PB 1839 Needs Assessment Guidebook For Extension
PB 1839Needs AssessmentGuidebook forExtension ProfessionalsJoseph L. DonaldsonAssistant ProfessorDepartment of 4-H Youth Developmentand Agricultural Leadership, Education,and CommunicationsKaren L. FranckAssistant ProfessorDepartment of Familyand Consumer Sciences
ContentsIntroduction. 5Why are needs assessments important?. 6When is the right time to conduct a needs assessment?. 6Organization.7How should a needs assessment be organized?.7Phase One: Exploration.7Phase Two: Assessment.7Phase Three: Utilization.7Worksheet: Organizing a Needs Assessment. 8Exploration.10Document Review.10Assessment.14Individual Methods.14Key Informants.14Worksheet: Pinpointing Key Informants.15Personal Interviews.16Worksheet: Preparing Questions for Interviews.19Group Methods.20Advisory Committees.20Stakeholder Groups. 22Focus Groups. 22Surveys. 27Open Listening Sessions. 34Delphi Technique. 35Environmental Scanning. 36Brainstorming.37Future Wheels. 38Nominal Group Technique.41Concept Mapping . 42Comparing Needs Assessment Methods. 42Cautions and Caveats When Performing Needs Assessments. 47Utilization.48Interpreting the Results of the Needs Assessment. 48Quantitative Data.48Qualitative Data.48Putting the Findings Together. 49
Communicating the Results of the Needs Assessment. 49Setting Priorities. 50Teachable Moments.51Worksheet: Thinking About Teachable Moments. 52Additional Resources. 53Acknowledgements. 54References.55Using This GuidebookThis publication begins with how to organize a needsassessment and includes the three phases of conducting aneffective needs assessment: exploration, assessment andutilization. Methods for each of these stages are provided,including document reviews, individual and group methods,and how to communicate the results of the assessment.This document provides helpful information and tools to helpyou design, conduct and interpret your needs assessment.
IntroductionNeeds assessment is a process driven by the question, “What do clientsneed and how can those needs be met?” (Patton, 1982). A need isdefined as a gap between “what currently is” and “what should be”(Altschuld & Watkins, 2014). Needs assessment is a process to identifywhat people need where they live, work or play. The purpose is to usethe information gained to make plans to meet those needs. What arethe needs of people you serve?In a national assessment of training needs, Davis and colleagues(2012) found that Extension personnel (n 1,434) wanted to acquiremore skills and knowledge in needs assessment. The majorityindicated a need to learn more about assessing individual client needs(69%), assessing community needs (79%), and engaging stakeholdersin program development (83%).Effective, engaging needsassessment is a principle ofdemocracy and a hallmark of theCooperative Extension system.Needs assessment is a term with abundant meanings, often verydifferent meanings! Patton (1982) posited that needs assessment wasused in many cases to mean surveying clients about what they wanted,“thereby making wants equivalent to needs.” Sometimes, needsassessment is used to describe the entire situation in a community,county or state. “Community situational analysis” is a broad term thatrefers to the process of analyzing the internal and external factors(including trends, capabilities, environment, economy, etc.) that affecta community. The term “situational analysis” is applicable to all of thetechniques and activities in this guide.We, the researchers, have observed that Extension personnel use theterm “needs assessment” more frequently than “situational analysis.”We have also observed that the term “need” connotes deficiency oran unmet problem. We believe that an effective community needsassessment would not only identify the needs of the community, butalso underutilized resources, as in, “We need to utilize our lake andabundant natural beauty to promote tourism which will producesubstantial economic benefits.” Therefore, we have chosen to use theterm “needs assessment” as a synonym for situational analyses in thispublication, and the term “assets” may be used in place of needs.Another observation is that the term “needs assessment” is oftenused to refer to the assessment of an entire community or countypopulation. This publication can apply to an entire communitypopulation or a single audience within the community, such as beefproducers or families with young children.We have prepared this publication to offer practical tools andtechniques for understanding, conducting, and communicating needsassessment. It is our hope that this information is useful to you inhelping people, addressing the issues that affect them, improvingprograms, and, ultimately, advancing Tennessee.5
Why are needsassessmentsimportant?Needs assessments are important for a number of reasons. Our worldfaces unlimited needs, but limited resources. Needs assessmentshelp to identify areas that will do the most good for the most peopleover time. We live in a complex society, and it is not always clearwhich initiatives should be conducted or emphasized by publicservice organizations. Needs assessments clarify the work of publicservice agencies and promote effective program planning by engagingadvisory leaders, elected officials, volunteers and other stakeholdersin learning and talking about important community issues. Needsassessments are a democratic principle! Needs change over time, anda periodic assessment is necessary to understand changing needs andnew situations that people face in daily life.When is the right timeto conduct a needsassessment?An effective needs assessment allows you to construct a more objectivepicture of needs than you would receive from observation or publicdiscussion. The checklist will help you pinpoint when needs assessments are a good idea. Because needs assessments take time, energy,money and other resources, it is critical to decide if a needs assessmentis warranted for your program (see Table 1).Table 1. Understanding When to Conduct a Needs AssessmentReasons to Conduct aNeeds AssessmentReasons Not to Conduct aNeeds Assessment2o Your project or program isbrand new.o The audience or communitywould view the assessment as“redundant or wasteful.”o You are brand new to thecommunity or your job.o You want to learn moreabout what the audience orcommunity needs related to aspecific condition.o The issue is urgent and requiresquick action.o A recent needs assessment hasalready been conducted, and theresults are still timely.o You need to document needsfor grant applications and otherfunding proposals.1o You need additionalinformation and perspectivesto communicate withdonors, advisory groups,elected officials and otherstakeholders.2o You want to focus theevaluation of a given programon how well it meets the needsof its intended audience.316Angima, Etuk, & King, 2014; 2 Berkowitz & Nagy, 2014; 3 Patton, 1982
OrganizationHow should a needsassessment beorganized?To organize your assessment, think about what you need to accomplish.Key action steps and considerations are outlined below using three keyphases: exploration, data gathering and utilization (McKillip, 1998).These phases may also be referred to as Preassessment, Assessment andPostassessment (Lepicki & Boggs, 2014).Phase One: ExplorationFirst, determine the purpose of the needs assessment. What arethe potential uses of the assessment information and who are thepotential users of the assessment information? Identify the parametersfor the assessment. Are you looking at one town or county or aspecific audience? If you believe town mayors will be the users of theassessment information, for example, a county-wide assessment wouldnot be valuable to them unless you break out data by town.Second, identify all of the existing information available that fits yourparameters. More data are available today from secondary sourcesthan ever before (Borden, 2004), and you may be quite surprised atthe treasure trove of information available from multiple agencies andorganizations. Third, determine if other data still need to be collected.Identify the methods to collect this information.Phase Two: AssessmentCollect, analyze and synthesize all of the data. Implement your needsassessment plan. Let’s say you find from the National AgriculturalStatistics Service the production of cattle, hay and soybeans has beendeclining steadily in your county for the past five years. The rate ofdecline is much higher for your county than for other counties in thestate. It could be helpful to determine some of the major causes or issuesthat have produced the declining numbers. Is it because of weather? Isit related to land use? Is it because producers are transitioning to otherenterprises? Farmers and retailers of farm equipment might be goodsources of information, and they may be able to describe how and whythe county’s agricultural output is changing.Phase Three: UtilizationUse the data to set program priorities, develop an action plan toaddress the needs or issues, evaluate the needs assessment, andcommunicate the results. A needs assessment process is not completeduntil the results are shared and utilized.7
Worksheet: Organizing a Needs AssessmentWorksheet: Organizing a Needs AssessmentPhase One: Exploration What are the potential uses of the assessment information and who are the potential users of theassessment information? Are you looking at one town or county or a specific audience? What existing information do you have? What data still need to be collected?How will you collect the data?Phase Two: AssessmentWhat data did you gather?How did you access the data?What did you learn or confirm?Was there overlap in the needs identified as shown by different sources?Phase Three: UtilizationWhat are your priorities based on the needs assessment?How will you share the needs assessment information with others?8
We often dichotomize needs into known and unknown needs; in otherwords, some needs people know about and will talk about, but otherneeds are hidden to the casual observer.Needs that are known can be described through these techniques: Focus Groups Surveys Observation Nominal Group Technique InterviewsNeeds that are unknown are typically determined through thesetechniques: Environmental Scanning Document ReviewsAnother way we sort needs assessment data is by source, that is,primary or secondary. Primary data are collected directly from thesource, such as interviews with clients, whereas secondary data arefrom a third party, such as census data or data from a local Chamberof Commerce. Traditionally, a needs assessment that uses some mixof primary and secondary sources provides a rich and comprehensiveassessment (Borden, 2004).Issues are often obvious. Three home fires in one month ina neighborhood will get everyone’s attention. This providesa teachable moment from fire prevention and home safetyprograms. Taking advantage of such teachable momentsspeeds adoption of recommended safety and fire preventionpractices.Likewise, issues are just as likely to be hidden from the casualobserver. The personal bankruptcy rate is one problem thatpeople may not be willing to discuss. Affected individualsjust don’t stand up and say, “I have a problem managing mymoney, and I need help.”9
ExplorationDocument ReviewReviewing existing data should be a part of any needs assessmentthat you conduct. Document review is the foundation for your needsassessment. These data are important for several reasons.1. Reliable data sources provide detailed information from a largesample size that would be difficult and unrealistic for you tocollect on your own.2. Many topics are sensitive and may be difficult for people todiscuss such as homelessness, bankruptcy and food insecurity.3. Data sources such as the U.S. census can provide informationover several years or decades, allowing you the opportunity toidentify trends.Questions to ask when thinking about data:1. What information do I need? What topics do I needinformation about?2. Will I be able to access county level data?3. How current do the data need to be? What’s my cut-off date?When looking for data sources, it is important to use reliable sourcesof data. Reliable online sources are listed below. There are othersources of information that can be helpful, such as local and regionalmedia reports that have stories that impact your communities. Forexample, if there have been several house fires in your community, animportant need could be fire safety education. Other examples includearticles about trends in bankruptcy, crime, unemployment, etc.Regional and county level data can be found at your local library orat your Chamber of Commerce. In addition, agencies and institutionsthat you work with often conduct needs assessments on a regular basis.Existing data from reliable sources provide information and numbersabout a topic such as the number of farms, type of crops, healthinformation, education, etc. Hard statistics from the U.S. censusor a survey provide actual numbers you can include in your needsassessment, such as the number of people in your county who receiveSNAP benefits or the number of farms. It can be helpful to look attrends in these numbers. Has the number of people receiving SNAPbenefits decreased, increased or stayed the same in the past five years?Has the number of farms decreased or increased in the past five years?Has the number of farms remained the same but the number of acresdecreased? Even though these numbers are straightforward, it helpsto look at trends. Identifying these trends can be an important way tostrategically meet the needs of your county.10
Tips for working with data sets:1. Have a point of reference that is comparable to your county.It is good to compare your county to the state, but it’s evenmore helpful to compare your county to similar counties as away of gauging how well your county is doing.2. Rates may be less reliable for smaller populations. Ratesare often based on the occurrence of an event out of 100,000people. Because many counties in Tennessee have fewer than100,000 people, rates often cannot be used to adequatelypredict accuracy. This is especially true for events that happeninfrequently like infant mortality, suicides, etc. In theseinstances, it is better to look at the actual number (rather thanthe rate) and how the actual number may or may not varyover time.3. Different data sets provide different estimates. Make sure tolook at similar data sets over time. This is especially true forestimates related to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. CDCprovides the most accurate estimates of these diseases, butthere are other estimates that can be used.4. Data are only part of the overall picture. Don’t rely exclusivelyon data sets to provide a picture of your community. Numbersonly provide part of the story, so it’s important to back those upwith information from other sources.Baltimore County Public Schools (2010) listed the key pros and cons ofa document review for research as follows:Pros Document reviews do not interrupt a program. Documents can be collected from different time periods. Document reviews are helpful for corroborating with othersources. Document reviews are inexpensive.Cons Documents may contain incomplete information. Documents may represent only one perspective. Documents may not “provide insight into participants’personal thinking.” Documents may be out of date.The following practices from the “Handbook of Practical ProgramEvaluation” are recommended for document reviews: Report aggregated (group) data, and do not capture individualidentifiers.11
Check for inconsistencies in the data. As an illustration, ifthe age of a person is listed as 150 years old, the data lackconsistency! Make sure that you know the time period for which the datawere collected. A report published in a given year may reflectdata collected over the previous five years. Send a thank-you letter to the public agency that shared thedata; let them know how the data were used or how they werevaluable to you (Hatry, 2004).The data sources listed below are examples of data sets that could beincorporated into your document review. The websites are listed inparentheses and the list indicates the type of data included at each site.All of these sites have county-level data that is updated regularly. 12U. S. Census Bureau s and living arrangementsoHealthoHousingoIncome and povertyoInternational tradeoPopulationoPublic sectorAnnie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count (aecf.org)oDemographicsoEconomic well-beingoEducationoFamily and communityoHealthoSafety and risk behaviors
oTennessee Agricultural Statistics (nass.usda.gov/tn)oCrops and plantsoDemographicsoEconomic and pricesoEnvironmentaloLivestock and animalsoResearch, science and technologyTennessee Department of Health (health.state.tn.us/data.htm)oGeneral health dataoHealth reportsoHealth statisticsTennessee Department of Education n ratesoSchool district performance outcomes (Report Card)oStandardized testing resultsTennessee Department of Economic and Community soEducationoInfrastructureoQuality of lifeoTransportationThe document review is often a helpful starting point for acomprehensive needs assessment. It can help you to identify whatis known and pinpoint what you still want to know. Documentreviews tend to be helpful especially when used with individualand/or group methods. This process provides a sense of both whatis happening and why it may be happening.13
AssessmentIndividual MethodsKey InformantsA needs assessment is essentially an investigation, and a key informantis an individual who provides important perspectives and firsthandknowledge of a situation. An assessment of the health status of thecommunity would be accentuated greatly by seeking the opinionsof nursing home administrators, dementia caregivers, doctors andcoordinated school health directors, just to name a few examples ofkey informants.Key informants are often very helpful to add color or additionalinformation to a needs assessment. They tend to be knowledgeableand may provide distinct information. They can help you understandwhy something is happening or understand the history of communityattributes. It is not recommended to use key informants solely for anentire needs assessment because it could place too much importanceon the opinions of a handful of individuals.14
Worksheet: Pinpointing Key Informants Contact name: Contact name: Phone or email: Phone or email: Reason this person is a Key Informant: Reason this person is a Key Informant: Key Questions: Key Questions: Information Shared by Key Informant: Information Shared by Key Informant: Contact name: Contact name: Phone or email: Phone or email: Reason this person is a Key Informant: Reason this person is a Key Informant: Key Questions: Key Questions: Information Shared by Key Informant: Information Shared by Key Informant:15
Personal InterviewsPersonal interviews are useful in conducting needs assessments andprovide the added benefit of getting to know people. Preparation isextremely important because interviews can be challenging if you askabout highly personal topics. Interviews mainly provide qualitativedata, such as perceptions, values, opinions and information frompersonal observation (Witkin & Altschuld, 1995) in contrast toquantitative data (quantities, amounts, percentages, proportions,facts, etc.).Conducting the InterviewPrepare your questions in advance and practice them so that you arewell-prepared. When conducting an interview, you should be dressedin either business attire or in similar attire as the interviewee. If you donot understand an answer, be honest and ask the interviewee to clarifyfor you. Start a personal interview by making small talk to make theperson feel comfortable (Vilela, 2014).Interview ProtocolWhen conducting the interview, ask few questions and resist thetemptation to offer advice (Creswell, 1998). An interview procedure isrecommended. A written procedure helps you to stay on task and ontime. Here is an example interview procedure:Step 1. If recording, test equipment in the office the day before theinterview. Purchase any needed supplies (i.e., batteries forthe recorder).Step 2. Travel to interview site.Step 3. Engage in some small talk to put the interviewee at ease.Step 4.4. Inform the interviewee of the purpose of the interview.Step 5.5. Assure the interviewee that the interview is confidential.Step 6. If recording, get the interviewee’s verbal permission to taperecord.Step 7.7. Ask if the interviewee is ready for you to begin recording.Step 8.8. Record the following information either verbally or in yournotes: Date Time Location Participant pseudonym Interviewer’s nameStep 9. Conduct the interview (using the protocol).Step 10.10. Watch the time and do not go over time.Step 11.11. Thank the interviewee for participating.16
Step 12.12. Return to the office to review notes and reflect on theinterview. Reflecting is important because it can provide acontext for the interview. What was the mood of the personbeing interviewed? Were they engaged or distracted? Didthey have an agenda separate from the topic of interest?What were the key findings from the interview?Step 13.13. If recorded, transcribe the recording and reflect some more.Timing and LengthTiming is important for all interviews and should be considered beforecontacting potential interviewees. Is there a certain day of the week ortime of day that the person is likely available? If you are interviewingfast-food mangers about food safety training needs of their employees,the lunch hour is the worst possible time to call on them for aninterview. The afternoon, say 2 p.m., might be much better.Clearly, it is more difficult to aska question about child abuseor spousal abuse than aboutowning a television set.Bradburn, Sudman, & Wansink,2004When you contact the interviewee to invite them to participate in aninterview, it’s important to know how long the interview will last.Practicing questions in advance and thinking through possible answerscan help you gain a sense of how long the interview will take. A usefulstep is to interview friends, family or coworkers to help determine theapproximate length of the interview, to help build confidence in thequestions and the interview process, and to identify any questions thatare unclear. To be considerate of people’s time and attention spans,ideally the interview should not last more than 30 minutes.QuestionsThis section will provide suggestions for developing interviewquestions. Suggestions for asking about behaviors: More accurate information is obtained when you ask abouta specific time period rather than asking people what they“usually” do. The time period you select should correspond to the topic. Thelast 12 months would apply to home ownership or pregnancy,whereas the last 24 hours would apply to eating dairy products(Bradburn, Sudman, & Wansink, 2004).To write high-quality questions, start with some of these prompts: Describe for me Tell me about a time when Can you give me an example of Tell me about a situation that (Gupta, 1999)17
Example Interview ProtocolThe interview protocol in Figure 1 is targeted to a small businessowner. These questions focus on three major domains: challengesof the small business owner, views on the community, and views onchange. Notice a leadoff question reflects each of the major domains inthe interview. Follow-up questions are listed, but these would be usedonly if the interviewee did not elaborate or did not mention them fromtheir answer to the leadoff question.Topic Domain 1: ChallengesLeadoff QuestionPossible Follow-upQuestions When you consider your experience as a small business owner, whatare some of your challenges? What challenges do you face supervising employees? Do you have any challenges related to budgeting and/orbookkeeping?Topic Domain 2: Views on CultureLeadoff QuestionPossible Follow-upQuestions How has community influenced your business? What kinds of things do your customers say about the community inyour store? Do you consider that the community has a “shop local” culture?Topic Domain 3: Views on ChangeLeadoff Question What changes are you considering for your business?PossibleFollow-up Question What factors would speed or slow change in your business?Figure 1. Example individual interview protocol for small business owners18
Worksheet: Preparing Questions for Inter
more skills and knowledge in needs assessment. The majority indicated a need to learn more about assessing individual client needs (69%), assessing community needs (79%), and engaging stakeholders in program development (83%). Needs assessment is a term
Af Ultra Acid Free Total Bathroom Cleaner Ultra Chem: 1839-83-57839 All Purpose Virex Diversey, Inc. 1839-83-70627 Aviation RTU Cleaner Zep: 6836-152-1270 Avistat-D RTU Spray Disinfectant Cleaner National Chemical Laboratories, Inc. 1839-83-2296
This guidebook is designed for the Young Marine Recruit. There are four other guidebooks that you will receive as you progress through your career in the Young Marines: the Basic Young Marine Guidebook, the Junior Young Marine Guidebook, the Senior Young Marine Guidebook,
the assessment process, maintaining records, revising the Assessment Guidebook, leading the annual review of assessment practices, and facilitating the program review process annually. Assessment Records and Dissemination The college has an obligation to disseminate assessment results through appropriate channels in a
Work Zone Operations Best Practices Guidebook Overview of the Guidebook This Work Zone Best Practices Guidebook provides an easily accessible compilation of work zone operations best practices and policies used by various States and localities around the country. The G
Canvas Adoption Guidebook. This guidebook is intended to be used as a resource for implementing the learning management system (LMS) Canvas. This guidebook includes implementation information (including PowerSchool, InfiniteCampus, templates, badging) and resources so you can get the most out of online learning. 1
Using the Guidebook 1 This guidebook is available in English as well as Japanese (the original publication). 2 Translated guidebooks are made easy to understand without altering the original Japanese meanings. Hence, all translations are based on the original Japanese text. 3 The purpose of this guidebook is to provide a student's (attending
Through this guidebook, it is ensured that the Industry Immersion component of the K to 12 Program will improve and the process of its implementation will become more efficient and effective. Users of the Industry Immersion Guidebook This guidebook is intended for all the educators and in-company trainers who are committed
things like black holes and gravitational lensing of light). This concept has been verified by abundant observational evidence (see “Background Information”). This is one of a set of activities that illustrates various effects of gravity, or curved space. How much space curves, depends on two things: 1) How much mass is present. More mass, more curvature, therefore stronger gravitational .
