School Needs Assessment

1. When looking at student achievement data, mention positive things shown in the data.
2. Which school-wide program or research-based strategy do you believe is responsible for the
positives?
3. When looking at student achievement data, mention areas of improvement.
4. In your opinion, what school-wide program or research-based strategy can improve student
achievement (ex. nutrition, late start)?
5. What interventions have you used with success to support failing and at-risk students?
6. What strategies have you used to enrich high achieving students?
7. Using the growth mindset, think about a professional development opportunity that could
benefit you.
8. How well do you feel the school’s mission statement aligns to the school’s needs?
9. Are there any other concerns you would like to voice?

Faculty and staff are just two stakeholder groups whose input is needed for a comprehensive school
needs assessment. Write a 250-500 word description of other stakeholders who would need to be
surveyed as well as other key data points that would need to be gathered as part of a comprehensive
school needs assessment. Explain why this input is needed.

According to the California Department of Education, there are four sources of data a school must
consider when assessing the local needs of a school or district. The four sources are demographic data,
student learning data, perception data, and school process data. These sets of data can be considered
individually or in conjunction with each other depending on the question being posed. The data is used
to identify local priorities and to create the questions for the Needs Assessment Survey. Aside from
faculty and staff, the Local Education Agency (LEA) should strive to include the perspective of parents,
students, the school board, and community members. Since students are still minors, their parents and
guardians are responsible for their education. Consequently, parents become the main customer of the
school. If they are provided a bad service, they will complain at the district office or have their student
transfer to another school. Because they are the main customer, their needs must be addressed. The
LEA cannot assume every parent wants the same thing for their student. Afterwards, the LEA cannot
ignore the students’ input. Students are the ones directly receiving the services and the ones who will
be mainly impacted by the school’s decisions and quality of services. Thirdly, the LEA must include input
from the school board because they are the ones responsible for approving everything. Finally, the
community members are the main source of funding for schools and as such, their perspective cannot
be overlooked in this process. Ultimately, everyone in a community will be directly or indirectly affected
by the quality of services a school provides. Therefore, every group’s input should be included when
designing the Needs Assessment Survey.

References:
California Department of Education (2015, July 2nd). Analyzing Data and Assessing Local Needs.
Retrieved from URL: https://youtu.be/2afIMstJBno
 Cuiccio, C., Husby-Slater, M. (2018, May). Needs Assessment Guidebook. Retrieved from URL:
https://statesupportnetwork.ed.gov/system/files/needsassessmentguidebook-508_003.pdf

Needs Assessment. Retrieved from URL: https://www.cde.state.co.us/sites/default/files/

documents/fedprograms/dl/consapp_na_tia-na.pdf

School Needs Assessment Link:

https://forms.gle/CLc9RDZjqoT9674aA