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Needs Assessment Cycle

Brandon Lovering
CUR/528
May 16, 2016
Justin Atwood

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Needs Assessment Cycle
In San Diego County as with most communities the school day ends before the work day
ends for most people. Most parents want to be comfortable knowing that their children are in a
safe environment while they are away at work. Because most elementary and middle school
students are ending their school day before their parents end their work day there is a strong
demand for programs and activities to engage and occupy children until a time that they can be
safely picked up by working parents. These after school programs require trained educators,
volunteer, facilities and district funding in order to continue operating.
Area Identified for Needs Assessment
In order for after school programs such as the San Diego Unified School Districts
PrimeTime Extended day program to operate, trained educators and volunteers are needed to
conduct the program. Currently the demand for such programs exceeds the capacity for the
program at certain schools. Because the demand exceeds capacity problem is not present at all
schools that are involved in the program a needs assessment needs to be conducted to determine
which schools would benefit from increased funding, volunteers and trained educators.
Purpose
The purpose of this needs assessment is to determine which schools that participate in the
PrimeTime after school program are unable to meet the needs of the students due to demand
exceeding the capacity of the current program at the school. Also, to determine if the school
being unable to meet the demand is due to lack of funding, lack of volunteers or lack of trained
educators to conduct the program. This assessment will also be used to determine if schools that
currently do not participate in the program show a need for this or other before/after-school
programs. According to the San Diego Unified School Districts PrimeTime program website,

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the program is currently offered at 127 schools serving more than 20,000 students each year
(www.sandiegounified.org/PrimeTime, 2016).
Level of Assessment
I plan to conduct the needs assessment for this program at the community level. The
community level consists of schools in the San Diego Unified School District that currently
participate in the PrimeTime program as well as schools in the District that currently do not have
an after school program but show an interest in creating one. I will also be conducting a
secondary assessment of schools in areas where the demands for the program exceed the capacity
of the program currently in place (Royce, Thyer & Padgett, 2010).
By conducting an assessment of all schools participating as well as a secondary
assessment of just those schools that have greater need I hope to provide stakeholders with the
data necessary to increase resources at needed schools or divert resources from schools with
lower program demand to schools with higher demand. The data collected from schools that
show interest but do not have a program in place will also provide stakeholders with necessary
data to secure funding and resources for those schools.
Stakeholders
Stakeholders that are interested in the PrimeTime after school program and the districts
ability to expand the programs at certain schools to meet the demand include parents, students,
school administrators, teachers, the San Diego County Office of Education and the San Diego
Unified School District.

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Budget/Available Resources
I should be able to conduct the assessment using a budget for conducting a survey of
interested parents ($500-$1000 to design and administer the survey), wages for travel (billed per
mile), time for conducting the assessment will be voluntary time provided by myself and
resources gathered from existing information (existing applications for program, wait lists,
school program faculty and facility information) which can be gathered from PrimeTime
program databases provided by the San Diego Unified School District.
Time Allotted for Conducting the Needs Assessment
I have allotted 8 weeks to complete the needs assessment. This 8 week period will start
on June 22, 2016 and will end on August 17, 2016. This will allow sufficient time for data to be
collected and to be compiled and submitted to participating schools and District education offices
before the school year begins in September 2016. This assessment will be an ongoing assessment
each year to determine reallocation of resources to schools that may have increased or decreased
student populations due to zoning adjustments.
Specific Information Being Measured by the Needs Assessment
Surveys used in the needs assessment will be objective and will provide information on
family statistics such as number of elementary and middle school aged children, number of
working parents, average length of workday for working parents, interest in before-school and
after-school programs for school age children, rating the importance of before-school and afterschool programs for working parents. The surveys will also be used to assess the knowledge of
parents of school age children in regards to the availability, format and content of school
programs.

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Information gathered from school and district databases will provide objective
information in regards to number of students currently enrolled at schools that currently have
before and after school programs, amount of available openings in each schools program,
amount of applications received to fill available openings, size of wait lists for each participating
program. Schools will also be able to provide information on current staffing levels (trained
educators and volunteers) for both before and after-school programs as well as available facility
space and resources devoted to each program.
Does This Information Already Exist or Must It Be Obtained
Information in regards to what San Diego Unified School District Schools offer the
PrimeTime before and after-school programs are readily available on the Districts PrimeTime
website. The information regarding how many students are enrolled at each school and how
many are currently on a wait list must be obtained directly from the schools. The information
regarding the current statistics of working parents with school aged children can be partially
obtained from census data and partially obtained from surveys distributed to families with
children enrolled at schools within the district.
In order to collect the information for a portion of the needs assessment a survey was
created that gathers information in regards to amount of working parents in each household with
school age children, amount of school age children in each household that attend schools at the
elementary or middle school level, level of interest in enrolling children in before/after-school
programs such as PrimeTime and level of interest in volunteering to assist with these programs.
Conclusion
By conducting this needs assessment and providing this information to parents, schools,
and district and county education offices we will be able to determine which schools are in need

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of additional funding, staffing and volunteer services in order to continue and expand
before/after-school such as the current PrimeTime Extended Day Program in the San Diego
Unified School District. This assessment will help determine which schools need additional
assistance due to large wait lists for participation in these programs that are a result in lack of
funding, trained educational and volunteer staff and limited facilities or resources to conduct
these programs.
This assessment will also improve the districts knowledge of which schools are in need of
programs where none currently exist and where resources that are devoted to current schools that
have little or no participation can be re-allocated to schools with greater need.

References
Retrieved from: https://www.sandiegounified.org/PrimeTime, 2016
Royse, D., Thyer, B. & Padgett, D. (2009). Program Evaluation: An Introduction (5th ed.).
Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.