Discussing Needs Assessment in Education - Research Paper Example

The main objective of conducting a needs assessment is to identify problems and deficits within given situations and give possible directions that could help improve the current situations (Scott, 2001). 

On many occasions, education leaders manage needs assessment by conducting both qualitative and quantitative research. This involving process entails data collection and analysis before the final reporting of the results. In accomplishing this, the leaders can select a planning team that will help in assessing the goals and objectives and whether the current situation meets the standards in the strategic plans. Needs assessment is beneficial to education leaders such as teachers and trainers in identifying and improving the factors that create the gap between the current performance and the expected performance of the learners. Educational gaps may include poor academic performance and inappropriate teaching methodology (Barbazette, 2005). 

Scott (2001) states that concerning parents, many family gaps that arise during the needs assessment may affect the behavior in children. Such gaps may include unbecoming characteristics, communication gaps between the parents and their children, and poor social skills. Parents need not make the process complex except to identify and improve on the needs. Organizations normally conduct a more elaborate and comprehensive needs assessment due to the complex structure of gaps within organizations. In this scenario, a needs assessment may help improve such issues as leadership gaps, employee performance, and the tracking of the organization’s goals and objectives (Government of Western Australia, 2010).

In curriculum assessment, the significance of data analysis cannot be overemphasized. Data becomes a crucial part of the evaluation becomes the core factor of evaluation to determine the discrepancies between the control and the current standards (Barbazette, 2005). Although curriculum assessment may include qualitative analysis, quantitative techniques give comprehensive results through the comparison of data. In addition to the factual nature of data analysis in curriculum assessment, it also produces accurate results that parents, education leaders, organization, and community leaders can utilize in sealing of possible inconsistencies within their respective departments (Scott, 2001). 

According to the Government of Western Australia (2010), business leaders depend on economic data to identify the market gaps and predict their economic futures. Organizations normally conduct needs assessment by collecting and analyzing data from various sources before drawing workable recommendations and conclusions. The same course applies to community leaders who need correct data concerning the community in order to come up with appropriate and unbiased identification of the community gaps and improvement measures. Concerning teachers and supervisors, they need to analyze the reports of their respective learners to be able to know areas that need improvement. All these only points to the usefulness of data analysis in any curriculum assessment undertaking (Scott, 2001). 

In conclusion, both needs and curriculum assessment are essential in gap identification in such environments as education institutions, community, family, and the corporate world.