Jan+Minnich

Rev: 10.20.09

AL NOTES 10/27 -- Jan, check out the wiki of http://ltms500-fa09.wikispaces.com/Richard+Beam it is a very similar topic to yours and is structured great... actually it will be the sample we use in class.

-AL

** Needs Assessment Identified at Manheim Township High School ** (JM notes)

** Section 1 - Need Analysis Report ** 

The Manheim Township school district is located in the northern suburbs of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The mission of the district is to, “provide an environment where everyone will learn, grow and succeed.” Many of the school district commitments are of course aimed at increasing achievement, encouraging student involvement (in school and community) and ultimately imploring students to discover what it is that they might be good at and of course ideally to promote life-long learning
 * Executive Summary **

Its high school has a faculty population of roughly 140 members, plus about 40 support personnel and administrators. Its diverse student population of approximately 1800 has generally performed well academically over several years. The last 7 years of data reflect that its PSSA scores have been significantly above the national average and since 2002 over 80% of its graduates have taken the SAT. Those scores have revealed that its population has generally performed well academically. Verbal scores have averaged over 540, math scores have averaged over 560 and the SAT writing component has been averaging over 530 (since its inception in 2006). In spite of these strong performance indicators, building professionals still attest to the fact that still many students do not know how to adequately manage their grades. As the mission statement cites, “everyone… will learn, grow and succeed.” PSSA, ACT and SAT data suggests that a small segment of the student body does not in fact perform well. Therefore, Manheim Township is not yet close to 100% success in reaching their core objectives.

Without having precise data on the group of low end performers, the target students are undoubtedly from diverse cultural backgrounds with a broad range of learning profiles but are not necessarily limited to underclassmen. Not surprisingly however, many of those children are with certainty, students with weaker academic trends. Nonetheless, there are those who typically perform well academically who are still unclear on what constitutes complete performance assessment by their teachers, which collectively computes as their course grades. Perhaps for a multitude of reasons, smaller populations of the student body never gained a grasp on the essential academic organizational strategies such as project assignment planning, setting/meeting deadlines, grade calculation and course final grade calculation.

Although Manheim Township is a prominent school district with a history of high performance trends in academics, as with other any fine business organization or institution, this school too, is not without its shortcomings. School administration and faculty are constantly looking at ways to improve its schools, increase student achievement and continually seek strategies to reach all 100% of the student body.

The purpose of this proposed project is to reach out to teach those high school students who have yet to understand the basics of class grade management skills. It is yet to be determined, but the project focus may be for the younger group (freshmen) of high school students coming up through the ranks, to provide a firm foundation, so that they can learn the essentials of personal organizational skills and grade management, pertaining to each’s individual class.
 * Business Need **

Primary training will most certainly involve a core of faculty members, who in turn will teach students (the ultimate beneficiaries) how to ask the right questions, effectively track and manage their assignment parameters as well as record assignment grades and project their own grade outcomes.

Eventually performance improvement will be demonstrated when those who currently can not (or simply choose to not) follow basic organizational tracking habits, who can later demonstrate how to effectively use these key skills.


 * The purpose of this proposed project is to create a concrete organizational strategy for students to efficiently and effectively manage all of their school assignments.**

Without devoting any more time specifically to course content, after training, //all students// eventually will be able to understand and employ basic organizational skills such as assignment and project planning. Utilizing these concepts will not only make students more efficient, but should provide motivational triggers when they can actually mathematically see and understand what projected scores are necessary to achieve specific personal goals in which they may have set for themselves. If students can mathematically see where they stand in a particular class they may in fact study harder for upcoming tests in order to meet personal benchmarks they may have set for themselves. Ultimately, being armed with this underlying knowledge will better help them understand where they must budget their time most appropriately to reach personal goals.

The school’s mission states, “everyone will learn, grow and succeed.” Therefore, projected benefits of this training will be that:
 * Expected Benefits **

Facilitating the project will require instructional delivery to primary and secondary audience groups. The secondary audience will be the students taught how to manage their assignments, time, grade scores, etc. However, they will naturally be the primary beneficiaries of this project. The primary audience will be the group of faculty members, trained on how to deliver and teach student groups the key concepts of a grade management system. Each training group will have its own unique characteristics to consider prior to training. Some of these characteristics follow. But without making final assumptions, further audience analysis needs to be conducted through task analysis, focus group surveying, personal interviews, etc. Without yet knowing all of our allocated resources and all of the advantages of each kind of delivery system, this has yet to be determined. Seemingly, a __blended training__ solution may be the direction the project moves. Yet, it is certainly conceivable, that __JIT__ (just in time training) will be very practical when struggling students are identified. It is also conceivable that identified students will be directed to partake in pre-planned JIT instructional blocks, to be offered periodically.
 * Students :
 * by asking the right questions of teachers, students will know exactly what is expected of them on projects and assignments and assessments, thereby saving them time from guessing about what they will need to know and demonstrate
 * will learn how to plan and budget their time more effectively
 * will know where they stand in any give class, at any given point of time
 * will know what they will need to score on major assessments such as mid-terms and finals, in order to meet personal goals that they have set for themselves
 * by knowing how to have more clearly defined expectations students should find school less cumbersome and more enjoyable
 * overall, across the entire student body, learning subject matter content should improve
 * in time, formal assessment performance scores for the school as a whole should increase
 * Faculty:
 * will be able to more quickly recognize those who may be struggling in these management skills and provide remediation or direct those in need to other resources
 * will likely be less inclined to take certain understanding for granted with their students and perhaps be more aware of student lack of understanding
 * Audience Analysis **
 * Faculty audience (primary)
 * Time availability- when to provide training
 * Buy-in value-
 * Need will have to be impressed on our audience, which should not be a huge barrier with most faculty
 * Student audience (secondary)
 * Diverse learning styles need to be considered
 * Motivational issues –
 * most certainly there are a high number of students who already possess the basic fundamental skills, which have helped enable them to be successful up until this point. We will not want students sitting in on all instruction components if they possess key skills.
 * if it can be proven to them that school will be more enjoyable and they will be able to save themselves time it should motivate those who wish to help themselves.
 * There will certainly be several language barriers with a small group of students
 * Project Design **

As of this report draft, this will have yet to be finalized. Until further investigation, it is envisioned that in year 1 we have formal training with a core selected group of staff. This will of course need to be planned and coordinated with administration, but it is also envisioned to be able to provide a packaged training tool, made available for staff once they have indentified student needs for intervention. Essentially, what ever design system will most effectively convey and impart the following 4 skills to students: Degrees of success will be measureable when teachers are able fully identify and demonstrate understanding of all 4 components above. Student results will be observable in time after which they have undergone the training segments provided by their teachers.
 * 1) Knowing how to ask teachers the right questions
 * 2) Knowing how to record all the key expectation components of projects, assignments, quizzes and tests
 * 3) Knowing how to accurately track their grades mathematically
 * 4) Knowing how to determine what their final course grade will be with reasonable precision
 * Project Success Measures **

This project will focus solely on developing the implementation of a grade management system for students identified, who will benefit from being taught such a system. The program will focus initially on training teachers how to most effectively teach students this system with great efficiency.
 * Out of Scope **

Estimated costs are not yet known. However, project manager is considering writing and applying for an educational grant, which would conceivably slash project costs considerably. ** Section 2 - Performance Analysis ** (rev.9.28) There is a population of students at MTHS do not fully understand how to effectively manage their grades. This (lack of skills) will naturally have adverse effects on student’s ability to learn key concepts/objectives facilitated through courses and of also to perform up to desired standards. Tasks and conditions of job(s) ** See JTA spreadsheet []
 * Estimated Project Costs **
 * Problem **

For the purposes of this project, we will use “problem population” as our audience. It is perceived that most students generally understand adequate personal assignment/grade management skills. However, the “problem population” is the intended beneficiary of an implemented grade management system (GMS). It has not yet been determined exactly which portion of the roughly 1800 students at MTHS, lack all of these skills or a portion of these skills.
 * Current performance level **

Based on perception, the __performance level__ ranges from small percentage (problem population) who do not know how to accurately record all assignment parameters to a likely larger portion who do not know how to project course performance, in terms of final percentage grades.

The performance outcome should be that students know how to as well as habitually employ to: Training will first demonstrate to teachers how to identify those students who need remediation of skills on general principles of grade management. There are generally 4 components of student “need” for remediation (outlined above). Teacher trainees will learn to recognize those who need all 4 components of training, or simply those who need merely 1 component of intervention.
 * Possible causes of problem (within “problem population”) **
 * Students never were taught how to manage their assignment responsibilities either from a parent or a teacher.
 * Students are a transfer from a different institution, perhaps where assignment/grade management was not as heavily emphasized
 * Students were taught and understood, but did not retain information
 * Students were taught, but not from an effective GMS
 * Students were taught a solid system, but did not understand system
 * Students were taught, and understand but simply do not value system, and therefore do not employ system
 * Desired performance outcome **
 * 1) accurately record all assignment parameters
 * 2) ask proper questions if any assignment parameters are unclear
 * 3) accurately record and track ongoing assessments
 * 4) be able to predict (with reasonable precision) final grade performance
 * Training expectations **

= =

=Section 3 - Design Document Template=

**Scope of Project**
//Here you will state the course goal and who the primary audience is, define what the delivery strategy will be (ILT, elearning, WebEx, blended), and how long the course is. Describe how the pilot will be delivered and how the pilot students were selected (if applicable).// -- The goal of this course is to teach underachieving high school students the basic skills of personal organizational and grade management. The course will be delivered through a combination of one-to-one face-to-face sessions combined with eLearning support components. The course will occur in three phases each phase will be divided into four, one hours sessions. Total course time will be twelve hours.

Course Objectives
// You will state the learning objectives for each of the modules and any subordinate objectives that you have defined. Define clearly what performance levels are acceptable to pass the course and what the remediation plan is if these levels are not reached. // -- By the end of Module 1 the students will be able to: Using the essential skills and knowledge presented, those who participate in this instruction will be able to successfully demonstrate inherent understanding of concepts through quiz / practice assessments.
 * 1) Recognize assignment cues and accurately transfer assignment objectives into an organized place in an organized fashion
 * 2) Ask key questions pertinent to clearly gain an understanding of any unclear assignment components.
 * 3) Understand and value the importance of having an organizational system for assignment management.
 * 4) Grasp the value and best practices in planning & prioritizing to allowing completion time to engage and fully complete school assignments.

Costs/Timeframes
// Describe how long the course development, pilot, revisions, and final deployment will take. Break down the program costs by each phase (ADDIE). //

Estimation of project costs and timeline are as follows and are broken down by development components for phase 1 of project. If successful this project could be further expanded upon to include 3-4 additional phases of training/instruction. For the primary pilot piece, the following is the projected breakdown of each.

Analysis Design Development Implementation Evaluation

Phase 1 for our pilot will essentially be no cost, as the work entailed to develop project is a requirement for a graduate class of one of our employees. However, with successful trial, implementation of a training component will be suggested for summer training in 2010. Costs for such would be estimated at approximately $1000.00 over 4 days.  Further costs for additional program development (through phases 2-3) would following the following cost analysis breakdown for the project:
 * **Milestones** || **Duration** || **Cost** ||
 * Analysis || 1.5 week || $1920.00 ||
 * Designing || 1.5 week || $1920.00 ||
 * Development || 2.5 week || $3200.00 ||
 * Implementation || 1.0 week || $1280.00 ||
 * Evaluation || 0.5 week || $640.00 ||
 * **TOTALS** || **7 weeks** || **$8960.00** ||

These aforementioned costs are associated fees, plus $1000 for on-site training for each of the 2 remaining phases; which includes the analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation of the program.

Delivery
//Describe how the course will be structured by topic (e.g., a syllabus). If possible, establish what the course timing will be.// This course will be offered through scheduled in-service sessions via face-to-face learning, while integrating various e-learning components and interactive activities all designed to lead to instructional objectives. These classes will be scheduled in MTHS by using available computer PC computer labs, with no more than 22 students (staff) /session.

Outline//In outline form, list the topics for the course.// After this training segment students should be able to: Learning Components/Materials//Using the structure defined in the course outline, provide details as to what the course will cover and how long each topic will take to facilitate. Make sure that each learning objective and subordinate objective is included and the corresponding learning events noted. Include formative evaluation events as they would occur or separately but ensure that each evaluation event is clearly linked to a learning objective If the pilot will be different than the final course, note the differences here. A good way to present this information is in a table with the following headers: __Module ¦ Learning Objective ¦ Subordinate Objective ¦ K ¦ S ¦ A ¦ Learning Activity ¦ Assessment__ KSA = Knowledge, Skill, or Attitude. This is important to define because your learning activity and assessment will be different for each of these//
 * 1) __Organizational systems__ – Students will grasp the value in maintaining an organizational system for managing school work.
 * 2) __Assignment awareness__- Students will recognize assignment cues and accurately transfer assignment objectives into an organized place in an organized fashion
 * 3) __Clarify Assignment confusion__ – Students will learn how to ask key questions pertinent to clearly gain an understanding of any unclear assignment components
 * 4) __Understand how to use a graphic organizer__ - Students will learn how to benefit from the simple flow arrangement of a job aid or graphic organizer, to help them stay organized effectively and efficiently.
 * ** Module ** || ** Learning Objective ** |||||| ** Subordinate Objectives ** || ** Learning Activity ** || ** Assessment ** ||
 * ^  ||^   || ** K ** || ** S ** || ** A ** ||^   ||^   ||
 * Module 1 - introduction to student assignment management and organization || 1). Define personal management & objectives. Related to such, students will understand the importance of maintaining personal organization regarding learning & school - related activities || k || || a || Module 1 instruction will begin with 15 minutes of lecture using current reseach information, citing examples (both good and poor) and, including an audience recall exchange.  || LA will be followed by a opportunity to demonstrate understanding. Will occur through audience observation and feedback using a Q/A electronic format ||
 * || 2). The reconition of cues which trigger assignment action/responsibilities || k || s || || Segment begins with a brief 5 min lecture citing the importance of visual or auditory cue recognition of assignments. (When audience are teachers, add discussion of various approaches for assignment dissemination) || Through observation and feedback from audience using a Q/A format. Learner will need to identify various forms of assiment cues through visual or auditory means. ||
 * || 3). Successfully gather and record all assignment / project expectations || || s || || Segment begins with a brief 5 min lecture citing the importance of successfully recording assignment parameters, followed by both poor and good examples. Audience will drill and practice to reinforce skill. || Through observation and feedback from audience using a Q/A format with practice exercises, given examples ||
 * || 4). Clarify if necessary any or all assignment/project parameters || k || s || || Segment begins with a brief lecture citing the importance of….. || Through observation and feedback from audience using a Q/A format ||
 * || 5). Understand and practice the basic essentials of assignment transfer || || s || || Brief 5 minute lecture, utilizing an example (of best practice) along with poor examples || Through observation and feedback from audience using a Q/A format quiz ||
 * || 6). Understand how to use a job aid || k || s || || Using an sample flow chart, demonstrate by example how to successfully utilize flowchart diagram as a job aid complete module #1 procedures || Simulation exercise, followed by a quiz on how to use job aid ||

Administration and Evaluation
//Describe how the course will be administered and evaluated. Who will maintain learning records? Who will perform the summative evaluation?// // This prototype course will be implemented at the high school with a selected pilot group of students. Module #1 will be offered and from the prototype decisions will be made on whether to expand module #1 to a larger group of students an provide an expanded array of training for selected students. // // Evaluative feedback will be assessed through electronic components of instruction. Additionally, there will be an evaluative component featured as a concluding component of the course. These elements will be reviewed to help make decisions referenced above. //

Miscellaneous
//Include anything about the course not otherwise mentioned (e.g., course design/development team members, SMEs, resources used, etc.)//


 * Script draft 11.9**
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 * ppt.proto.draft.11.8.09**

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 * job aid draft 11.8.09**