1. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Conducting a Comprehensive Needs Assessment: Moving Beyond the Basics Carly Covic Ambler Title II, Part A Program Specialist Office of School Improvement (404) 623-9599 cambler@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. Nicholas L. Handville Operations Analyst III Office of School Improvement (404) 657-9864 nhandville@doe.k12.ga.us

2. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org 02/22/20162

3. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Session Description This session will cover common challenges experienced while conducting a needs assessment. The presentation will include guiding questions to lead participants through collaborating with stakeholders, collecting relevant data, analyzing data to determine root causes and prioritizing needs. This session is ideal for those with prior needs assessment experience or those who attended the first needs assessment session. 02/22/20163

4. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org NEEDS ASSESSMENT 02/22/20164

5. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Essential Questions How can I use a comprehensive needs assessment to plan for the challenges that face my local education agency? How can I use data strategically throughout the needs assessment process? What human, fiscal and material resources are available as I conduct a comprehensive needs assessment? 02/22/20165

6. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org 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 02/22/20166

7. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org 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. 02/22/20167

8. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org What in the LEA will the comprehensive needs assessment inform? M ISSION / V ISION C URRICULUM / I NSTRUCTION P ROFESSIONAL L EARNING A CADEMIC I NTERVENTIONS AND S UPPORTS O PERATIONAL P LANNING 02/22/20168

9. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org COLLECTCOLLABORATEANALYZEPRIORITIZEPLAN 02/22/20169

10. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Timeline COLLABORATE Determine which stakeholders will be involved in each part of the process. Ongoing COLLECT Gather and summarize data from various and input from sources. Ongoing ANALYZE Examine the summary data to determine strengths and weaknesses. January - May PRIORITIZE Rank identified needs. May - June PLAN Identify which strategies for meeting prioritized needs will have the greatest impact on student learning. June - October 02/22/201610

11. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Common Challenges Collaborating with Stakeholders Determining relevant stakeholders Establishing communication and processes that engage stakeholders, promote open dialogue, and encourage collaboration Collecting stakeholder feedback that is informative and beneficial to the needs assessment process Collecting Data Identifying data sources strategically to determine results, anticipate impact, and provide relevant context Using inconsistent methods to access, gather and store data Ensuring availability of complete and quality data 02/22/201611

12. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Common Challenges Analyzing the Results of Data Determining data results with incomplete or missing data Identifying possible implications of the data results Considering the data in context Correlating implementation with impact/effectiveness Taking the time to determine root causes Prioritizing Needs Determining the importance of addressing each need Anticipating the factors that might impact ability to address prioritized needs 02/22/201612

13. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org PLAN COLLABORATE 02/22/201613

14. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Identify Which internal and external stakeholders should be invited to ensure a representative group? Invite To what extent are external stakeholders currently involved in supporting the district? Could any of the current opportunities be maximized to include components of the needs assessment process? What steps can be taken to initiate collaboration with new external stakeholders? Have you consider including internal stakeholders who have multiple roles, varying perspectives, complementary skill sets? 02/22/201614

15. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Engage Once stakeholders have agreed to participate, which formats and protocols are most likely to yield beneficial stakeholder input? What types of information will stakeholders need to engage knowledgably in discussions, in setting priorities, and determining strategies? How will stakeholder comments and suggestions be documented? Buy-in Once initial contributions have been made, how can stakeholders continue to be utilized to raise awareness of needs and take action to support the goals that have been identified through the needs assessment process? 02/22/201615

16. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org BOE District Staff School Staff Students Families Community Partners Business Partners District Instr. Leaders School Leaders Teachers Students Families Business Partners District Leaders School Leaders Teachers Students Families Community Partners District Staff School Leaders Teachers Families Business Partners District Leaders School Leaders Teachers Students Families Business Partners M ISSION / V ISION C URRICULUM / I NSTRUCTION P ROFESSIONA L L EARNING A CADEMIC I NTERVENTION S AND S UPPORTS O PERATIONAL P LANNING 02/22/201616

17. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org PLAN COLLECT 02/22/201617

18. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org What data are currently available in your LEA for planning? What data are not available, but would be helpful to determine needs and root causes? What are the procedures for data collection and storage for data required for needs assessment? Do these data need to be combined and/ or cross- referenced? How complete and accurate is the data collected? Is anything missing? Does the data require any explanation? Is data representative of students? (economically disadvantaged, EL, SWD, low achieving, minority, gifted and talented) Is data available to compare results across grades, schools, neighboring districts, RESA regions, the state and the nation? Is data available to compare results over time? Implementation data? Cohort data? 02/22/201618

19. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org AdvancEd Survey Community Data Meeting Minutes Achievement Scores Subgroup Scores Alignment Analysis Parent Conferences Comparative Data Graduation Data Subgroup Achievement Attendance Data Discipline Data Program Data Scheduling Info Course Schedules Climate Survey Budgets Staff Data Laws & Policies Protocols Resource Inventory Leader Evaluations Achievement Scores Subgroup Scores PL Evaluations Teacher Evaluations Leader Evaluations Inventory Reports M ISSION / V ISION C URRICULUM / I NSTRUCTION P ROFESSIONA L L EARNING A CADEMIC I NTERVENTION S AND S UPPORTS O PERATIONAL P LANNING 02/22/201619

20. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org PLAN ANALYZE 02/22/201620

21. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org How can the data and corresponding results be presented in a way that allows stakeholders to engage knowledgably in discussions, in setting priorities, and determining strategies? What results can be determined from the data collected? What implications can be drawn from the results? Do you need to conduct a further root cause analysis in any particular area? Are you able to determine the impact of past strategies on educator effectiveness and student achievement? Have goals and objectives been met over time? How do results compare with other cohort and implementation data collected over time? Are there patterns evident in the data that indicate trends across cohorts, schools, neighboring districts, RESA regions, the state and the nation? Are any of the results illogical, unusual or contradictory? 02/22/201621

22. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Were there policies/procedures/processes involved in implementation or data collection? If so, did they impact data results? What role did staff play in generating, collecting, summarizing and/or analyzing the data? What human factors (performance, availability, etc.) are relevant to the results of the data? What other internal or external factors might have affected the data and/or results of the data? o Internal: resource allocation, documentation and monitoring, technology and software, communication o External: geographic location, population demographics (employment, education, median income), local/ state/national economy, natural disasters, state and federal policy changes 02/22/201622

23. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org PLAN PRIORITIZE 02/22/201623

24. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Which needs align to the mission and vision of the district/school? Which needs are the most urgent according to data collected? How might deadlines impact the prioritization of needs? Are any equally important? Are any required to be addressed? What are the implications for not prioritizing or addressing a need? Could it impact student achievement and/or other stakeholders, increase risk, or decrease revenue? Are there multiple needs that can be effectively addressed through overlapping program purposes and objectives, interventions and/or funding streams? What difficulties (fiscal, personnel, time, effort, implementation quality) would need to be considered in addressing a particular need? If chosen, are there strategies and or resources readily available to address the need? 02/22/201624

25. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org PRACTICE 02/22/201625

26. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org What are the greatest challenge(s) your LEA faces in student achievement? 5-7 Minutes  Working in groups of 2-4, use your handout to discuss the guiding questions as they relate to the challenge(s) you have identified.  Use this opportunity to examine how well you are currently conducting your local needs assessment.  Are there any guiding questions you have not previously considered, but would like to begin exploring?  Have your colleagues mentioned any stakeholders, data sources, or needs assessment practices from which your LEA might benefit? 02/22/201626

27. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org PLAN 02/22/201627

28. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org COLLECTCOLLABORATEANALYZEPRIORITIZEPLAN 02/22/201628

29. Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent “Educating Georgia’s Future” gadoe.org Conducting a Comprehensive Needs Assessment: Moving Beyond the Basics Carly Covic Ambler Title II, Part A Program Specialist Office of School Improvement (404) 623-9599 cambler@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. Nicholas L. Handville Operations Analyst III Office of School Improvement (404) 657-9864 nhandville@doe.k12.ga.us