Initial+Needs+Assessment

=Initial Needs Assessment=

My perceived need at this stage is that the work I undertake as the careers and pathways manager has little or no impact on the ability of staff to cater for student needs. Staff have a very limited understanding of what it means to support a student in making pathways decisions. Effectively the support I am able to give through my team does not extend beyond the office door and with the amount of resources that is allocated into the concept of MIPs, it essentially makes for a poor use of these resources. In essence I need to move our small team from being fairly isolated to a team which is at the centre of a ‘school wide’ approach.

Evidence I have to confirm this need is largely limited to the fact that all ‘MIPs files’ containing student ideas and thoughts about school and pathways are held in filing cabinets in my office. I have found and am using excellent programs to assist students, but the thoughts and reflections student have on themselves do not go past the programs offered. So students could be motivated by the programs to set goals and attempt to achieve them, but without the support of staff very few of them are realised.

At the centre of all of this is the idea that we could, through an ICT opportunity, have readily accessible personalised student data that could assist staff to better understand and cater for their classes. It is of particular interest to me as I have seen some models, in schools, that have clear potential, but due to their over-sized and complicated nature it has made it very hard for students and teachers to manage. However in attending many professional development opportunities and having an opportunity to meet with Dr Deborah Hull who has seen practices across the state, their remains an opportunity to be effective in a ‘whole school’ approach through keeping the process and the data available to staff simple.

Further data I plan to gather will be focused around gaining a better understanding of our staff and students perspectives of current practices, as well as investigating their thoughts on how this information could be made available and serve to improve student outcomes. The number of programs being undertaken in our school, relying on data that shows whole school improvement will not be enough to judge the impact of an electronically based MIPs program. Data gathering plans will include interviews with staff and students around how the inclusion of such a program has directly impacted their daily practice.