Superintendent Presents First School System Midterm Report Card
January 23, 2007 - Superintendent Del Burns today called for a comprehensive independent curriculum management audit of the Wake County Public School System as part of his first "midterm report" to the Wake County Board of Education.Highlights & Downloads
View The Midterm Report:
Curriculum Management Audit Fact Sheet
Full Text of Dr. Burns' Speech (100 KB Acrobat File)
"We have seen our students’ success on the SAT, increasing number of students taking challenging high school courses and a graduation rate higher than the state and nation. The critical question before us is -- in light of significantly higher standards and expectations for all students, in light of the need to prepare children to not just live, but to thrive in a global economy in a global society -- are we doing enough?" Burns said.
The curriculum audit would be conducted by the International Curriculum Management Audit Center of Phi Delta Kappa International. The audit follows a business model developed by accounting firm Peat, Marwick, and Mitchell which has been used by a number of school districts across the nation.
The audit would investigate two fundamental instructional management questions:
- Does the Wake County Public School System have a properly managed instructional program or curriculum that is planned, executed, and assessed in accordance with generally accepted principles and standards?
- Does the Wake County Public School System conform to the standards of quality in instructional organization which include the following:
- Adequacy, specificity, and scope of board policies and planning?
- Sufficient quality in direction for teaching and learning?
- Consistency and equity in schools and program implementation?
- Effectiveness of program and process monitoring and assessment?
- Use and allocations of budget and resources for productivity and quality improvement?
"I think that we, as a community, should be at least as vigilant in monitoring, reviewing, and auditing our core business as we are our support systems," Burns said. "Our support systems maintain our schools. But 'what we teach' and 'how we teach it' are our reason for being."
"Volunteering for an independent audit of our educational programs shows a lot of courage. I commend our school system's administration for taking the initiative in requesting a curriculum audit," said Patti Head, chair of the Wake County Board of Education. "I anticipate that the audit will confirm the good work of our teachers, principals and staff while identifying ways our school system can better help them support our students. The school board and administration are accountable for the success of more than 128,000 students, so I welcome this audit."
The comprehensive independent curriculum audit is projected to cost $215,000. It will begin soon after the appropriation is authorized by the Wake County Board of Education and would last for 26 weeks. The appropriation will be an action item on the school board's Feb. 6 agenda.
"We are confident of three things," said Dr. Donna Hargens, chief academic officer for WCPSS. "We are confident that we are a good school system, that there are significant improvements still to be made, and that a comprehensive independent audit will help us realign our resources toward helping all of our students graduate on time, prepared for the future. We need to ensure that our curriculum is preparing our students for this century, not the last one," Hargens said.
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