Needs Assessment Report

EDT531

Needs Assessment Report

by

Midori Grahl

Introduction

I conducted needs assessments in Garden City Public Schools. Garden City is the district where I did my student teaching and became acquainted with several Japanese Language teachers. This district is currently undergoing a series of technology implementations. All of the elementary schools have been recently restructured and each building has become a grade specific campus that accommodates only its assigned grades. Prior to needs assessments I invited three Japanese teachers to participate in my professional development activities and all of them expressed their interest. Two of the teachers are from Douglas Elementary School (3-4 grade campus), and one is from Garden City High School. Accordingly my assessments focused on these two buildings as well as the district as a whole.

Technology Plans

The district has 5 year technology implementation plan but the Elementary and the High School do not have a building specific plan. Instead, the district is preparing a technology curriculum plan for K-12 that is based on METS. The K-8 sections of the plan are now completed.

Technology Planning Committee

Garden City Public Schools has a district technology committee that is consist of employees from each building, parents, and community members. According to the Garden City High School media specialist and the Douglas Elementary Principal both buildings do not have a building technology committee.

Review of Technology Plans

The district technology plan has a goal for Professional Development. It states that the district will provide professional developments and training on effective use of technology so that teachers will be aware of METS and/or NETS and will be able to base instructions on those technology standards. In addition to the goal statement, in the district plan included is a list of specific aimed outcomes of meeting the goal. Among the listed outcomes I identify the followings as possible focus areas for PD activities.

·  Develop new ways of integrating technology use into the curriculum and classroom

·  Manage student learning to assure that students are using technology appropriately

·  Improve the academic achievement, including technology literacy through student use of technology across the curriculum, i.e., word processing, Internet research, educational software in core academics

As the district plan focuses on the State and the National standards, the building specific technology curriculum also stresses METS. I will discuss further what I identify as the focus area for my professional development activities in the later section.

Current Level of Technology Use

In the district technology plan, the schools’ current technology use is determined. According to the plan, their technology use is “consistent but limited.” Learning with Technology Profile Tool results indicate that the both elementary school and high school students are engaged in learning and have a good access to technology and there are differences in technology use between the two buildings. The charts for the two buildings’ technology use are as follows.

Name: Garden City High School
Date: September 29,

Indicators
of
Engaged
Learning
/ Vision of Learning /
Tasks /
Assessment /
Instructional Model /
Learning Context /
Grouping /
Teacher Roles /
Student Roles /

(This portion is completed by Mrs. Schultz)

Indicators
of
High-Performance
Technology / Access /
Operability /
Organization /
Engagability /
Ease of Use /
Functionality /

Garden City uses very high filter and students have very limited access to online resources and tools. The differences between the two buildings present partially because upper grade students have higher technology skills to make more use of available technology and as a consequence the teachers use more technology integrated lessons. However it infers that the elementary school students need more opportunities to use available technology in learning and the teachers need professional training on that score.

Priorities for PD Activities

I contacted via email Mrs. Schultz, the Garden City High School Media Specialist and she stated that any types of professional development on effective technology use were very much needed. During our informal meeting Mrs. Del Cotto, a computer teacher of Douglas Elementary, stated that varied skill levels among students and among buildings were a real concern. She hopes the district’s new technology curriculum will help bridge the gap.

Additionally I sent out a survey to the prospective participants to identify the needs of the classroom teachers. Only one teacher responded to the survey questions. According to her response, she have implemented technology integrated lessons in multiple occasions using multiple types of media and technology, though she has not used any of the online tools that I identified as effective tools for World Language instructions. Also she indicated she was not familiar with METS or NETS. Her strong interest area is audio-visual resources from Internet. Please see the result of the survey by following the link.

Considering the district’s and individual schools’ levels of technology use and these inputs from the interviews and a survey response, I determined that the priority is to increase the use of available technology including web tools in instruction. I select an online tool, VoiceThread to be introduced to the teachers during my professional development.

Focus Area of Professional Development

As I identified by reviewing the district technology plan and the technology curriculum plan, Garden City’s technology integration is moving forwards by stressing coherence with technology standards. Therefore introducing and informing about METS can be the focus of my professional development project. Another determining factor is teacher’s unfamiliarity with the technology standards and expectations as reported in the above section.

Participants

I have contacted three Japanese Language teachers of Garden City Schools and initially they showed their interest in my project. Two are from Douglas Elementary and one is from Garden City High School. Only one teacher has returned surveys and the rest may not be willing to participate after all. However, I plan to design my professional development to be applicable to the Japanese teachers in both levels so that other teachers can participate in activities when they decide to do so.

Individual Teacher’s Level of Technology Competency

One of the two Elementary teachers is a consistent technology user as the survey result reveals. Although I did not get a response from the High School teacher, I have observed his technology integrated lesson before and have heard of his strong interest in using technology and I can safely determine that his technology competency is compatible with or even higher than that of the Elementary school teacher. Therefore I can conclude that these teachers will have no problems in using an online tool I select. Concerning the other Elementary teacher who did not respond to my surveys, the online tool requires basic operations and I have a confidence that if she decides to join us she will find the technical tasks less cumbersome.

Goal of Professional Development

By considering the focus area and the priority I identified and other information I obtained throughout the needs assessments, I set a goal for my professional development as to develop a technology integrated lesson that has a base in Michigan Educational Technology Standards.