Poster 5: Building Better Schools: Creating and Using a Custom Needs Assessment for Sustainable Improvement

When our school set out to develop a meaningful improvement plan, we discovered a critical gap—without a clear understanding of our needs, any plan would be guesswork. In response, a team of teachers and administrators came together to design a comprehensive needs assessment tool tailored to our unique learning community. This 150-question survey, built in Qualtrics and featuring both Likert-scale and open-ended questions, examined every facet of school life. After administering the survey to all staff, we used Magic School AI to analyze the results, generating clear, actionable insights. In this session, we will walk participants through the process of designing a customized needs assessment, from question development to digital deployment. We'll also share our data-sharing protocol and facilitation strategies that invited staff voice into the interpretation and action-planning process. Attendees will leave with practical tools and ideas for collaboratively diagnosing school needs and translating findings into sustainable, community-driven improvement plans. Whether you're at the beginning of your school improvement journey or seeking to deepen stakeholder engagement, this session will offer adaptable strategies and real-world lessons to guide your work.