Transcript ECFE Community Needs Assessment

Early Childhood Family Education
Community Needs Assessment:
This Year and Beyond
MNAFEE, April 2015
Mike Brown, MDE
“Leading for educational excellence and equity. Every day
for every one.”
Overview
• What is a community needs assessment (CNA)?
– Definitions
– ECFE statutes
– Why are we completing a CNA?
• How does this fit in the broader picture?
– Program
– District
– State
• What is the process for completing the CNA?
– Guidance documents and resources
– Early childhood administration website
• What are the requirements of future CNAs?
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What is a Community Needs Assessment?
• A community needs assessment identifies the
strengths and resources available in the
community to meet the needs of children, youth,
and families. The assessment focuses on the
capabilities of the community, including its
citizens, agencies, and organizations. It provides
a framework for developing and identifying
services and solutions and building
communities that support and nurture children
and families.
– from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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What is a Community Needs Assessment?
• A community assessment may be limited to a
compilation of demographic data from census
records, results of surveys conducted by others,
and informal feedback from community partners.
• Or, assessments may be expanded to include
focus group discussions, town meetings,
interviews with stakeholders, and telephone or
mailed surveys to partnership members and the
community.
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Why do a Community Needs Assessment?
• Evaluate our programs to see if we are serving a
representative sample of parents and families in our
community,
• Understand what issues may be impacting parents
and families,
• Learn what programming and services are most
needed and wanted by parents and families,
• Identify and learn about other programs and
services for children and families, and
• Gather data to enable us to track changes over
time.
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Why do a Community Needs Assessment?
• Provide direction for programs, projects and
activities,
• Allow staff to determine priorities and allocate limited
resources to activities that will have the greatest
impact,
• Create cohesion through the alignment of goals,
strategies, professional development, and desired
outcomes, and
• Assist with continuous improvement activities by
helping staff identify change, which instructional and
other practices are working, and the strategies
associated with the greatest success. (p. 3)
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Needs Assessment Requirements
New in the 2014 ECFE Statutes:
ECFE programs must provide a community needs
assessment that
1. identifies new and underserved
populations,
2. identifies child and family risk factors,
particularly those that impact children's
learning and development, and
3. assesses family and parenting education
needs in the community;
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Tailored Programming and Services
Early childhood family education programs must
provide:
• programming and services that are tailored to
the needs of families and parents prioritized in
the community needs assessment
- 124D.13, Subd. 2, (7)
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Flexibility Delivering Parent Education
The program may provide parenting education
programming or services to anyone identified in
the community needs assessment.
- 124D.13, Subd. 2, (a)
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Process for Developing Guidance
• Fit with PreK-3rd Grade framework
• Advisory group
– Timeline and interpretation
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Frameworks
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Examples of Similarities between
Frameworks
• Frames the body of knowledge in the field of
education.
• Is applicable across the field of education with
any type of education program, population,
setting, and delivery mode.
• Is a planning tool for the development of
comprehensive approaches.
• Shared visions, strategies, etc.
• Coordinates/structures planning, implementation,
evaluation
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Framework Elements
Cross-Sector
Work
Continuity and
Pathways
Parent
Development
Administrators
Family
Engagement
Teachers
Data-Driven
Improvement
Culture and
Community
Instructional
Tools
Family
Development
Parent-Child
Relationships
Early Childhood
Development
Learning
Environment
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PECCF Contribution to P3 Framework
Cross-Sector
Work
Continuity and
Pathways
Administrators
Family
Engagement
Teachers
Data-Driven
Improvement
Instructional
Tools
Learning
Environment
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rd
PreK-3
Framework
Implementation Scope
Programs
Grade Levels
Schools
Community
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Your Approach
Two main approaches to consider:
– Limited – utilize demographic data from census
records, relevant survey data, and informal feedback
from community partners.
– Expanded – include data from more assessments,
including ones that you would conduct, like focus
groups, interviews, surveys, etc.
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Step One:
Understanding Scope of CNA
1. Read through materials provided by MDE
• Community Needs Assessment Guidance
• Community Needs Assessment Worksheet
2. Visit EC Administration website to familiarize
yourself with content of ECFE needs
assessment page.
http://ecadmin.wikidot.com/ecfe-needs-assessment
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Guidance Document
1. Determine focus
2. Determine plan for using
CNA
3. Gather Information
1. Participation
2. Community
3. Children
4. Families
5. Services
4. Review and analyze
5. Make decisions and take
action
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Potential Scope of CNA – Depth and Breadth
ECFE Only
Includes K-12
Meets minimum requirements
1
2
Other orgs/programs
Contains Numerous Elements
3
4
5
Examples:
1 – This CNA is designed to address the three items listed in ECFE statutes.
3 – This CNA would include other needs assessment elements and be part of
a larger process. For example, it might include surveys of parents and be
part of a program’s ECFE enhancement process, or part of a broader K-12
effort.
5 – This CNA would include items in addition to above, and be part of a
district or broader community needs assessment.
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Initial Questions
1. What do you want to know and why do you
want to know it?
2. What will be the scope of your CNA?
3. What is your timeline?
4. Who is planning the CNA and who is executing
it?
5. How are you defining key terms?
6. Is your CNA part of a larger process?
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What do you want to know and
why do you want to know it?
• Be intentional and strategic!
• Consider your program goals, beliefs and
mission statement.
• Tie the information to your ECFE Program
Enhancement Process and the ECFE Quality
Indicators
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What do you want to know and why do
you want to know it? (sample)
What we want to know:
1. Are we serving a representative
sample of our population?
2. Have new families moved into
our community?
3. What are child and family risk
factors in our community?
4. What do parents want to know?
How do we meet parents’ needs
and wants?
Why we want to know it:
1. To know if there are families we
are not serving.
2. We need to reach out to build
relationships.
3. We need to do a better job
serving families with risk
factors, including tailoring our
programming and services to
meet needs and wants of
families.
4. We understand the needs of
parents who attend our
program, but we need to
understand the needs and
wants of all parents in our
community.
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How are you defining key terms?
• Be specific, document terms.
• For example, how are you defining community?
– Albany school district may say that their community
includes the residents of Albany, Albany township,
Avon, Avon township, Farming township, St. Anthony,
St. Martin and St. Martin township.
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Step Two:
Planning
Complete Part II of the Community Needs
Assessment Worksheet (questions 1 through 9)
1. Will your needs assessment include only the
required components or will you be including
additional components?
2. What is your timeline?
3. Do you think your needs assessment will use a
limited, expanded or mixed method? (see page
1 of guidance document)
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Step Two, cont.
4. Who is in charge of the CNA work? What are
their responsibilities?
5. Who is helping with the CNA and what are their
responsibilities?
6. Describe what you want to know and why you
need to know it.
7. What key terms to you need to define?
8. If your CNA is part of a larger process, describe
that process.
9. What data will you need to collect?
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Step Three
1. Gather data
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Step Three
Gather Data on Participants
• Who attends our program? Who seems to be most
engaged in our program? Who attends an event or
class but does not continue with program?
• Are we providing targeted services where they are
most needed?
• Are we tailoring our classes and services to meet
the needs of parents and families in our community?
• How do parents and families experience our
program (e.g. facilities, staff, classes, services,
etc.)?
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Step Three
Gather Data on Community
• Race/ethnicity of families
and children
• Numbers of children ages
0-5 living in the
community
• Poverty rate for families
• Child poverty rate
• Number of single-parent
households
• Number of teenage
parents
• Number of immigrant
families
• Number of mothers in the
labor force
• Mobility rate for families
in your community
• Child health information
• Child maltreatment rates
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Step Three
Gather Data on Children
• Who are the children that struggle in our preschool,
kindergarten, etc.?
• What puts a child “at-risk” in our community?
• What do parents and families want for their
children?
• How does your organization determine how well
children are doing? How do other organizations
determine how well children are doing?
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Step Three
Gather Data on Families
• Who are the families in our community?
• What would help families in their role of educating
and parenting?
• What do parents want to know? What are the most
common topics?
• Where do families go for support and information?
• What types of support and resources do families
want/need?
• What are the strengths of families in our
community?
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Step Three
Gather Data on Services in the Community
• Who else in your school district works with families?
• Who works with children and families in our
community?
• What programs and services do parents and
families access?
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Step Four:
Review and Analyze
Review and Analyze Data
• Prioritize Needs
• Root Cause Analysis
• Identify Trends and Patterns
• Summarize Findings
Illustrate Your Story
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Step Five:
Make Decisions and Take Action
Make Decisions and Take Action
Examples:
• Influence Your Programming and Services
• Goals and Priorities
• Influence your P-3 Plans and Work
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Example #1
Step Two
Jefferson ECFE (depth = 1; breadth = 1)
• The Jefferson school district decided to focus on
meeting the minimum requirements.
• They want the needs assessment to be completed
in time for state reporting.
• They will use a limited method.
• They assigned a parent educator to complete the
CNA.
• They plan on finding data that relates to the three
require components.
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Example #1
Steps Three and Four
1. Gather data
•
•
•
ECFE Participant Questionnaire data, district data from MDE
(MN Report Card), and community data from Minnesota
Compass.
Established/known child and family risk factors.
Parent education need data from parent educators.
2. Review and analyze data
•
•
•
Compared participant data with district and community data.
Compared known child and family risk factors with district and
community risk factors.
Analyzed data from parent education topic finders.
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Example #2:
Step Four cont.
2. Review and analyze
ECFE Participants
District & Community
Data
Educational Level
31% HS and below
46% HS and below
Household Income
40% Free and Reduced
56% Free and Reduced
Hispanic or Latino
17%
31%
Children w/ Spec Needs
4%
12%
English Second Language 16%
19%
3. Make decisions and take action
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Example #2
Step Two
Montgomery ECFE (depth = 3; breadth = 3)
• The Montgomery school district decided to focus on
more than the minimum requirements.
• They want the needs assessment to be completed
in time for state reporting, but see this as ongoing.
• They will use an expanded method.
• They assigned a team of three to complete the
CNA.
• They plan on finding data that relates to the three
require components in addition to data relevant to K.
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Example #2
Step Three
1. Gather data
In addition to the data collected by Jefferson, they also collected:
•
•
•
Survey data on parenting needs of parents of kindergarten aged
children and parents who did not attend ECFE
Survey data on parents of infants
Information on children who were struggling in kindergarten.
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Example #2
Step Four
1. Review and analyze data
Similar to Jefferson, Montgomery:
• Compared participant data with district and community data.
• Compared known child and family risk factors with district and
community risk factors.
• Analyzed data from parent education topic finders.
In addition, they analyzed:
• Characteristics of children who were struggling in kindergarten.
• What parents of infants and kindergartners were saying they
needed/wanted.
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Example #2
Step Four
Make Decisions and Take Action
Examples:
• Influence Your Programming and Services
– Created task force tasked with addressing needs of
parents/families with infants
• Goals and Priorities
– Aligning programming and services, outreach to pregnant
mothers, supporting parents through school transitions,
outreach to families who do not enroll in ECFE or any kind
of early learning program.
• Influence P-3 Plans and Work
– Created a parenting education transition program.
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Data Reporting to MDE
Program data submission requirements
• Districts receiving early childhood family
education revenue under section 124D.135 must
submit annual program data, including data that
demonstrates the program response to the
community needs assessment, to the
department by July 15 in the form and manner
prescribed by the commissioner.
- 124D.13, Subd. 13
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Data Reporting to MDE
1. How did you identify new and underserved
populations? What were your key findings?
2. How did you identify child and family risk
factors? What were your key findings?
3. How did you assess family and parenting
education needs? What were your key
findings?
4. How will your programming and services be
tailored to the needs of families and parents
prioritized in the community needs
assessment?
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Questions / Comments
Mike Brown
MDE
[email protected]
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