder engagement: New writing
How have stakeholders been involved with developing recent interventions? How would you propose to involve stakeholders (staff, parents, students, district personnel, community members) in identifying the school’s needs? What processes should be in place to provide stakeholders with ongoing opportunities for input/feedback on instructional issues, and to build stakeholder support for new interventions to improve student learning?
5. Equity Audit: New writing
Using the approach described by Skrla and colleagues (2004), students should, at a minimum, assess at least one of the following dimensions:
- teacher quality equity,
- programmatic equity, and
- achievement equity.
6. Priority Needs: New writing
The primary outcome of the needs assessment process is a set of needs, or prioritized areas of focus, that will inform improvement efforts. What are the priority needs where progress is essential at this time? What needs must be addressed before other less urgent priorities are tackled?
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