NEEDS ASSESSMENT 1
Community Resources Alignment: Needs Assessment
Kayle Arlaus
School of Education, Liberty University
Author Note
Kayle Arlaus
I have no known conflicts of interest to disclose.
Any issues regarding this needs assessments should be addressed to Kayle Arlaus.
Email: kdarlaus@liberty.edu
NEEDS ASSESSMENT 2
Abstract
Consistent needs assessments are a crucial tool for districts to utilize when determining strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) to the learning environment within the district. A
needs assessment provides the necessary information of where to start and then provides the
opportunity for collaboration to find and provide necessary resources to meet the needs of the
district. Continued collaboration between stakeholders, community members, students, and
school employees is critical in terms of understanding the needs of a district and then reaching
success in meeting those needs. This needs assessment includes the collaboration of Navarro
Independent School District’s Parent Teacher Organization President, Chief Academic Officer,
and Superintendent to discuss current needs within the district and how those needs were
discovered. Collaboration between parties also provided information as to what has been done up
to this point to meet those needs and any plans in the future to reach success within the district.
Keywords: Needs assessment, Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA),
Title I, at-risk, emergent bilingual
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Community Resources Alignment: Needs Assessment
The Navarro Independent School District (NISD) Board of Trustees meets with the
Superintendent and community members formally twice a year to conduct and evaluate a needs
assessment. This does not account for any ongoing meetings throughout the year to ensure the
district is on track to meet the goals of the needs assessment. NISD enables community
members, staff, and students to voice their opinion as to how to better serve the district and
discover how resources can best be utilized to meet the needs of the community it serves. This
assessment keeps the district in compliance with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of
1965 (ESEA) and helps the district identify what it needs to help students be successful. This
assessment was conducted with key members of the school community.
Collaboration and Communication
I had the opportunity to speak with Lily Benavidez, a member of the Parent-Teacher
Organization (PTO), and Mandy Epley, the Superintendent about collaboration strategies and
current needs for the district. It was important to speak with Lily because she is involved with so
many aspects of the district and could offer the perspective of a parent in the district. Since
Mandy is involved in every aspect of the decision making in the district, it was important to ask
her perspective on the current needs.
This is Mandy Epley’s (2023) second year as the NISD Superintendent. She hit the
ground running with a thorough needs assessment that involved looking at curriculum, program,
student, and community needs. According to the ESEA, districts must conduct a needs
assessment at least once a year and be held accountable to those needs assessments (Atchison,
2019). However, Mandy finds it important to conduct a needs assessment at the beginning and a
follow up at the year’s midpoint. This year, the goal was to strengthen the English Language Arts
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and Reading (ELAR) curriculum to account for the new addition of the writing portion to the
state assessment, State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). To do this,
Mandy collaborated with the Chief Academic Officer and ELAR representatives from each grade
level. They viewed and tested different curricula to adopt and then finally voted, which resulted
in the district choosing Amplify, to meet the needs of the students and new writing standards.
Mandy explained that the adoption of this curriculum also provided a tie-in to the English
Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS), which emergent bilinguals are assessed on in the Texas
English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS).
She communicated this adoption through the Board Meeting. She is also intentional with
the way she communicates with parents. She holds separate monthly meetings held with
community members to update them on all aspects of the SWOT analysis used when determining
district needs. She also communicates any changes through her monthly Superintendent
newsletter, the Remind app, and Parent Square. These attempts at parent engagement are critical
to the success of district initiatives since engaged parents can strengthen the learning links and
connectivity to a child’s education (Kelty & Wakabayashi, 2020).
The Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) is a committed group of parents and guardians
who have students currently enrolled within the district that help coordinate events, fundraisers,
and parent engagement within the district (Navarro Elementary School, n.d.). I met with Lily
Benavidez (2023) who is a member of the PTO and has a child currently enrolled in both the
Special Education and English as a Second Language (ESL) program in the district. She
communicated that more resources were needed for the ESL program across the district to update
teachers on best practices to ensure they were ready for TELPAS. Also, there is a great need for
more special education teachers within the district. She communicated that students are
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complaining about Wi-Fi and out of date technology. The PTO met with administration and Mrs.
Epley to determine what could be done about these issues and determined that they could help
with technology issues by holding a fundraiser for the district to purchase new Chromebooks.
Lily said that immediately after the decision was made, the PTO met and brainstormed
the type of fundraiser they would hold and how they would communicate it to the community.
They decided on a raffle and have used newsletters, e-blasts, and the community Facebook page
to communicate so far. This engagement with the PTO and the community is important since
they have such a direct role with students and the district. PTO engagement with school staff and
the surrounding community can ensure the development of effective partnerships to spur on
student achievement (Kelty & Wakabayashi, 2020). This relationship between the community,
district, and parents will lead to success in meeting the district's needs.
Interview
I had the privilege of interviewing Wendy McMullen, the Chief Academic Officer of
NISD. Wendy McMullen (2023) noted that it has been her initiative to improve curriculum and
special programs within the district over the past five years. She works very closely with the
Superintendent and Board of Trustees to ensure that needs are met quarterly. She works with
school principals to keep schools on track and to readjust goals, as necessary.
When asked about community involvement in making decisions about needs for the district she
advised that parents are kept informed through school newsletters weekly and have access to all
Board Meeting notes through the district website (Navarro Independent School District, n.d.-b).
She communicated that to meet the curriculum needs, teachers and students are held to high
expectations which has a high correspondence with increased success on state exams and student
performance (Anderson-Butcher et al., 2020). Wendy (2023) spoke about the adoption of
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Amplify and how teachers and students have adjusted to this new curriculum and the impact is
already being seen across classrooms in the district with students speaking and writing with more
academic language.
When asked about the parents' concerns for more technology, Wendy admitted that this is
a high need in this district. She mentioned that there are currently only two hot spot internet
connections for families who do not have internet access and that the district is currently
collaborating with the Board to remedy this with their available funding. As far as the lack of up-
to-date technology in the classroom, Wendy is hopeful that the fundraiser the PTO is planning
will account for most of the money necessary to update Chromebooks. However, she is already
working with the Superintendent on securing a grant since the population in Navarro is changing
and growing at a rapid pace. Through outsourcing in the community and working hard on the
district’s end, the community and district should be able to pull together to secure at least six
more class sets of updated technology and Smartboards for classrooms. She expressed that this
active search for engagement from the district to the community and parents is pivotal in the
effective implementation of all the new district initiatives and accounting for the current
demographics and school makeup (Kelty & Wakabayashi, 2020).
After the interview meetings and interviews conducted, it is apparent that a shift needs to
happen in terms of how learning is taking place. The district is moving in the right direction in
terms of curriculum adoption, but there is still a lack of technology that they are currently trying
to address. The first and most important initiative should be to supply families with the necessary
technology and internet access to help make learning accessible while at home. The district is
doing the right thing in terms of communication frequency and parental involvement. This is
crucial to the success of these initiatives moving forward since supportive networks at home and
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in schools show positive correlation to student academic long-term success (Kelty &
Wakabayashi, 2020). I do believe technology should be the top priority for NISD since there are
so many ways to attain it. This is critical to keep students up to date with their learning and to
access the Amplify curriculum at school and at home. I would continue to investigate special
programs success with the new curriculum and monitor this in the future as the ESL program
continues to grow.
Identified Needs
Navarro ISD is on the right track with their needs assessment and how they are going to
provide the necessary means to make this district successful. However, to keep the district on
track it is important to identify the main needs as of right now. The district needs to target a
specific aspect of their programs they want to focus on. Through the interviews conducted and
the demographics study, the ESL and Special Education program are growing at a rapid rate and
need to be accounted for when purchasing assistive technology and curriculum. The school-
related needs identified are professional development should be provided for teachers on the use
of the new curriculum, Amplify. It is a high expectation curriculum that is very scripted, and
teachers need to be one hundred percent confident that they know how to use it and develop
lesson plans with it appropriately, especially as it pertains to modifying and accommodating for
special education and ESL. This will ensure that a high level of student learning is taking place
and will help address student learning needs as they pertain to academic success and state testing
performance.
A definite need within the district is related to the technological needs. Classrooms and
teachers need better technology. Although this has been identified as a need by the district, it is
important for members to act quickly on this to meet it before the semester ends. There are many
NEEDS ASSESSMENT 8
ways this can be done that do not have to be directly outsourced from the school budget. Another
financial need is the connectivity of low-income families with technology at home to be able to
access and complete the work required of them in school. Wendy (2023) mentioned there are
only two hot spots available in the district and this is not enough considering much of the
population in the district is at-risk or low-income. There is a high need for technological help at
home so this must be addressed quickly as well. Especially since technology for ESL families
can be purchased through Title III funds. Although the Superintendent meets with parents
regularly, Mandy did mention that the attendance at these meetings is low. More should be done
to connect parents with the district and its initiatives. Increasing parental engagement is
important in helping students in special populations and programs to be successful in their
academic careers.
A community need that remains unaddressed is the high percentage of unemployed males
in the community. The district should do what they can to help by offering their facilities and
services to connect them with jobs. They could potentially host a job fair. They could set up a
time where counselors could help with resumes or hold workshops to help parents be more
marketable in the work force. Making unemployment a priority in the district will reassure
parents that the community has the support of the district and will truly meet the needs of the
community. Addressing these needs will lead to increased student success and community
involvement in the long term.
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References
Anderson-Butcher, D., Amorose, A. J., Bates, S., Iachini, A. L., Ball, A., & Henderson, T. (2020).
Driving School Improvement Planning with Community and Youth Collaborative
Institute School Experience Surveys (CAYCI-SES). Children & Schools, 42(1), 7–17.
https://doi.org/10.1093/cs/cdz028
Atchison, D. (2019). The impact of priority school designation under ESEA flexibility in New
York State. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 13(1), 121–146.
https://doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2019.1679930
Benavidez, L., (2023). Personal Communication.
Epley, M., (2023). Personal Communication.
Kelty, N. E., & Wakabayashi, T. (2020). Family engagement in schools: parent, educator, and
community perspectives. SAGE Open, 10(4), 215824402097302.
https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020973024
McMullen, W., (2023). Personal Communication.
Navarro Independent School District. (n.d.-b). Home. https://www.nisd.us/
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