Sunday, January 4, 2009

The Curriculum Audit .. one year later
Not much change for the better

Seattle Schools had a Curriculum Audit done by Phi Delta Kappa.
You do not hear much about this currently as the district has largely neglected this audit. It was completed about one year ago in January of 2008.

Here is a piece from it: (page 226)

Overview of What the Auditors Found in the Seattle Public Schools

This section is an overview of the findings that follow in the area of Standard Four. Details follow within separate findings.

The auditors found that the district has parts of a comprehensive student assessment and program evaluation plan embedded in various board policies and bylaws, in several job descriptions, and different district plans. The fragmentation of the planning does not allow the district staff to take a coordinated and rational approach to evaluating student achievement in all grade levels and subject areas or to evaluating programs that are designed to increase student achievement.
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Finding 4.1: The district lacks a comprehensive student assessment and program evaluation plan to guide decisions for improving student achievement.
Comprehensive program evaluation plans provide the board, district administrators, and teachers with information that allows them to make effective instructional decisions. Without such information, programs that are ineffective or marginal are allowed to continue to use resources that could be better used in other ways to address student needs. Without such information, interventions become more numerous and often result in little change in student achievement. More time, money, and effort are spent with no real increase in student success.

If you would like to see more of what the Curriculum Audit found, you can find it here:

http://www.seattleschools.org/area/strategicplan/Curriculum_Review_Report.pdf

All 396 pages of a .pdf... SPS spent $125,000 on this ... so why the neglect? This audit is rarely referenced.

Is it because the audit clearly outlines what needs change and the SPS is not about clarity?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Look at the math adoptions (a joke), you can't build any coherent program when the adoptions are out of order. Its done intentionally.

The textbooks overlap content and 'spiraling' is used as an excuse for bad writing.

You don't need an audit to see there's something wrong with the school system. Your administrators couldn't understand it anyway.

Anonymous said...

The good thing about your information is that it is explicit enough for students to grasp. Thanks for your efforts in spreading academic knowledge. Regards.