A needs assessment of physical and emotional safety in a school is planned. After identifying the purpose, what should be the next step?

• A. Identify the specific population within the community to be studied
• B. Select a survey instrument
• C. Collect and analyze data
• D. Conduct exploratory interviews

Answer: (B)

When planning a needs assessment, identifying the purpose tells you what you want to learn about safety. The next step is deciding how you will gather information to answer those questions, which means selecting a survey instrument. A survey provides standardized questions to measure people’s perceptions of physical and emotional safety, making the data comparable across different groups and easier to analyze. Choosing the instrument early also guides what constructs you’ll measure, how you’ll rate responses, and how you’ll administer the survey. After locking in the data collection tool, you can determine who to survey and how to reach them, and then move on to data collection and analysis. While interviews can be useful, a survey instrument is the logical next step to establish a coherent, scalable data collection plan aligned with the identified purpose.