Answer: seek continual improvement through a cyclical curriculum audit process to ensure there is a positive link between the assessments given and the results achieved. Positive changes can occur in school districts if time is taken to complete a curriculum audit. Most often, the point of the audit is to analyze the current state of the district and determine what is successful (and what is NOT successful) in increasing student performance. This checklist is intended to be a useful resource and a helpful reminder of the process of completing a curriculum audit. In order to effectively audit, there must be an understanding of the district’s and schools’ goals and visions. This includes a review of the mission statement, outcomes, and administrative focus. Breaking down your goals into an actionable format in a short and long term are going to help define outcomes. Next, determine the areas of focus or necessary categories that need to be included as part of the audit. (Certainly, these categories are interdependent and overlap; this is merely a condensed list for consideration.) Within this category, consider the ways to effectively educate each student through your curriculum, instruction, assessment, and social-emotional learning. Quantitative and qualitative measures of progress and growth are used to ensure students are being given an effective learning environment. Within this category, consider the following: Manage educational environments and work to advance and improve the educational system. Use current data, both quantitative and qualitative, to determine areas of relative strength and weaknesses under the school’s current practices. Quantitative: Consider measures such as graduation rates; staff retention rates; state assessment data; student/staff survey statistics, etc. Qualitative: Staff or parent/guardian meeting notes, classroom observations, work samples from students, comments on student/staff survey, etc. Once the current practice and process has been audited. It’s important to determine the needs of the school or district and prioritize those needs. It is unlikely that all areas of need can be fully met initially. Therefore, effective prioritization ensures the greatest positive impact on student achievement. When prioritizing the goals of an audit, consider Sork’s Importance and Feasibility Criteria (Sork, 1982) Share the prioritization (if part of a team) or review the feedback from those impacted (if working independently). Consider the importance and feasibility (Sork) of the possible priorities and which will have the most impact on student achievement. Use this step as a vetting process for which priorities have achievable action steps in the current climate of the school or district. As needed, gain administrative approval for the chosen goals. Understand how the current resources are allocated, and if they need to be re-distributed based on priority. If you need more reference on what you should communicate, how, and the importance of it. Mifflin County School District wrote about their experience mapping and which areas they focused on in their curriculum. In this step, configure clear and reasonable steps of continual improvement for the selected growth area. While some prioritized goals can be implemented immediately; others will need a longer time-frame to ensure the process is achievable and not overwhelming. Decide key performance indicators that will help assess the success of the prioritized goal as part of the audit. Think: how will we know this is working? Again, consider sources of both qualitative and quantitative measures if possible. Develop both a short- and long-term timeframe for analysis. Balance the metric to indicate both positive and negative ends toward the chosen goal. Implement the improvement actions from step six and use the metrics from step seven to measure the success of the implementation. Constant communication about the progress is key to this step. When analyzing the metrics, consider the road trip analogy: Are we heading toward our destination (goal) effectively? If the defined improvement actions are truly ineffective, revisit earlier steps or begin the curriculum audit process again. And finally, don’t forget the role of technology advancements in helping manage the complexities of your curriculum. Consider getting a demonstration of Chalk Curriculum, a cloud-based solution in use by a large number of school districts. Here are some questions you can also consider posed by Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs on reviewing curriculum maps:
For additional resources on auditing your curriculum map, read Curriculum Map Review Process [Infographic] or The Complete Guide to Curriculum Mapping eBook. For more insight and advice to help make your curriculum map effective, check out one of these Chalk articles: Why Do You Need to Focus on Concept-Based Curriculum, Don’t Be Fooled: Textbooks Are Not Your Curriculum, and How to Use Bloom’s Taxonomy for Curriculum Planning.This is an 8-step curriculum audit guide that helps you create an effective and transparent curriculum that your school can utilize for its intent. Learn how to audit your curriculum, how to do curriculum planning, how to find gaps within your plans, and align your school’s curricular goals.
First, start by asking: How can our curriculum be most effective?
The Checklist
1. Understand Goals & Visions
2. Determine Areas of Focus
Curriculum
Instruction
Accommodations / Individualized Learning
Social/Emotional Skills
Assessment and Accountability
Leadership
Instructional Coaches
3. Analyze Current Practice
4. Prioritize Needs
Consider a road-trip analogy:
These include the key questions on importance:
… and the key questions on feasibility:
5. Communicate Priority Findings
6. Define Improvement Actions
7. Define Metrics for Success
8. Implement & Measure