1. Home
  2. CEC Services
  3. Diagnosing Needs

Diagnosing Needs

CEC’s approach is to begin by carefully assessing the district or school’s needs in the areas requested. We understand that even the most effective research-based practices cannot be implemented the same way in every district. Therefore, our diagnostic tools are designed to accurately identify the strengths and opportunities present in each district or school in order to tailor services to be most effective. We provide shorter and longer versions of our assessments, personalized to the unique situation of each district or school.

Our Services:

System Assessments

CEC offers an intensive, on-site process to assist a district or a school in reflecting on research-based effective practices compared to its present operating state.

A CEC audit team interviews stakeholders and reviews evidence to give the district or school an external validation of, or contrast to, its own self-assessment. The process is based on a Professional Learning Community’s Three Big Focus Areas: Learning, Collaboration and Results.

Overall strengths and opportunities are identified as well as next-step suggestions for improvement aligned to a Professional Learning Communities and Baldrige Organizational Excellence practices.

To learn more please complete the form at the bottom of this page.

Commitment Level: 3 – 7 days based on the number of buildings visited
Budget Range: $10,000 – $20,000 (larger district assessments would require a larger budget range)
Personnel Involved: All levels of stakeholders

Boundary Audits

CEC provides a boundary audit to establish and strengthen collaborative structures and processes that engage district administration, school administration, teacher leaders, and association leaders in a distributive leadership model. The Boundary Audit was developed by Dr. W. Patrick Dolan, based on the six boundaries of a typical school system outlined in his book Restructuring Schools: A Primer on Systemic Change.

As part of this audit, a CEC team interviews key stakeholders at the district and school levels with a focus on three key questions:

  1. How does the central office/management group’s focus on teaching and learning issues flow through the system as a whole – at the school sites and classroom level?
  2. How do the principals and site leadership teams exercise their roles and responsibilities in relationship to the teaching and learning focus flowing from the central office?
  3. What is the level of depth and quality of the collaborative teams at the school site and how integrated is their work in relationship to key school and district teaching and learning initiatives?

Overall strengths and opportunities are identified as well as next-step suggestions for improvement from a systems and continuous improvement approach.

To learn more please complete the form at the bottom of this page.

Commitment Level: 3 – 7 days based on number of buildings visited
Budget Range: $10,000 – $20,000
Personnel Involved: All levels of stakeholders

 

Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Audits

CEC offers a process that examines current district documents, practices, and support in the areas of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The goal of the audit is to discover the degree of alignment that exists among the three areas and to make recommendations that may be implemented to improve instruction and student academic performance.

A CEC audit team interviews stakeholders, conducts classroom observations and reviews evidence to give the district or school an external validation of, or contrast to, its own self-assessment. The process is aligned to the System Assessment: Focus on Learning.

The CEC audit team looks at trends within the collected data and produces a final written report that includes identification of strengths and priority needs in the areas of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. This report is presented to a leadership team for further review and action planning.

Now available: An Equity-focused CIA Audit (ECIA), which includes an additional lens for under-represented students and families.

A virtual option is available, if requested.

To learn more please complete the form at the bottom of this page.

Commitment Level: 1 – 4 days based on the number of buildings visited
Budget Range: $10,000 – $30,000
Personnel Involved: All levels of stakeholders – students, parents, teachers, and leaders.

Equity and Excellence Scan

CEC’s Equity and Excellence Scan provides an analysis of school-level and district-level indicators and provides recommendations to remove systematic patterns of inequity.
The audit offers schools and districts the opportunity to reflect upon their practices to ensure that every student has access to quality teaching, resources, opportunities and supports to be successful in the short- and long-term. Overall strengths and opportunities are identified as well as next-step suggestions for improvement.

CEC Equity and Excellence Scan’s ultimate goal is to assist districts with ensuring that every student has access to quality teaching, resources, opportunities, and support. We do this by providing clients with an opportunity to self-examine the processes and practices that both promote and inhibit an equity-based system. The CEC team utilizes data reviews, stakeholder surveys, focus groups, and interviews to gather information based on school- and district-level equity indicators. This process is built using the Building Equity Taxonomy by Smith, et al., and is aligned to CEC’s System Assessment.

CEC’s resulting school- and district-level reports highlight strengths and opportunities based on school-specific and system-wide themes. The reports include suggested next steps for the continued development of an equitable school system. Our team shares the findings with leadership teams and personnel for priority identification and action planning.

To learn more please complete the form at the bottom of this page.

Commitment Level: 3 – 7 days based on the number of buildings visited
Budget Range: $10,000 – $20,000
Personnel Involved: Parents, teachers, and leaders

Special Education Audits

CEC offers a process that focuses on various aspects of the special education program. This audit looks within the school and/or district system to examine how resources are utilized, how student needs are being met and how effective communication is with internal and external stakeholders.

This process will focus on several aspects of the special education program within the system. We collaborate with the school system to address these questions:

  • To what extent are special education students receiving educational benefits from the programs and service delivery provided by the system?
  • Are resources utilized effectively and efficiently to meet the needs of the special education population?
  • To what extent is the instructional program supporting and advancing the needs of students requiring special education services?
  • To what extent is the communication with both internal and external stake- holders effective in meeting the needs of students requiring special education?

The CEC team synthesizes the data collected into a report for the district or school. At the Findings Report Meeting CEC shares the report orally and answers specific questions that might need clarifying.

A virtual option is available, if requested.

To learn more please complete the form at the bottom of this page.

Commitment Level: 3 – 7 days based on number of buildings visited
Budget Range: $10,000 – $20,000
Personnel Involved: All levels of stakeholders

Union Assessment Audits and Strategic Planning

CEC provides an audit of the district’s union. The purpose of this type of audit is to assist the union leadership in assessing and understanding its capacity to create, strategize and implement a plan to strengthen advocacy as a more comprehensive union. In order to accomplish this purpose, CEC provides a team of experienced consultants to conduct a series of focus group interviews as part of an organizational systems assessment for the local union. CEC’s Union Assessment Audit aligns to the Three Frames of Comprehensive Unionism – Industrial, Professional and Social Justice.

The Comprehensive Union framework provides a vehicle for transforming teaching into a profession that will improve learning for all students within schools. The union cannot effectively do this by itself. It can work in partnership with school and district administrators and school boards to remove obstacles and improve the conditions needed to transform top-down bureaucracies into listening and learning organizations focused on deepening student engagement and learning. This process assists labor-management teams in identifying strengths, challenges and opportunities for improvement in strengthening partnership efforts to improve conditions that impact teaching and learning.

CEC’s Union System Assessment process assists union leadership in expanding its advocacy efforts to address the “bread and butter” issues such as better pay and benefits of its members. It also focuses on ways to improve the quality of the profession while also looking at social justice and equity issues that impact educational and social-economic opportunities for students and their families.

A more comprehensive union has the vision and capacity to align the following systems with a clear purpose of leading the profession in ways that advocate for members and meet the needs of all students through:

  • shared and distributed leadership systems
  • strategic planning and execution (aligned with District plans and state and national teacher union plans)
  • member relationships (processes and structures to recruit, support, develop, and communicate with members)
  • partnerships and processes to define the work, and describe the how and the what of the work (collective bargaining is one of these processes)
  • data and information systems to monitor and track progress and results (including the financial health of the local union)

To learn more please complete the form at the bottom of this page.

Commitment Level: 3 – 7 days based on number of buildings visited
Budget Range: $10,000 – $20,000
Personnel Involved: Union Leaders and Members

To learn more about these services, please complete this form: