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Nature of the Curriculum Audit Process

Program-Specific Curriculum Management Audit Process

The program-specific curriculum management audit process is based upon generally-accepted concepts pertaining to the systems that support the design and delivery of effective instruction. These concepts embody quality improvement processes related to school excellence. Each program-specific curriculum management audit focuses on operational areas selected by the school system.

A curriculum management audit of this type focuses upon selected systemic factors germane to the selected program. It is an independent examination of the program, focusing on four data sources:

1. Documents pertaining to the direction given to administrators, teachers, and other personnel responsible for the program outcomes;
2. Documents pertaining to ways, means, and results from assessment of program outcomes, including pupil achievement and progress;
3. Direct observations of programs and operations; and
4. Responses to inquiries posed to individuals with in the system.

These data are gathered and analyzed, or corroborated, to reveal the extent to which a designated program is capable of meeting its goals and objectives, whether they are internally or externally developed or imposed. A comprehensive report is issued to the client school system as the final phase of the process.

The program-specific curriculum management audit is an intensive, focused, vertical look at how well a school system such as the Saginaw Public Schools has been able to set valid direction for pupil accomplishment and well being, and improve its performance, however contextually defined or measured, over time. The curriculum management audit included in the proposed report focuses on the Title and Special Education programs at the school system’s request.

The program-specific curriculum management audit does not examine any aspect of school system operations unless it pertains to the design and/or evaluation of all Title and special education programming. The program-specific curriculum management audit only examines those areas of operations found to be relevant to the efficient and effective delivery of learning to the clients of the Saginaw Public Schools.

The program-specific curriculum management audit centers its focus on the main business of schools: teaching, curriculum, and learning. Its contingency focus is based upon data gathered during the program-specific curriculum management audit that impinges negatively or positively on its primary focus. These data are reported along with the main findings of the program-specific curriculum management audit.

In some cases, ancillary findings in a program-specific curriculum management audit are so interconnected with the capability of a school system to attain its central objectives, that they become major, interactive forces which, if not addressed, will severely compromise the ability of the school system to be successful with its students.

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