Early Childhood Family Education Community Needs Assessment: This Year and Beyond “Leading for...

Early Childhood Family Education

Community Needs Assessment:This Year and Beyond

“Leading for educational excellence and equity. Every day for every one.”

MNAFEE, April 2015Mike Brown, MDE

• 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?

Overview

education.state.mn.us 2

• 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

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

• 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.

What is 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.

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)

Why do a Community Needs Assessment?


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;

Needs Assessment Requirements


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)

Tailored Programming and Services


The program may provide parenting education programming or services to anyone identified in the community needs assessment.

- 124D.13, Subd. 2, (a)

Flexibility Delivering Parent Education


• Fit with PreK-3rd Grade framework• Advisory group

– Timeline and interpretation

Process for Developing Guidance


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

Examples of Similarities between Frameworks


Framework Elements


Cross-Sector Work

Administrators

Teachers

Instructional Tools

Learning Environment

Data-Driven Improvement

Family Engagement

Continuity and Pathways

Parent Development

Parent-Child Relationships

Early Childhood Development

Family Development

Culture and Community

PECCF Contribution to P3 Framework


Cross-Sector Work

Administrators

Teachers

Instructional Tools

Learning Environment

Data-Driven Improvement

Family Engagement

Continuity and Pathways

Implementation Scope


PreK

-3rd

Fra

mew

ork

Programs

Grade Levels

Schools

Community

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.

Your Approach


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




Guidance Document

1. Determine focus2. Determine plan for using

CNA3. Gather Information

1. Participation2. Community3. Children4. Families5. Services

4. Review and analyze5. Make decisions and take

action



Potential Scope of CNA – Depth and Breadth


Meets minimum requirements Contains Numerous Elements

1 2 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.

ECFE Only Includes K-12 Other orgs/programs

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?

Initial Questions



• 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

What do you want to know and why do you want to know it?



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.


• 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.

How are you defining key terms?



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)

Step Two:Planning



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?

Step Two, cont.



1. Gather data

Step Three



• 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.)?

Step ThreeGather Data on Participants



Step ThreeGather 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


• 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?

Step ThreeGather Data on Children



• 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?

Step ThreeGather Data on Families



• 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?

Step ThreeGather Data on Services in the Community



Review and Analyze Data• Prioritize Needs • Root Cause Analysis• Identify Trends and Patterns• Summarize Findings

Illustrate Your Story

Step Four:Review and Analyze




Make Decisions and Take Action

Examples:• Influence Your Programming and Services • Goals and Priorities • Influence your P-3 Plans and Work

Step Five:Make Decisions and Take Action


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.

Example #1Step Two


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.

Example #1 Steps Three and Four


2. Review and analyze

3. Make decisions and take action

Example #2:Step Four cont.


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%

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.

Example #2Step Two


1. Gather dataIn 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.

Example #2 Step Three


1. Review and analyze dataSimilar 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.

Example #2 Step Four


Make Decisions and Take ActionExamples:• 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.

Example #2 Step Four


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

Data Reporting to MDE


https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=124D.135

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?

Data Reporting to MDE


education.state.mn.us

Mike BrownMDE

[email protected]

Questions / Comments

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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