Needs

Needs Assessment & Identification of Focus Area - EDT 6040 SEA


Over the past 3 years I have been fortunate to find myself on the receiving end of an ELMO Digital Presenter loaner program. The amazing piece of technology has helped me to reach my students in ways that I previously had thought were not feasible. The following is a survey that I conducted in order to assess the needs of my fellow faculty members. The goal was to determine if there was in fact a need for additional technology in order to meet the ever-changing needs of our growing student population.

Click here to view or take the online ELMO survey.





The group surveyed included K-12 teachers in the following subject areas: English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Special Education. The technology available in the teachers’ classrooms varied widely. However, each classroom included a minimum of a laptop or computer and a LCD projector. Here is a summary of the survey results:  · 50% of teachers had used an ELMO before.  · 30% had an ELMO in their classroom.  · 100% of teachers surveyed report that if they had an ELMO in their classroom they would use it a minimum of 6 days per month.  · 60% stated that based on a school month of 20 days they would use the ELMO a minimum of 16 days.  · The only concerns or objections teachers reported regarding the ELMO were:  · Concerns that they could be fragile, space, and classroom design.  · 100% of teachers surveyed stated that they felt that the ELMO would result in increased student achievement. The results show that 100% of teachers believe that the use of ELMO would result in increased student achievement and that 100% of teachers would use the ELMO a minimum of 25% of the time. The only concerns about having an ELMO were related to the possibility of it being fragile and having classrooms that accommodate space for the ELMO. However, the teachers that reported these concerns stated that they would make adjustments to accommodate the ELMO.

Teachers stated that increased student achievement would result from:  · the ability to see other students’ work samples  · accommodating various learning styles  · providing visual examples  · students are always more interested when technology is involved  · increased student engagement because the ELMO is so interactive  · students would be able to share their strategies for learning thus giving other students a variety of ways to think about the topic at hand Caesar Rodney High School ( CRHS  ) is currently under Academic Watch under the No Child Left Behind Act. This is as a result of not meeting the AYP  (Annual Yearly Progress) targets for the 2009-2010 Academic Year. There are several cells of our population that are not meeting AYP. The lowest performing unit (known as a cell) is the the special education cell. The Special Education cell had less than 45% meeting AYP  for math and less than 30% met  AYP  for  ELA  (English Language Arts). This segment of the population has steadily increased over the last decade, now reaching 15% of the total student population, up a full 2% from the year before. It is expected that this number will continue to climb. As a result of the low performance of this cell, our district has been consistently working to increase the student achievement and thus the scores of our special education students.

ELMOs make it possible to accommodate students with visual impairments as well as those that need accommodations such as the re-presenting of a lesson and or additional examples. The use of the ELMO will increase not only the academic achievement of our special education students but also our regular education students when used in the inclusion environment. A laptop, LCD projector, and screen are standard equipment in each classroom at CRHS. As a result, the classrooms are already ELMO ready. The only equipment needed to add this piece of technology would be the ELMO itself.

It is my intention to propose a 4 year plan for making the ELMO Model TT02 Digital Presenter standard equipment in all classrooms at Caesar Rodney High School. In addition to the purchase of the ELMO units, Professional Development sessions will be provided by each department’s chair over the course of one year to provide teachers with training and a variety of options and suggestions for incorporating the ELMO unit into their daily lessons. The units will first be purchased for inclusion classrooms in order to facilitate increased student achievement. In subsequent years, the units will be purchased for the Math and Language Arts classrooms, followed by Social Studies and Science, and finally the remaining subject.



Increase student achievement by all cells, particularly the Special Education cell, in order to improve AYP ( Annual Yearly Progress) and no longer fall under Academic Watch.

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11. Reflection
 * 1) Vision and Personal Philosophy of Education
 * 2) ===Needs Assessment & Identification of Focus Area===
 * 3) ===Initiatives to Address Needs===
 * 4) ===Addressing Standards===
 * 5) ===Hardware & Software Components and Licensure===
 * 6) ===Funding===
 * 7) ===Professional Development & Support===
 * 8) ===Maintenance Procedures & Recycling Timeline===
 * 9) ===Evaluation & Modification Strategies===
 * 10) ===Bibliography===