Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Summary of Findings
Christie Ellis
Summary of Findings
In order to better understand the gaps of resources within our school, a needs assessment
plan was conducted through multiple levels of inquiry. As a result, both quantitative and
qualitative data was collected in order to better serve our classroom. As stated by Lavoie (2008),
in order for teachers to provide quality opportunities for students, it is essential that they work as
advocates for both their classroom and communities, and empower students to join them in that
cause. Overall, the needs assessment plan brought to light multiple insights about the needs of
needs.
Quantitative Data
In order to gather a strong backbone of data, the Needs Assessment Plan required that I
collect data from multiple sourcesthe existing data component from our schools Conditions
for Learning Survey, a grade-level survey designed to further probe into students thoughts, and a
parent-survey. According to the Oklahoma State Department of Education (1998) and the
Intersection (2013), surveys are an extremely effective way of gathering qualitative data about
the perceptions within a community. The student survey was conducted in a whole group setting,
with the instructor reading each question aloud to students in order to aid with reading
comprehension.
From the data initially gathered by the Conditions for Learning Surveyit was clear
where students were feeling gaps in their community and our school. For example, 40% of third
grade students felt bullied. In order to better understand this data, I created a survey that dived
where, when, or how bullying occurred. Contrary to the results of the CFL surveystudent
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outcomes were much more cheerful than what had been previously recorded. Primarily, over
92% of students felt that they had Never Been Bullied. Howeverthere were some areas where
our classroom clearly has needsfor example, 46% of students felt that other students were
sometimes mean to each other, and 23% felt they often go home with negative feelings about
school. Although students felt they had friends (84%), liked their teachers (62%), and had
someone to talk to (77%), it was clear that there was an underlying sadness to students school
experiences. For example, 54% of students sometimes felt extremely sad during school hours.
The data collected from parent data was overwhelmingly positive. Most (86%) of parents
surveyed felt overwhelmingly positive about their childrens experiences at schoolwith only
10% of parents believing that their child had experienced serious bullying during their time in
our grade level. Furthermore, parents overwhelmingly (92%) felt that their children typically
come home with positivity about their experiences at school. From a parents perspective, our
school was performing wonderfullyalthough this did not reflect the specific feelings felt by
Qualitative Data
In order to better understand the needs of students based on their survey data, I brought in
students as focus groups in order to foster a discussion about their social-emotional needs within
school. In these focus groups, I selected students in heterogenous groupings based on their
survey datafor example, grouping students with generally positive, negative, or bullying
related feelings together in order to allow them to feel comfortable speaking openly about their
viewpoints, without feeling like a contrarian. Within these groups, I was able to better understand
students source of frustrationsuch as why individual students often feel upset, or sadness
during school hours. For many students, it was a combination of stress over peer relationships,
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experiences with less well-liked teachers, or a lack of recess or play time during the school day.
Furthermore, when sourcing students for ideas, it was clear that they longed for a sense of joy to
happen more regularly within the instructional daymost students pointed to the irregular
occurrences of our afternoon meetings, which have been more frequently cancelled due to our
testing schedule. Finally, students relayed a strong feeling of stress and apprehensionover
standardized testing, and fears of moving to the next grade level. Overall, it is clear that our
classroom, and school, must seek to supply more rewards and pleasurable experiences for
Preconceived Notions
One clear preconceived notion that existed prior to completing the surveys was to better
understand what students believed and knew about the subject of bullying. According to the
Conditions for Learning Survey, over 40% of third graders felt bullied within our classroom. In
order to better understand this data, I help a classroom meeting and informational lesson about
the realities of bullyingincluding the definition, and my own personal childhood example of
bullying. Within our discussion, it was revealed that most students did not differentiate between
students simply being mean on occasion, and bullying as defined by psychologists. According to
StopBullying.gov (2012), bullying must consist of two factorsa perceived power imbalance,
and repetition. Prior to explaining this to studentsover 70% of students within my classroom
felt they had been bullied. After sharing my own story, and providing examples and definitions
of bullying, an anonymous post-lesson survey indicated that only one student had ever felt
bullied in their life. This learning experience challenged both myself, and my students to think
about their experiences and their relationships to one anotherincluding pushing them to relate
with one another, and critically analyze their safety within our school. Although I did not want to
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discourage students from speaking out or against unkindness towards one another, students felt
that they left the lesson with a better understanding of the positivity in their school environment
for example, while only 20% of students noted that they felt safe at school at the beginning of
the lesson, over 86% of students felt safe after learning about the realities of bullying.
Furthermore, my students and I felt far closer after this lessonas I shared my real experienced
of being bullied as a child, and they were able to better to related to this and empathize with the
experience.
Engagement
Overall, students felt the most engaged during the relational components of the needs
assessment planincluding our classroom discussions, and focus groups. During these sessions
it was clear that students felt that they were acting as advocates for their school and grade
level, and were communicating about issues that could create true change within our classroom.
According to the University of Kansas (2010), focus groups are an essential component in
culling community-proposed solutions to issues. Within our focus groups, students were able to
create strong elements of discussion and relay ideas to me that would not have entered my idea
Alternatively, my students do not enjoy taking surveys. Students have been engaged in a
series of standardized tests that has lasted over a month, and will continue for the next six weeks,
sitting down to take a short survey was an additional burden to themprimarily for those who
are struggling readers. If conducting a needs assessment in the future, I would not implement it
during this time of year as it became an additional stress-event, rather than a source of
Overall, the primary change that I would make to the implementation of the needs
assessment survey would be to bring parents deeper into the fold. Within this plan, I utilized
parent responses through the dissemination of a survey, but I would be able to create a stronger
community and receive more open feedback through a focus group or similar method. As with
the relational data gathered from students, this component is essential as it can provide
the data that was provided by studentswould they feel as positively as they reflected in their
For the remainder of this year, I seek to allow students and families to search for
solutions to the needs uncovered within this planprimarily when planning for action in the
weeks to come. As students are feeling negative emotions based on the lack of joy-creating
activities, and preponderance of stress-inducing tests, it is clear that we must work together to
create a positive solution for both our classroom and grade-level. Bringing parents deeper into
this movement, by providing student survey data or creating focus groups, will allow me to
create a stronger community that is focused on providing students with opportunities for joy.
Furthermore, I will push students to help me prioritize activities that they find engaging and
rewarding. Finally, I will personally focus on students who harbor the most negativity, and create
additional opportunities to lessen their stressby building our relationship, and seeking out
ways to eliminate their personal feelings of negativity by creating opportunities for happiness.
Conclusion
Overall, the needs assessment conducted within our grade-level allowed me to better
understand students needs and perceived gaps in resources, and better relay this information to
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students as a while. In order to advocate for students, it is essential to understand what they feel
that their environment is lacking. For my students, both the quantitative and qualitative data
aligned to showcase an underlying sense of negativity. Furthermore, students supported this data
by helping me better understand the source of their stressincluding a lack of opportunities for
play, and an overwhelming number of standardized tests and the stress related to these events.
Utilizing this information, we will be able to create a student-led plan of action that will target
References
Lavoie, R. (2008). Fighting the good fight: How to advocate for your students without losing
http://ok.gov/sde/sites/ok.gov.sde/files/Homeless-NeedsAssess.pdf
University of Kansas, Work Group for Community Health and Development. (2010). Assessing
community needs and resources, section 6: Conducting focus groups. In Community tool
community-needs-and-resources/conduct-focus-groups/main
https://www.stopbullying.gov/what-is-bullying/definition/index.html
The Intersection. (2013). Community needs survey: East Baltimore. Sample Needs Assessment
%20Needs%20Assessment%20Survey.pdf