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SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 1

Summary of Findings

Christie Ellis

Johns Hopkins University of Education


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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

my studentsprimarily their feelings about the school as it relates to their social-emotional

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

deeper into students social-emotional statusincluding asking open-ended questions about

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

students per the survey data.

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

students in order to address their strong negative emotions.

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

stream without their feedback.

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

empowerment for students.


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Implementation Changes and Next Steps

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

community-proposed solutions (University of Kansas, 2010). For example, if parents understood

the data that was provided by studentswould they feel as positively as they reflected in their

own surveys, or would they passionately want to search for a solution?

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

the social-emotional needs of our classroom and grade.


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References

Lavoie, R. (2008). Fighting the good fight: How to advocate for your students without losing

your job. Retrieved from http://www.ldonline.org/article/22720/

Oklahoma State Department of Education. (1998). McKinney-Vento homeless education:

Sample needs assessment. Retrieved December 23, 2013, from

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

box. Retrieved from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-

community-needs-and-resources/conduct-focus-groups/main

StopBullying.gov. (2012). Bullying Definition. Retrieved March 26, 2017, from

https://www.stopbullying.gov/what-is-bullying/definition/index.html

The Intersection. (2013). Community needs survey: East Baltimore. Sample Needs Assessment

Survey. Retrieved from http://olms.cte.jhu.edu/olms2/data/ck/sites/2284/files/Sample

%20Needs%20Assessment%20Survey.pdf

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