Utilizing District Needs Assessments to Drive Curriculum and Evaluation for Preparation

Utilizing District Needs Assessments to Drive Curriculum and Evaluation for Preparation provides guidance for programs and their district partners to collaboratively design and undertake an assessment of district needs to inform the development of preparation and professional development programming.  A needs assessment is the process of systematically studying a group of individuals to identify the knowledge, skills, behaviors, interests, attitudes, perceptions and/or abilities relevant to a single or multiple issues, organizational goal(s), or objective(s). Needs assessments have been used for decades and are currently used in a variety of fields, although outside of education such efforts are often called market research. As the name implies, needs assessments are used by university programs in an attempt to better meet the needs of their constituents and/or match their training with the specific needs of individuals in the field.