WCPSS Prepares to Audit Individual Schools
April 9, 2009 - The Wake County Public Schools System is looking to build on the success of the changes brought by the Curriculum Management Audit for the school district by auditing individual schools.A team of external auditors examined WCPSS instructional practices in 2007 and provided the district with a 400-page report providing recommendations on steps the district could take to improve the support of learning and teaching.
WCPSS Chief Academic Officer Donna Hargens says the school district wants to use the same process to help schools improve learning and teaching.
“In an individual school audit, we would have a team of auditors review a school to look at what they have in place in terms of documents and what’s happening in the classroom,” said Hargens. “What you’re doing is comparing the school’s current processes to characteristics of high- performing schools and what you are able to do is give schools really specific information about what standards they are meeting and what standards they could improve in.”
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Listen to Dr. Donna Hargens talk about school audits 9 minute mp3 file |
Schools Measured Against Standards
In an individual school audit, schools are measured against six standards and 50 characteristics. Dr. Fenwick English, a UNC-Chapel Hill education professor and the father of the curriculum management audit, identifies these standards in his book, 50 Ways to Close the Achievement Gap.
The standards are:
- Teach a well-crafted, focused, valid and clear curriculum;
- Align assessments, programs and instructional resources with curriculum;
- Promote student equality and equity;
- Focus on mastery learning and effective teaching strategies;
- Provide resources for establishing curriculum expectations, monitoring, and accountability; and
- Institute effective district and school planning, staff development, and resource allocation to create a quality learning environment.
In training WCPSS administrators in the curriculum management process, English and other trainers helped them to better implement the findings of the district audit and prepared them to serve as auditors at the school level.
Pat Dickson, a trainer and lead auditor with Curriculum Management Systems, Inc. who helped WCPSS staff prepare for the school audits, says that the school audit provides a review of all of the systems supporting a school.
“The point is to look at what's happening within the district as a whole and how the district is interacting with and supporting the school and then what's happening at the school site against the 50 characteristics,” said Dickson. “Then where there are gaps, the auditors will make some recommendations to the school site about actions that they might want to take. So it's designed to be a collegial process because there is interaction and discussion about the school improvement plan and I know your folks are planning to do ongoing support.”
School Audits
In conducting a school audit, the team of reviewers will look at the school’s improvement plan, interview staff and visit every classroom to observe instruction and collect student artifacts or work..
“What you’re looking at is the school as a whole and how the curriculum is delivered,” said Hargens. “Nothing in the school audit report speaks about individuals at the school.”
The audit team provides their findings in a report of about 100 pages describing each of the 50 characteristics, what reviewers found at the school and the actions the school can take to meet that characteristic.
“Our hope is that the school will take this rich data,” said Hargens, “to look critically at their school and will incorporate the recommended actions into their school improvement plan in order to create a blueprint for improvement.”
The lead auditor will check with the school periodically and a team of auditors will go back after one year to do a check and provide additional support. The special assistants to the area superintendents who work closely with the schools in developing the school improvement plan will help the schools incorporate the audit results into their school improvement plan.
“The audit is a tool to help schools see how they can improve.” said Hargens.
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