• What is ED STEPS?
• What brought about ED STEPS?
• What are the objectives and benefits of ED STEPS?
• What is an ED STEPS cohort?
• What are the deadlines for the various components of ED STEPS?
• Who do I contact for ED STEPS questions or to provide feedback?

• What is the One Needs Assessment?
• Who is required to complete the One Needs Assessment?
• How do I find and access the One Needs Assessment?
• I am preparing to complete the One Needs Assessment in my organization. Who should be involved in completing the One Needs Assessment?
• How do I search for my educational entity in the One Needs Assessment?
• Once I have searched for my organization in the One Needs Assessment, how do I complete my One Needs Assessment?
• Once all required questions are complete, how do I complete the Pre-Planning tab?
• Why is it important to select other improvement areas on the Pre-Planning tab?
• What makes a question Required or Recommended for my organization?
• What happens if I need to revise the One Needs Assessment?
• Who do I contact if I still need support to complete the One Needs Assessment?
• Are there any training materials and if so, where can I access them?

• What is the One Plan?
• Where can I find more resources on One Plan?
• When is the deadline to submit the One Plan?
• Do strategies in the plan need to be evidence-based?
• What are the required items in a plan?
• Where can I get guidance on Levels of Evidence?

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The idea for the ED STEPS Project came from over four years of educator and administrator feedback, including a comprehensive analysis of the CCIP, user interviews and input from an advisory group. 

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ED STEPS will improve the user experience, reduce the time and resources the Department and educational entities devote to compliance activities, promote cross-office and program support, remove unnecessary barriers and duplication, and offer tools to help educational entities think more holistically about resource allocation. The system will maximize and leverage resources by shifting the approach to “fund the plan, not plan to fund,” standardizing timelines and adopting a three-year planning cycle with annual funding applications.

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There are three cohorts for ED STEPS. Cohorts are a mixture of all the different types of organizations and support levels. All educational entities within a cohort will begin the One Needs Assessment and One Plan in the same fiscal year. Educational entities can find their cohort on the ED STEPS website under resources (ED STEPS Planning Cohort List) .

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Please contact EDSTEPS@education.ohio.gov for questions and feedback.

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The One Needs Assessment is a pre-planning tool designed to allow educational entities to identify their needs in single location to drive impactful planning.

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Educational Entities should involve all key personnel and stakeholders of the organization.  Typically, District Level Teams, Building Level Teams, and Teacher-based Teams lead the needs assessment process. In addition, key personnel such as fiscal, transportation, food service, etc., should be included.  The inclusion of key stakeholders is vital in conducting a comprehensive needs assessment.  These stakeholders should include parents and students, but also community agencies and school or district partners.

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Open the One Needs Assessment application. Click on One Needs Assessment from the menu on the left-hand side of the screen. Use the Search filters to find your organization. It is important to note that you must have the appropriate roles in OEDS to access a specific entities needs assessment. Please refer to the ED STEPS User Manual for additional instructions on how to complete the One Needs Assessment.

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The questions are organized into question groups within one of eight broad Improvement Areas (Sections). For example, within the Fiscal Management improvement area section, the question group names are Internal Controls, Financial Management, Budgeting and Procurement. Quick access to the questions can be found at the top of the Improvement Area section. Required (*) and Recommended (R) questions are denoted here.  Educational entities also have optional questions that may further assist to identify their needs. The organization should complete relevant questions within each question grouping. A root cause question will appear under each set of question groups. The root cause prompts the entity to assess the underlying causes for that question group, which will aid in developing the One Plan. Finally, the organization will select whether the subject of the question group is a priority need for the organization.

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Selecting other improvement areas are critical in the development of the One Plan because these improvement areas become the topic for strategies in the plan. As you are selecting additional improvement areas, think of other topics you need to include in order to address your priority need(s). For example, in English Language Arts besides curriculum, instruction, and assessment you might also need to include leadership and professional capital.

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Log-in to your OHID account and select ED STEPS from your applications. From the ED STEPS dashboard select the One Needs Assessment. Select the fiscal year for which the One Needs Assessment was created. Once the correct year is selected, change the dropdown box in the upper right-hand corner of the One Needs Assessment from “Completed” to “In Progress”. Please note that if the Pre-Planning tab is in “Sent to One Plan” status, it will automatically change to “In Progress”.  Make any relevant edits to questions and then change the status from “In Progress” to “Completed”. If any changes are needed to the Pre-Planning tab only, you will need to change the status from “Sent to One Plan” to “In Progress” and then make any relevant changes to the Additional Improvement Areas and select the priority needs to be sent to the One Plan. Then, change the status to “Sent to One Plan”. The One Needs Assessment will then be sent to the ED STEPS One Plan.

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Questions should be sent to: EDSTEPS.OneNeedsAssessment@education.ohio.gov.

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Training materials for the One Needs Assessment can be found here.

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Educational entities in their assigned cohort year should submit the One Needs Assessment and One Plan by April 30^th.

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ESSA states that strategies for interventions and improvements need to be evidence-based. Some of the strategies in the plan must be a level 1-3 evidence-based strategy. However, most of the strategies will fall in the level 4 evidence-base strategy category. When possible, educational entities should use the resources listed below to create new strategies and modify existing strategies. If there is no evidence for a specific strategy, then the organization must evaluate the strategy’s effectiveness in their organization and provide evidence of the evaluation for future planning.

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At these locations:

• Defining ESSA Levels of Evidence: An Overview | Ohio's Evidence Based Clearing House
• US Dept. of Ed. Non-Regulatory Guidance: Using Evidence to Strengthen Education Investments
• 5 Steps to Being Empowered by Evidence
• Ohio Department of Education Clearinghouse - State Resource
• What Works Clearinghouse – National Resource

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