Needs Assessment
Needs assessment is best conducted before selecting a prevention program or before program implementation. It provides evidence of specific school or organizational needs and informs effective planning.
Needs assessment is also a helpful first step in identifying program outcomes for outcome evaluation and can provide a baseline to which yearly program results are compared. If grant funding is sought, needs assessment can also provide a data-driven rationale for funding.
Data often used in needs assessment include:
- Discipline referral, suspension, and absentee data.
- Prevalence of risk and protective factors using student surveys (such as state health surveys) and/or local and state statistics (such as juvenile justice data).
- Academic achievement data.
- Demographic information (for example, student and staff turnover).
- Information about programs already being implemented in the school.
- Information about school and community resources.
- Surveys or interviews of those who would be involved in and affected by program implementation (for example, classroom teachers and playground and lunchroom personnel)
Needs assessment includes the investigation of the school and community context in which the program will be implemented. Knowledge of context allows you to plan prevention efforts that are a good match for your local needs—socially, politically, and economically.
