Project+Description+and+Needs+Analysis

Project Description and Needs Analysis by Trevae Golden-Oloye; edited by Ann Bumbak @ 12:11 EST

South-side Chicago Public Schools are experiencing challenging school safety concerns due to acts of violence committed by students in and around schools. The familial environments of the targeted schools are overwhelmingly poor, single mother headed households with a high rate (85%) of poverty. Gang activity and drug crimes are rampant in these areas. Schools and housing are deteriorated structures, built mostly well before World War II, and ill-maintained.

The new superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), Ron Huberman, is a former police officer and transit executive with a passion for data analysis. He plans to stop the violence within the city’s public school populations with a plan that has nothing to do with guns or security guards. Instead, his plan uses statistics and probability, paired with empathy.

On [date??], Superintendent Huberman explained: “To help get student buy-in, the program includes part-time jobs for students who participate… [w]e believe that if we can change the behavior of these 10,000 students, we’ll be able to make a significant difference in the level of violence in the city.” No student who participates in the program would be publicly identified, officials said, except to the adults involved in his or her intervention.

Golden Training Solutions (GTS) has been tasked with designing a course for school personnel that will focus on empathetic listening skills and conflict resolution skills. The title of our instruction design project is Empathetic Listening and Conflict Resolution. GTS will develop the training and support materials that teachers can use to deliver training to the targeted student population. As a follow on, GTS can also provide training and support materials for teacher populations for use in in-service or continuing education functions. CPS principals, assistant principals, and/or teachers will provide development of empathetic listening and conflict resolution skills to promote, nurture, and deliver the same within their respective school environments.

The first step in the design process is deciding whether a training opportunity exists. GTS must identify a need by gathering reliable valid information about the problem. Morrison et al., (2010) report that this first stage should focus on determining if instruction is the solution to the problem. Accordingly, they state, “a normative need is identified by comparing the target audience against a national standard...the normative need exists when the target population’s performance is below established norm” (p. 33). In our case, the normative need exists because the target population is performing negatively “above” the current “established norm” in wake of the recent incidences of violence perpetrated by students against students. Moreover, we also looked at what Morrison, et al., call “felt needs” in deciding whether or not a need exist (p. 35). According to Morrison et al., felt needs are best identified through interviews and questionnaires that indicate whether the target audience is willing to express their needs on paper, which has previously been conducted and completed by the Chicago Board of Education beforehand and is available for our perusal.

The information we gathered comes from most recent police, news, and school data reports and that confirms a definite need via “normative needs” assessment for intervention services. In other words, those reports demonstrate the need exists and that development of the training program for our target audience, teachers and students is needed and is expected to help CPS attain their goal of safe and orderly internal and external school environments. We expect the target contact audience will take back what they have learned back to their respective schools for delivery amongst the targeted students. Moreover, design of this training program will focus on some of the following features:

•Creating training in the skills of de-escalation, resolution, and avoidance of conflict. •Creating materials that will help administrators/teachers promote safe and orderly school environments, teaching instructors how to listen and resolve conflicts within and outside the school workplace. •Empowering learners by offering alternative ways to deal with verbal and physical violence—for example, bullying. •Building an environment of trust and respect between staff and student populations.

References

Focus in Chicago: Students at Risk of Violence. (October 6, 2009). Retrieved January 18 2011, from []

Morrison, G. R., Ross, S. M., Kalman, H. K., & Kemp, J. E. (2011). Designing effective instruction (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Chapter 2, “Introduction to the Instructional Design Process” pages 28-35.

Trust and Trust Building. (December 2003). Retrieved January 18, 2011, from []