A need is the gap between what you planned to happen at school and what actually happened. I'm really into school assessment. You need goals. You need to assess constantly to make sure you are moving toward those goals in a timely manner.

Continual assessment is critical to be certain your programs are getting the planned results.

Why? Because you may have a great reading program that could be working better if you had more books? You may have a math program that could be working better if you had more manipulatives. You might have an at-risk program that could be running much more efficiently if you had more aides. Your technology program may be antiquated and students can't pass their computer literacy tests until you get new computers and software.

To get those additional materials or personnel units, you may have to write grants. Before you can write those grants, you have to define your needs. To define those needs and get grant money, you need data from the ongoing assessments you're doing.

Those assessments can be formal or informal. They can be nationally-normed tests. They can be state skills test. They can be faculty and student surveys or interviews. The point is they should indicate to you whether proper progress is being made toward your goals.

Assessment can be made during any part of the school year. You should make preliminary assessments within weeks after the school year starts. You should certainly make assessments at the end of the first semester and the end of the school year. You should assess your summer program at the midpoint and at the end of the summer.

Assess the needs you have in your programs now. Begin searching for the grants you need now. Don't procrastinate. Grants of different types are available throughout the year. Once you've done your assessment, you can begin searching for grants that match the needs of your school.

Use grant databases on the Internet, subscribe to newsletters, or use Google to search for grants that match your needs.

There are thousands and thousands of grants available to schools. You have to find those grants and match them with your problem areas. You find those problem areas by continually assessing your programs.

No doubt, every school in the U.S. could make use of extra grant money to improve their programs. The key is making quality needs assessments to determine exactly what those needs are, then matching them with the proper grants.