STATE SERVICES

SEA Organizational Assessment

Our organizational assessment engaged state education agency (SEA) leadership and offices in a process of analysis regarding how the SEA works as a collective to strategically and coherently support school and district improvement. The process typically entailed an initial set of interviews and focus groups with key members of the SEA, followed by a further exploration of issues and challenges as identified by the community. In sum, the assessment process provided the SEA with the following services and products:

• Organizational Assessment: An initial fact-finding and information gathering assessment that can help SEAs assess and analyze their current use of resources and strategies (e.g., how is the SEA effectively organized to provide support to targeted districts and schools in need of support; how are the SEAs resources coordinated and used; who provides assistance to schools; what are existing structures and policies; what is the content of support and assistance)
• Exploration of Internal Coherence: An in-depth, collaborative analysis of the existing SEA supports, structures, and policies (e.g., through monthly meetings, focus groups with key staff, interviews, document analysis) and the coherence of these systems, strategies, and use of resources
• Feedback and Review: Facilitated review sessions for key SEA staff and providers to review and discuss implications of assessment and related findings

Outcomes:

States received a written report that included the results of the organizational assessment and an analysis of supports, structures, and policies that states were currently using to catalyze and support district and/or school improvement. The report also provided recommendations to inform the revision of strategies, policies, and tools used with districts and schools identified for improvement and corrective actions, in particular those schools with high percentages of English language learners. An emphasis was given to the coherence of strategies and use of resources by SEAs to engage in their work.

For further information regarding our organizational assessment process, please feel free to download and review the following materials:

SEA Leadership Capacity Building Overview
Sample Outcomes Template

States interested in participating in our SEA Capacity Building efforts are encouraged to contact Deborah Collins, project director, at 401.867.8973.