K-12 Curriculum Development

According to Phi Delta Kappa, "The Curriculum Management Audit is a third-party examination of the curriculum design and delivery system of a school or school district. Both curriculum policy and the system in which curriculum functions are analyzed by the audit team. The report provides specific recommendations to improve those functions."

According to Wiggins and McTighe (2007), "The job is not to hope that optimal learning will occur, based on our curriculum and initial teaching.  The job is to ensure that learning occurs, and when it doesn't, to intervene in altering the syllabus and instruction decisively, quickly, and often" (p. 55).

Examples of Curriculum Management Audits:

Anchorage School District (Alaska)

Clover Park School District (Washington)  

San Bernardino City Unified School District (California)

Wake County Public School System (North Carolina)

Frequently Asked Questions About the WCPSS Curriculum Audit

If your school district has completed a Curriculum Management Audit, please share your thoughts. 

How did it help you improve your work as an educator? 

What were the benefits of the Curriculum Management Audit? 

Did you conduct the audit through Phi Delta Kappa or did you develop a different evaluation instrument for your school district's curriculum audit? 

If curriculum alignment is the goal in most school systems, then why do districts fail to conduct a Curriculum Management Audit? 

School districts must confront the brutal facts of their current reality in order to improve (Collins, 2001).

References:

Collins, J. (2001). Good to great: why some companies make the leap and others
         don't.  New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2007). Schooling by design: Mission, action, and
        achievement. Alexandria, VA: Assocition for Supervision and Curriculum
        Development.