I. Methodology

The Needs Assessment Committee followed the Needs Assessment methodology prescribed by the Partnerships for Success Model. The group strived to maintain a high degree of integrity in their work. The following description is that prescribed by the model with some minor deviations to accommodate the local environmental, circumstantial, and/or contextual situations. The following is the processes/methodologies used to arrive at these initial conclusions. Please note, this is a description of methodologies and not descriptive of findings/conclusion.

Membership

Initially the group worked to brainstorm the location of local data and to identify/recruit individuals knowledgeable about specific data. Membership recruitment was based on finding individuals in the community capable of accessing and interpreting data. Group membership and contact information is located in Attachment I.

Data Collection

Each member contributed to the collection of data in different ways. There were individuals who were recruited because of their access to local data that was specific to one or more of the six target impacts. Through their respective organizations, they gathered specific data. The remaining group membership gathered data on the local, state, and national level. All data collected was placed in a central folder. Upon completion of this data collection process, the group met and began sorting data as it applied to one or more impacts. With the data divided into six folders (specific data that applied to more than one impact was copied and placed in each respective folder) the group worked together to evaluate each piece of data.

The data evaluation process, while not exacting, generally looked at a specific piece of data asking the following questions :

1. Are the items equivalent?
2. Were the same questions asked?
3. Were the same years covered?
4. Does the scale make sense? Ex. Juvenile arrests nationally are a huge number, but the number locally may be relatively small. Thus, you would want to compare percentages based on the total population under age 18.
5. Are the data complete and accurate?
6. Are your data sources reputable and reliable?
7. Are the numbers representative?
8. Are the reports consistent over time or were there substantial variations in how the data was collected over time?

Data Collection Tools and Issues Partnerships for Success, October 3, 2002, Prepared by The Center for Learning Excellence, The John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy The Ohio State University

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