Planning and Implementing

Good planning is essential to a successful SEC project. After you have determined your purpose and questions you are trying to answer, you will need to make a number of other critical decisions. Based on the experience of current and former state and local planners, here are some critical ideas to be considered while planning your SEC project. Additional planning resources will be linked at the bottom of each section. Critical Decisions 1) What do you want as an end product to this project? How do you expect that it will it be used? Keeping the end product in mind can help provide clear focus for the project from the initial stages through full implementation. Ultimately, the responses to the following questions will help to guide the entire initiative: What form will the final product of your project take? How will results of the project be reported (e.g., report, presentation, CD, website, meeting, etc.)? Who are the people and organizations that need to see the final product and understand the results (e.g., stakeholders who supported the project, funders, district and school participants, state board of education, school boards, etc.)? How will you monitor progress towards your end product and its use? 2) Who will lead and be responsible for the project? Considerations that need to be addressed at this point include What leadership is needed for the project at the state level? What leadership is needed at the district and/or school level? How will leaders be identified? What support will be needed for start up and duration of the project? Who will need to provide support and be “on board” for the duration of the project? What benchmarks need to be established to monitor progress with the districts/schools? How will the monitoring be accomplished? 3) Who will participate? Identifying who will participate, how they will be chosen, and how many participants you need are critical decisions. The size of the survey sample (or number of teachers to be surveyed) will vary given the purpose or outcome of your SEC project. Below are some questions that can be helpful in guiding planning efforts at this step, as well as some recommendations for sample sizes given the potential purpose of your SEC project. Questions at this stage include How many participants do you need to address your purpose? Recommended Sample Sizes What content area(s) will be addressed (i.e., math, science, English Language Arts, reading)? Which sections of the survey will need to be completed in order to have the data we need? How many districts or schools will be included? How many teachers at each level? Each content area? How will the districts and/or schools be identified? How will the teachers be identified? Who are the key people and roles that need to be involved in the selection process? 4) When and how will you administer the surveys? What will be the method of administration? This is an important consideration for three reasons: 1) the paper form is more costly; 2) it requires more time to complete and return completed data; and, 3) online, web-based forms will require Internet access and, potentially, a computer lab. Given the results that are needed and the timeframe, when should we administer the Survey? Who will administer the Survey? Who will monitor the Survey being completed? How will the orientation for teachers taking the survey be accomplished? Who will provide the orientation? What content will be covered (e.g., explanation of the tool, process, purposes for the data, anonymity issues, cognitive demand, etc.)? Orientation Teacher Surveys 2006 5) How will you engage districts and schools in the project? Often critical to success are effective methods of informing decision-makers about the goals of an SEC project, and how the goals are consistent with existing initiatives. Questions that can guide planning at this step include How will you market the value of participating to schools and districts? What strategies will be used to engage them (e.g., information dissemination, presentation about SEC, presentation from another SEC state or district, etc.)? What materials will be needed? Who needs to support the effort to engage with districts or schools? Who will be the key contacts in the districts and/or schools that are going to participate? How will you communicate with the districts and/or school participants? What will be the main method of communication? Email? Phone? Surface mail? What expectations will you set for teacher participation in analyzing data results? What expectations will you set for participating schools for how they use the data results? 6) What resources are needed and available for the project? Questions that can guide planning at this step include What funds are needed to support the implementation? What is the funding source or combination of funding sources that will be needed to support the project (e.g., consider federal, state, local, foundation, etc.)? Are there any specific requirements around the use of these funds that must be addressed by the project? What is the timeline on the use of these funds? How will use of funds best be allocated over time? What budget and accounting support do we need? 7) Who and how will you analyze the SEC data and communicate results? How will users receive survey results? How will they analyze and interpret the data? What professional development will be provided after the survey has been completed? Note: The SEC Collaborative, coordinated by CCSSO, can contact and contract with SEC leaders to provide training for local educators in analyzing SEC data charts, interpreting the results given local context, and moving to application of the lessons from the data. Or if preferred, Survey Orientation training, as well as SEC Data Use workshops can be provided directly to leadership for the “training for trainers.” Implementing Once you have decided purpose, end product, leadership and participation, you are ready to develop your implementation plan. Again, attention to detail is important as you prepare to implement your SEC Project. The following table displays some of the actions everyone must implement. There will be other actions that are specific to your purpose for using SEC. Time frame   Action Person responsible Date and Evidence of completion End Product resulting from action (if any)   Plan for Survey Data Collection Contact CCSSO Register Online Provide group info     Online SEC is ready for your participants to take the survey   Determine who will serve as Survey administrator         Arrange logistics for taking the survey     Schedule and memos to participants or administrators   Plan and provide for participant orientation     Agenda, presentation slides or notes, and handouts   Review results     Summary of findings   Decide which data should be analyzed     Selected data graphs and reports   Schedule time to analyze and discuss data         Identify facilitator, purpose and desired outcomes for the discussion     Agenda Steps in Planning for SEC Survey Data Collection The following key steps need to be completed for all SEC projects to initiate the data collection process. Although these steps are usually taken once the preliminary planning process and project design are completed, it is important to remember that technical assistance and support are available during these phases as well. Contact CCSSO to establish the number of surveys to be completed, total expected cost, and method of payment (SEC collaborative budget or contract purchase order). Please contact: Rolf Blank, CCSSO, rolfb@ccsso.org or Carlise Smith, CCSSO, 202/336-7066. Register the project with Survey managers at WCER by going to www.SEConline.org and follow directions for Online, web-based survey method (see registration page below). Alternatively, to register for paper surveys or online surveys, you can email WCER managers at johns@education.wisc.edu or aminor@wisc.edu. After registration: Obtain project login address for website from WCER. Provide WCER with information on survey group to define login codes and data structure (If using online survey method) project name groups for organizing data regions or multi-district project names districts participating in project (names or district code) schools within each district (names or school code) Test login user name and password to ensure accessibility for local users. Obtain instructions on completing the survey and try it out before administering it to teachers. Provide survey orientation to target sample schools and teachers. This may be done in a number of ways: Train one person per school who will provide orientation to target sample teachers in each school Provide survey orientation directly to each participating school and teacher group. Include in training local project objectives, SEC research and development and rationale, schedule for data collection and reporting, method of sign-on to SEC website, and instructions for completion. Receive survey results: Individual teacher can view his/her results in comparison to complete sample (individual level data). Group aggregate results are reported in pre-designed charts, and are available to group administrator as surveys continue (recommend sharing group results when target rate attained). Data file with all survey responses from each project is available upon request. Data files are provided in Excel to the group administrator for additional analysis and research. Additional Resources Guidelines and Procedures for Using the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum Surveys of Enacted Curriculum: A Guide for SEC State and Local Coordinators, 2005 Registration Guide Questions for State Planning Costs of SEC tools and services SEC Brochure Request for Invoice/Annual Member Fee

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document last updated 8/21/2009