[Simtrainer-l] Needs assessment??

[Woodruff Susan]

Hello SIM Colleagues,
I had a meeting a few days ago with district personnel (which included the curriculum director and special education director) from a district that I spent quite a bit of time with a few years back.  At one time they had five PDers of their own, but through retirements, job shifts, and other reasons, they haven’t stayed on top of what is currently going on SIM-wise in their schools.  In fact, what we did a few years back has been integrated into the culture of the district, so they don’t even talk “SIM” - it is about instruction.  

That is great, and it is exactly what we would like to see happen.  However, when the point person leaves, things begin to fall apart which is what they are noticing.  I am thrilled that things have become so embedded, BUT they have had a lot of new staff in the past few years and little or no PD.  I think they are making a lot of assumptions.  

They were wondering if anyone has been in a similar circumstance.  The district is fairly large with 9 elementary buildings (where SIM was embedded in 5th and 6th grades), one large junior high school, and a very large high school.  I told them I would put a message out on the listserv to see how other districts have handled this.  Has anyone created a survey or method of assessing what is currently happening and getting a needs assessment?  They are pretty good with data, but I am guessing that they don’t have a formalized walk-through process or they would know more.

The district has been doing FUSION Reading for six years with most of the original teachers still in place.  The administrators said that they are strong advocates for FUSION, and that they continue to see great gains especially with the targeted population.  I was thrilled to hear that FUSION was still going strong.  As I said, I haven’t had direct contact with this district for at least three years.  I would love to hear how others have helped districts in this situation.
Warm regards,
Sue