Needs Assessments: Using What You Know to Get Where You Want to Go

Christina Endres

National Center for Homeless Education

Who moved the hay?

Suzie & Billy were cousins who often helped out on the family farms their parents ran. One day, Billy determined the hay was on the wrong side of the barn & set out to move it to a better location. Later that evening, Suzie came into the house fuming: someone had moved the hay farther away from her cows after she spent hours putting it exactly where she needed it. She was sure it had been Billy’s brother Bobby, because that was just the sort of thing he’d do. Billy hung his head and confessed, saying, “I thought it would help you.”

Why a needs assessment?

• Creates links between needs, goals, activities, outcomes, & resources

• Helps you balance work

• Provides a rationale & logic for your work

– Enables you to describe & justify it

– Enables you to define it & show its value

Do you think about a list of activities…

• Every activity is equally important

– No priorities, all must be done

• Short term focus

• Success measured by completion, not by achieved level of change

• Often independent from district priorities or goals

…Or a programmatic approach?

• Limited set of goals – Derived from needs or areas for growth

– Drive activities

• Results in long-term planning

• Eliminates the unnecessary; prioritizes time & energy

• Success measured by level of change achieved

Fundamentals

• Use of data

• Collaborative relationships (i.e. don’t go it alone)

• Creation of clear goals

• Prioritization of activities (i.e. time management)

• Measures of progress

Use of data

• Consolidated State Performance Report

– All districts collect it

– Information about enrollment, academic performance, & more

• Barrier tracking logs

– All districts should collect it

– Phone and email logs of fires you put out

– Every year is different- look for trends

Use of data

• Other data options

– Free and reduced lunch

– Urban Institute estimate

– Community wealth and health

• Unemployment, foreclosures, hunger

• Grants: new, old, recently cancelled

Quick peek

  SY09-10 SY10-11 SY11-12 % Change

MS 7,499 10,150 11,448 53%

AL 16,287 18,910 17,670 8%

LA 25,223 23,211 20,762 -18%

AR 8,107 9,625 9,550 18%

TN 11,450 13,958 14,586 27%

Quick peek

 Free &

ReducedForeclosure (Children)

HCY Unemployment

MS 71% 28,000 11,448 9%

AL 56% 45,000 17,670 8%

LA 67% 39,000 20,762 6%

AR 61% 200,000 9,550 7%

TN 55% 73,000 14,586 8%

Another look

• An examination of the data shows that homeless students have IEPs at a higher rate (19%) than the state rate (14%)

• The suspension rate for homeless students was 26%, while the state rate was 14% overall

• The majority of suspensions (59%) were related to alcohol, drugs, defiance, or aggression

Collaborative relationships

• Create a needs assessment committee

– Establish meeting schedule

– Communicate purpose & commitment level

• Make the case for data-based decision making to ensure participation

– Take into account guidance from MDE

Collaborative relationships

• People to include:– Title I program administrators

– Social workers and counselors

– Other student services staff

– Homeless parents/youth

– Community agency representatives

– Head Start & other program staff

– Others, including enrollment staff

But what about me?

• Important to remember everyone has an agenda & things for which they are accountable

• Committees that do not address the concerns of the group fail

• If you identify concerns, you can tailor information so members are more receptive to change

Guiding the discussion

• NCHE’s Needs Assessment Worksheet

• Focus areas include– Awareness raising

– Policies & procedures

– Identification & enrollment

– Student success

– Collaboration, internal & external to district

– Resources & capacity

Guiding the discussion

• Make the worksheet fit your district

– Choose questions most important to you & district or state initiatives

– Adjust level of specificity based on current program status

– Be strategic: not all data & information is useful

Guiding the discussion

• Where are we now?

• Where do we want to go?

• How will we get there?

• How will we know we are there?

• How can we keep it going?– Edie L. Holcomb, Asking the Right Questions:

Tools for Collaboration & School Change

Connecting needs and outcomes

Your district provides after school tutoring to homeless students. However, in reviewing the data on grades and academic performance, you notice they really aren’t improving. You’re baffled because you know you hired solid teachers as tutors. What could be the issue?

Connecting needs and outcomes

Your district wants to provide school supplies because you’ve noticed that a large number of students simply do not have what they need when the school year starts. As you open your email to send a message to the treasurer about the budget for this expense, you remember: MDE wants academic outcome data. What can you use to support this expense?

Creation of clear goals

• Good goals describe expected change

– Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely

– Based on what you discover from data

– Drive your activities

– Should be limited in number

– Consult Standards & Indicators for Quality McKinney-Vento Programs

Example goals

• I will train all teachers on homelessness.

• 100% of special education teachers will receive training on homelessness.

• The district will lower suspensions related to IEP identified needs of students by 5%.

Create a plan

• Prioritize the work

• Establish goals

• Determine who will carry out activities

– Clarify roles and responsibilities

• Decide how to measure success

• Include a timeline

• Make sure your plan aligns to allowable expenses

Avoid timewasters

• Choose activities wisely

– Which ones will have the greatest impact?

– Which ones are unrelated to your goals?

– Which activities can be reasonably completed?

– If an activity requires participation of more than the liaison, is it realistic?

– Is the activity concrete in nature?

Managing your time

Barriers

• Don’t forget to account for them

– Barriers for students (data, logs)

– Barriers for plan implementation

• Examine source or cause

– Build solutions into your plan

Tools to guide you

Needs Assessment Guide

• http://center.serve.org/nche/pr/na_eval.php

Standards & Indicators for Quality Programs

•http://center.serve.org/nche/downloads/st_and_ind_2006_rev.doc

Homeless Liaison Toolkit

•http://center.serve.org/nche/pr/liaison_toolkit.php

Contact us

NCHE

– http://center.serve.org/nche/

– (800) 308-2145 orhomeless@serve.org

Christina Endres

– cendres@serve.org or (336) 315-7438