Instructional Needs Assessment:
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"The purpose of a needs assessment is to determine that there actually is a need for new instruction to be developed"(Smith & Ragan, 2005, p. 43).
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The purpose of the Smart Transition course is to provide learners, who are currently incarcerated, with the opportunity to create their individualized transition plan that will help develop their confidence to successfully transition from the jail back to the community, and contribute back to their community.
Innovation Model:
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"The innovation model examines changes or innovations in the educational system or organization or in the environment outside the organization and determines whether new learning goals should be added to the curriculum to accommodate these changes or innovations" (Smith & Ragan, 2005, p. 45)
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Although a re-entry team already exists at Five Keys Charter School, the current re-entry team is only able to provide support once the incarcerated student leaves the jail setting and returns back to the community to meet up at a determined location. Smart Transition will be utilizing the innovative-based needs assessment because this course will incorporate the critical thinking decisions that are not already incorporated by the re-entry team. The current re-entry program doesn’t create individualized transition plans for their learners while individualized transition plans will be the main focus of Smart Transition.
Context of the Problem:
The mission of Five Keys Charter School is to provide education to those incarcerated so that they will have a greater chance of staying out of jail, and help reduce the current high recidivism rate in California. The five keys of Five Keys Charter School are: family, community, employment, rehabilitation and education.
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*Five Keys Special Education students that have been incarcerated, went home and returned to jail have shared that being unprepared for the transition is believed to be a large factor in returning to jail.
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*Statistics show that the recidivism rate, the rate of returning back to jail, is very high in general. Recidivism rates are especially high for young adults who are unprepared for what to expect when they return back to society (Florida Prison Recidivism Study, 2016).
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*Studies show that education has been proven to help reduce the recidivism rate.
Smart Transition
