New Jersey Department of Education

Annual School Planning

Root Cause Analysis

Upon completion of the New Jersey School Needs Assessment Rubric and Scoring Guide, teams should have identified strengths, data trends and areas needing focus. The team should use this information to prioritize three or four areas of focus for the coming school year.  The next step is to determine possible root causes of each area of focus.  The goal is to look below surface causes and identify the sources that contribute to the areas of need.

The root causes identified will later guide annual school planning teams in the creation of an Annual School Plan containing SMART goals and action steps for implementation focused on academic success in Step 3, the Annual School Plan Development.

Root Cause Analysis Training Module