The curriculum audit determines how effective the whole school district effort is at designing and delivering the curriculum. The audit compares the district’s design and delivery to a set of five standards that focus on clear achievement objectives for students, and how the system manages and supports the attainment of those objectives for students.The process provides a way to organize the collection and analysis of data within a district. “Collecting and organizing the needed data necessary for the required accountability program can be overwhelming,” states Joe Jauregui, principal of Renaissance High School. “The audit provides a way to organize the collection and analysis of data within a school. The information will be used to guide future improvement decisions made by the staff in their efforts to improve student achievement.”
Curriculum management audit to assist Renaissance High School staff to prepare for program accountability
March 24, 2000
Santa Paula News
Academic Performance Index (API); High School Exit Exam; Standardized Testing and Reporting Program (STAR); Stanford Achievement Test, Ninth Edition (SAT-9); and Academic Contest Standards are titles that local educators are becoming familiar with. They represent examinations and reporting mechanisms that all schools in California are required to implement to meet the criteria of a comprehensive accountability system.
The staff at Renaissance High School is in the process of reviewing the program’s curriculum to insure all elements are aligned to the standards-based accountability system that has been developed to promote and improve student learning. Aligning the curriculum to the content standards is also a component in the school’s Digital High School Plan, which the staff is currently implementing. The result of these efforts will be students who are prepared for the STAR program and the California High School Exit Exam.To assist the schools in the Santa Paula Union High School District in meeting the demands of the recently developed accountability system, Dr. Carol Ramnarine, director of Educational Services for the SPUHSD, has completed a series of training sessions at the California Curriculum Management Audit Center. She is in the process of becoming certified to conduct external audits and internal reviews of educational delivery systems in California. Currently, she is in the process of conducting an internal review of the curriculum at Renaissance High School.The California Curriculum Management Audit is the result of a partnership between the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) and the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association. These two professional agencies have joined with the international Curriculum Management Audit Center to sponsor training and education in California. The process was developed by Fenwick English in 1979. English, vice chancellor of Indiana-Purdue University, based the process on effective schools research as well as on the accountability concepts that serve as the foundation for financial audit procedures.
