A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Section III
Planning Schoolwide Program Change

Step 2:
Conducting a Comprehensive Needs Assessment

A comprehensive needs assessment should be the centerpiece of the planning process—the database from which the planning team develops its vision of the future. Through the needs assessment, a school identifies its strengths and weaknesses and specifies priorities for improving student achievement and meeting challenging academic standards. The suggestions that follow come from members of planning teams in schools across the country who have conducted successful assessments.

Conducting a needs assessment helps planners focus better on schoolwide issues and link goals with hard data. Central Elementary School in Henderson County, Kentucky, rose from among the state's lowest ranking school to become an institution repeatedly recognized and rewarded for its academic progress. Principal Diane Embry reported that during the needs assessment "We planned ahead and used data to make our decisions. We were no longer acting only on our perceptions of how the students were doing." A teacher at Central explained how the needs assessment opened her eyes to her students' substantial potential:

I think we've said "all children can learn" for a long time. . . We said it even before we really, truly believed it. When we got some of our first test scores back, the ones that put us in improvement. . .we saw some hard data and we were motivated to take action.

Every aspect of the school is a candidate for assessment. However, experienced planners advise concentrating on how the school addresses the comprehensive academic needs of all the students in the school, especially those ESEA is designed to serve—students who are educationally disadvantaged, neglected or delinquent, migrant, American Indian, limited-English speaking, or vulnerable to the dangers of drug or alcohol addiction.

Assessing needs comprehensively means getting the full "breadth of information for depth of understanding" (WestEd, 1996, p. III-14). It requires examining many aspects of students' lives and experiences from the perspectives of students, parents, teachers, administrators, and other community members. The team must gather enough data to direct its planning, but not so much data that the group is unable to determine a program focus.

Clarifying the Vision

Some teams begin the assessment process with a dialogue among members that leads to a vision or mission statement, answering the questions: What are our central program goals? After implementing our schoolwide program, how will the school be different and improved for students? Other teams wait to define the program mission until after the needs assessment has taken place. The needs assessment is the vehicle for clarifying the direction the new schoolwide program will take. Either defining the vision at the outset or letting its definition conclude the process can work if vision-setting is rooted in the preferences of the broad school community and based on a realistic appraisal of circumstances (Billig & Kraft, 1997)⁽⁵⁾.

Creating a School Profile

Planning the school profile provides a starting point for discussion and is useful for organizing the remainder of the needs assessment. A school profile is a data-based snapshot that describes the school's students, faculty, community, and programs; its mission and planning processes; and its achievements and challenges. The profile answers fundamental questions that will guide planning, such as: How well are our students doing? What are our curriculum strengths? Is there a coherent vision with clear goals for achieving the vision?⁽⁶⁾

Profile development begins when the planning team decides what types of information it needs for each dimension on the profile. Tool #3: Creating a School Profile outlines some possible data options.

The profile gathers baseline information in one place so the planning team can identify "focus areas" and indicators of the school's status with respect to each one. Some focus areas to consider include:

• Student Achievement: How well are our students attaining the challenging academic standards set by the state and school district? What are school completion or mobility rates? How many students are making smooth transitions from our school to the next? Are we reducing the rate of students leaving the school, either as a result of making a voluntary transfer or because they are dropping out of the system?

• Curriculum and Instruction: What are teachers and administrators doing to ensure that teaching methods are up-to-date and the curriculum reflects state, local, and national content standards? What opportunities are there on the job to improve the curriculum, raise expectations of staff, and secure top-quality instructional materials?

• Professional Development: Are there on-the-job opportunities for teachers to participate in meaningful professional development? Do teachers select the professional development opportunities available to them? What topics attract the largest groups of participants? Who participates? What follow-up takes place? Are teachers working as collaborating team members and mentors? What instrument can reliably assess the extent to which teachers are collaborating? What can be done to further promote and enhance collaboration among teachers?

• Family and Community Involvement: In what ways are parents and the community involved in meaningful activities that support students' learning? How are parents and the community involved in school decisions? Are health and human services available to support students and encourage healthy family relationships? If families speak languages other than English, are school messages communicated in those languages? Do services for families include students with disabilities, both physical and educational? Can parents develop their own parenting skills or gain access to other educational opportunities through the school?

• School Context and Organization: How large are classes? Is adequate time devoted to subjects in which students perform poorly? Do teachers have a voice in decision making and school policies? What role do teachers have in deciding what assessments we will use to evaluate individual students or the program as a whole? Do school committees and decision making bodies make it easy for teachers, parents, paraprofessionals, support staff, and students to be heard and, in turn, for all groups to be part of solutions to identified problems?

Profiles convey a descriptive picture of the school. The documents should be substantive, based on reliable information, and presented in an easily understood manner, using charts and table formats. If the profile is not too long, it will appeal to many audiences. It is more likely to be used if the information is presented in varied formats, with the most important points first. For example, Blanco School in Langlois, Oregon, serving 237 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, effectively used its school profile to engage its small community of rural families in dialogue about the school. The opening page of Blanco's school profile challenges readers to consider the following questions and to suggest other important aspects of "the Blanco Experience" that could be included in future profiles:

• What is working well at Blanco that we can build on?

• What is not working well and needs to be modified or changed?

• Who is falling through the cracks?

The Blanco profile summarizes information about students, families, and the socioeconomic status of the community; details about the school's curriculum, guidance program for individual students, and extra-curricular activities; the results of surveys of parent and student attitudes and involvement; and longitudinal results from the Oregon Statewide Assessment.

Determining Data Collection Methods and Plans ⁽⁷⁾

After the team completes the school profile, members can assess what additional data must be collected. Using many sources and types of information on the school and its students will yield the most accurate picture of students' educational needs.

Data sources include school and district records and reports; statistics from community-based organizations; face-to-face or telephone interviews; focus groups; classroom and schoolwide observations; examples of students' work; and evaluation results. A uniquely personal but powerful way to understand a school is to shadow students as they follow their schedules to experience what a day feels like to students with different educational needs. Shadowing students can be as useful for teachers and administrators as it is for parents.

The information a planning team collects and the methods used to collect the data depend on available fiscal and human resources. Planners can save time and money by using or adapting pre-developed, standardized, or locally developed surveys or interview protocols, as long as the tools and methods for collecting information are appropriate for the setting. For example, lengthy written surveys are not appropriate for parents who lack formal education or have limited knowledge of written English. Focus groups may be useful in this situation. Focus groups elicit opinions about school needs from individuals who reflect diverse viewpoints. Focus groups work well with many types of stakeholders—teachers, parents, students, and community members. The exchange among peers raises ideas and concerns that may not emerge from other data collection approaches. One or two discussion leaders should lead the focus group informally, using a conversational style. Serving a light snack may help promote thoughtful candor, as well.

On the other hand, focus groups are not useful if cultural traditions discourage families from speaking openly about problems in public. Instead, a school might select among varied data collection methods that respond to a community's styles to generate more accurate and detailed information. Often it is also effective to ask colleagues or parents with strong credibility among key school constituencies to lead the data gathering—by signing a letter of introduction or leading focus groups—in specific communities.

Planning teams also need to determine whether to collect data from the entire school population—all parents, teachers, administrators, and major community participants—or from a systematic sample. A good rule to follow is that if the group being surveyed is small (typically fewer than 30 individuals), asking for everyone's response will ensure that each point of view is represented. For larger groups, it may not be as important to survey the total group directly. Of course, some people may view the planning process with suspicion if it is not fully inclusive, especially if controversial issues are involved, so decisions about sample size are important and should be made carefully by planning team members who know the faculty and community well.

Tool #4: Conducting a Comprehensive Needs Assessment: A Management Plan helps teams think about and manage data collection for needs assessments. The tool has two parts. The first part guides decisions about data sources and is organized around the dimensions used in a school profile. The second part helps teams determine what data will be collected, when, and by whom, and how the information will be analyzed.

Collecting Data and Summarizing Evidence

Good planning makes the process of collecting and analyzing information more efficient. For example, if your team decides to use or adapt existing surveys, questionnaires, and other tools for gathering information, it's a good idea to try the instruments out with people in your school to make sure they are easy to administer and the questions they contain elicit accurate information. Experienced planning teams offer the following tips:

• Make sure questions are phrased appropriately and every question is necessary. Be sure to proofread forms.

• Explain the purpose of each data collection strategy. Some teams write letters explaining the purpose of each activity and why these questions are being asked. The letters should also describe how the information will be used, emphasizing the fact that participation is voluntary.

• Assure those surveyed that their individual answers will be kept confidential.

• Give people enough time to think about their answers and return surveys without being rushed.

• Be available to answer questions.

• Make sure every data collection tool is brief and to the point. Although information gathering is important, try not to collect more information than your team can handle.

• Think about how your team will summarize the information that the tool will generate.

After selecting surveys and other data collection tools, make logistical arrangements for obtaining and summarizing the information. This involves: (1) duplicating and distributing data collection forms, (2) identifying individuals to be surveyed or interviewed, (3) planning ways to receive the information and follow up with people who have not returned surveys or responded to requests for interviews, and (4) determining how to tabulate information and display the results in charts or graphs.

As information forms, interview notes, or focus group summaries are returned to the subcommittee or the planning team, team members collate, count, and record the results in a format for easy analysis. This is a process researchers call "cleaning the data." To protect individual privacy, no names or potentially identifying demographic information should appear on questionnaires or other data collection sources.

Subcommittees of the planning team can decide on formats for arranging information so it relates to specific questions, but core team members should actively guide the actual interpretation and presentation data. One way to clarify the process of organizing information is to arrange it in the categories used by the school profile. Charts, tables, and tally sheets also help organize data in ways that reveal patterns and highlights.

Before the planning team distributes any information or draws conclusions from the data, committee members should review it closely. Can the summaries be read easily and understood by varied audiences? Do the results reveal clearly explained program strengths and needs so that new goals can be set? At this stage, planning team members should try to identify any possible sources of confusion and recast the way the information is presented to encourage an objective and accurate analysis.

Analyzing Program Needs and Setting Goals

Moving from data collection to planning specific goals is a labor-intensive activity—and it is not a linear process. Data can be contradictory or unclear, requiring extensive discussion to determine their implications. Using more than one set of reviewers to examine the data ensures a more accurate analysis and more appropriate responses or recommendations. It is also a good idea to work slowly, over several weeks or months, so the planning team can sift information, reflect on its meaning, and debate its implications before drawing conclusions or designing plans.

Analyzing data is one of the most important steps in the needs assessment because it determines the planning team's goals for reconfiguring teaching and learning in the school. Data analysis should seek to answer the following types of questions (WestEd, 1996, p. III-22):

• What are the strengths and needs of the current educational program in our school?

• Does the evidence support our assertions about strengths and needs?

• What more do we need to know? If more information is needed, how will we follow up?

• What priorities does the information suggest?

• What did we learn about how needs vary for different groups in our school—for example, among girls and boys, various ethnic groups, students with limited English proficiency or with disabilities, migrant students, or new immigrants?

• From our review of the data, can we state student needs in ways that specify goals, benchmarks for progress, and outcome expectations in measurable terms?

After preliminary, open-ended discussions of these issues among subcommittee members, the findings should be summarized. Because it is difficult for a school to address many large issues in any one year, most planning experts suggest that teams prioritize the major topics they will address and begin with just one or two major issues the first year, setting longer-term goals or focus areas that can be addressed two or three years down the road.

When these activities have been finished, the comprehensive needs assessment step is complete. The planning team is prepared to explore and verify the underlying causes for each identified issue and to select appropriate solutions and goals. The team is ready for the next planning step—prioritizing areas of focus based on the urgency of the issues and problems just identified.

think about this. . .

Turning Community Goals into Comprehensive School Change
Chugach School District, Anchorage, Alaska

When superintendent Roger Sampson and assistant superintendent Richard DeLorenzo came to the Chugach district in 1994, they realized their highly diverse school system needed a unified vision. The district serves 150 pre-K-12 students who live in four isolated sites, within 20,000 square miles in Prince William Sound. Half of the students are Alaska Native Aleuts, and half are white. The unemployment rate is more than 50 percent, and 70 percent of students live below the poverty line.

With help from the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory/Comprehensive Region X Assistance Center, school staff in Chugach adopted a model for community dialogue about school improvement called Onward to Excellence. The district's adaptation of this model is known as Alaska Onward to Excellence (AOTE).

Community-based planning is important in Chugach because many students must learn to succeed in both Aleut and mainstream cultures. AOTE engaged members of both cultures within the districts, schools, and communities, and united them around four shared goals: (1) a focus on student learning, (2) a commitment to improving education, (3) a belief that schools should support everyone in learning together, and (4) a commitment to measuring student achievement and using the data to improve teaching and learning. The ideas proposed in community discussions became the foundation of the district's and the schools' comprehensive plans. Chugach villagers requested that schools meet the needs of individual students, ensure healthy personal and social development, emphasize competence in 10 basic skills, and provide a smooth transition from school to an economically self-sufficient life.

"If you can have good dialogue about what your vision looks like, and have the community's support and buy-in, the community will...make that vision happen," DeLorenzo says. But bringing a vision to life in a struggling community isn't easy:

Building that trust and bond...was critical. They needed to know someone was listening. The most unhealthy communities can articulate their needs very clearly, but it is difficult for them to be active participants in changing their condition. Healthier villages are more able to support the changes that need to occur. It's a paradox. Those who need it most have difficulty working the changes along.

Using information gathered from every school, district planners examined data about students and their academic needs. The effort paid off when every school in the district tied its own vision and core competencies into a unified program plan. A leadership team composed of school board members, administrators, business people, teachers, and parents set up a K-12 system of competency-based education in 10 content areas and agreed on proficiency levels that all students must reach. "Before, we didn't even know the targets, and now we've created a developmental report card that not only reflects those targets but makes clear what they look like when the students get there," DeLorenzo notes.

Chugach supported the changes with extra professional development—approximately 30 days of inservice training a year for most teachers and staff, focusing on modeling best practices for instruction. The training is provided by consultants, with support from a combination of local, state, ESEA, and U.S. Department of Labor funds and special grants.

-###-

[Step 1-Establishing a Planning Team]

[Step 3-Clarifying Needs and Finding Research-Based Strategies]