Curriculum Audits
Solutions for struggling schools.
Group project by GFC- J. Bradshaw, B. Cobbs, A. Flora, J. Guilliams, A. Hamrick, A. Rigney
What is Curriculum
Auditing?
• It provides an agenda for improvement for
even the best of school organizations.
• A system’s policies, plans, organizational
structure, curriculum equity, assessment,
facilities, and budget are evaluated for
effective design and delivery of teaching
and learning.
• There is no more valuable way to assess
the quality of a school system or to improve
the achievement of learners.
Curriculum
Delivery
Design
Quality Control
Teacher
Test
Delivery
Curriculum Audit History
• The first curriculum management audit
was conducted by Fenwick English in
1979
• Trained educators in the audit process
examine a school district to determine
if a school has the capability to improve
student achievement.
• Curriculum auditors collect information
using documents, interviews, and site
visits.
• The curriculum auditors evaluate the
school district using the following
principles and 5 standards…
Guiding Principles of the
Curriculum Audit
• Objectivity – Any two auditors using the
same standards and data base will reach
approximately the same conclusions.
• Independence – The auditors will have no
vested interest in the outcome of the audit.
• Consistency – The same procedures,
techniques, and methods will be followed with
each audit.
• Materiality – The auditors will have authority
to make distinction between what is important
and what is not.
• Full Disclosure – The auditors will reveal all
information that is important to the users of
the audit.
Curriculum Audit
Standards
• Standard One – The school system is able to
demonstrate its control of resources,
programs, and personnel. (Control)
• Standard Two – The school system has
established clear and valid objectives for
students. (Direction)
• Standard Three – The school system
demonstrates internal connectivity and
rational equity in its program development
and implementation. (Connectivity)
• Standard 4 – The school system uses the
results from system designed and/or adopted
assessment to adjust, improve, or terminate
ineffective practices or programs. (Feedback)
• Standard 5 – The school system has
improved productivity. (Productivity)
Following a Curriculum
Management Audit
• Written recommendations are included in
the report of findings.
• When there has been a failure to meet
audit standards in a specific area,
recommendations are made with specific
steps for improvement.
• Increasingly, state education departments
have utilized curriculum management
audits because of their impartiality in
assessing a system’s ability to provide
continual student improvement.
Curriculum audits are conducted nationally
and internationally.
The Model for the
Curriculum Management
Audit
Quality
Control
Assessed Curriculum
Assumptions of a
Curriculum Audit
At least 3 elements must be present in
any organizational and work-related
situation for it to be functional and
capable of being improved over time.
• 1. A work standard, goal/objective, or
operational mission.
• 2. Work directed toward attaining the
mission, standard, goal/objective.
• 3. Feedback which is related to or aligned
with the standard, goal/objective, or
mission.
Additional Assumptions
• An educational system, as one
kind of human work organization,
must be responsive to the context
in which it functions and in which it
receives support for its continuing
existence. In the case of public
educational systems, the support
comes in the form of tax monies
from 3 levels, local, state, and
federal.
Additional Assumptions
• In return for such support, mass
public educational systems are
supposed to exhibit characteristics
of rationality – being responsive to
the public will as it is expressed in
legally constituted bodies such as
Congress, state legislatures, and
locally elected appointed boards of
education.
Financial vs. Curriculum
Audit
• Financial Audit - The main concerns are
safeguarding of assets and reliability
and integrity of financial information.
• Curriculum Audit -Evaluation for
effective design and delivery of teaching
and learning.
Financial vs. Curriculum Audit
Financial
Recording
Processing
Summarizing
Reporting of Financial
Data
Curriculum
Policies
Plans
Organizational
Structure
Curriculum
Equity
Assessment
Facilities
Budget
Help for Boones Mill Elementary
• Boones Mill Elementary tested 68
fifth graders on the History and
Social Science test in 2001. Seventy
two percent (72%) passed the test.
The division score was 66%.
• Principal’s Goal—90 % pass the
History SOL test.
•Who are you going to call? Call
GFC Curriculum Audit Team
SOL’S
SOL’S
Help for Boones Mill Elementary
What does GFC want to exist?
Focus group interviews
• “You can’t fix it, if you don’t know what is wrong!”
John Busher-Director of Instruction, Botetourt
County.
• Meaningful way to gather rich, qualitative
information.
• Objective-ask probing questions to staff to gather
information that will be used to improve Boones
Mill’s overall effectiveness.
• Information gathered puts a human face on
accountability (Kruger 2004).
• Focus group interviews are only as good as the
questions written. Must ask the questions that will
provide accurate and provide information if the
curriculum taught is effective.
Help for Boones Mill Elementary
What does GFC want to exist?
Teacher Audit
High skills
High Skills
High Motivation
Low Motivation
Low skills
Low skills
High Motivation
Low Motivation
Help for Boones Mill Elementary
What does GFC want to exist?
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Focus group surveys
Teacher Audit
Student chart of scores to identify bubble kids.
Staff Development
Unit test
Curriculum guides
Mapping tool/pacing guides
Textbook adoption
Lesson Plan format-Unit plan
Classroom assessment-dept/division –teacher
CSIP
Help for Boones Mill Elementary
• In 2002, 58 students were tested and 96%
passed the History SOL test. The division
average was 77%
• In 2003, 66 students were tested and 92%
passed the History SOL test. The division
score was 86%. Many schools modeled
Boones Mill.
Stelia Wilbourn
Boones Mill Elementary Principal
Internal Audit (GFC)
PEP
Plans
Study Guide
Lesson
Plans
CSIP
PARENTS
Disaggregate
Data
Teacher Collaboration
Vertical
Alignment
Curriculum
Alignment
What is Curriculum Auditing?
Curriculum auditing focuses on increasing
student productivity. Based on effective
schools research and governed by the same
principles and standards as a financial audit,
the curriculum audit determines how
effectively the school district designs and
delivers its curriculum.
“Texas Curriculum Management Audit Center, 2004”
Summary of
Curriculum Auditing
• Key Ideas
– evaluates a division or individual school for
effective design and delivery of teaching and
learning
• Policies and Plans
– Visions, Goals, Roadblocks, Internal/External Politics
• Organizational structures
• Curriculum alignment and Assessments
– Analysis of data (Today’s schools must be data driven.)
• Facilities and Budget
– Curriculum driven budget that supports teaching and learning
Summary of
Curriculum Auditing
• Provides an agenda for improvement even
for the best of school organizations
• Encourages communication between all
stakeholders
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Parents
School Board Officials
Administrators
Teachers
Staff
Works Cited
AH
• The Curriculum Management Audit:
Improving School Quality. (2000). Edited by
Larry E. Frase, Fenwick English, and
William K. Posten, Jr.. Lanham, Maryland:
The Scarecrow Press.
• Phi Delta Kappa International Curriculum
Management Center. Features of an Audit.
Retrieved from the World Wide Web
http://www.pdkintl.org/profdev/icmac/features.htm
Works Cited
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BC
Busher, John. Personal Interview. 29 March 2004.
Israel, Glenn D. April 2004. “Using Focus Group Interviews for Evaluation
Extension Programs.” University of Florida.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_Pd036
Krueger, Richard A. April 2004. “Asking Questions that Yield Powerful
Information.” http://www.tc.umn.edu/~rkrueger/focus_aq.html
McNamara, Carter, PhD. 1999. “Basics of Conducting Focus Group.”
http://www.mapnp.org/library/evaluatn/focusgrp.htm
“Sample Teacher Focus Group Questions.” March 2004. Sun Associates
Educational Technology Integration. http://www.sunassociates.com/eval/teacherfg.html
What is Curriculum Auditing? March 2004.
http://www.curriculumsystems.com/5a_about_audits.html
The Curriculum Management Audit: Improving School Quality. March
2004.
http://www.cesa7.k12.wi.us/schooolimprove/curriculum/5%20standard
s%20in%20curriculum%20audit.htm
Works Cited
• Notes from “Curriculum Audit” video
• Texas Curriculum Management Audit Center /
http://www.tasanet.org/services/tcmac.html
• Interview-Stelia Wilbourn, Principal Boones Mill
Elementary.