April 22, 2008

April 22, 2008
What does the Curriculum Management Audit have to do with Swift Creek? Well let me tell you!
On January 23, 2007, Dr. Del Burns, Superintendent of the Wake County Public School System, called for a comprehensive audit of the school system’s core business: learning and teaching. Approximately nine months later, the results of the Curriculum Management Audit were presented to the Board of Education by Phi Delta Kappa .
Why am I telling you this? Three reasons: 1. Today, at the Superintendent’s Summit, Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Donna Hargens, gave a quarterly report on the audit; 2. The findings of the audit create alignment within the school system that will allow WCPSS and Swift Creek to continue to move from good to great; and 3. The information is too important for me not to share with all of you.
The audit has 8 recommendation areas and 117 action steps that fall under the eight areas. Please read the recommendation area headings below.
Recommendation 1: OPPORTUNITY
Meet students' needs equitably, and eliminate the achievement gap
Recommendation 2: CONSISTENCY
Unite strategic planning -- from the school board to the administration to the school to the classroom
Recommendation 3: GOVERNANCE
Strengthen school board and administrative direction of curriculum management
Recommendation 4: MANAGEMENT
Actively direct and support the curriculum
Recommendation 5: EVALUATION
Increase the use of data in decision making
Recommendation 6: BUDGETING
Tie school system resources to the needs of the curriculum
Recommendation 7: INSTRUCTION
Unify and enhance training and development
Recommendation 8: ORGANIZATION
Clarify roles and responsibilities and increase effectiveness

Of the 117 action steps, six have been completed, nineteen are underway, and a timeline has been established for the final 92! Furthermore, Wake County has created two fabulous resources for members of the community to stay in tune with the audit. The first is a quarterly audit progress report flyer titled Curriculum Matters. This flyer will be available at all schools. The second resource is a curriculum management audit resource center web site. You can visit this site at http://www.wcpss.net/curriculum-management/. Finally, I have arranged for Dr. Hargens to come to the second Swift Creek Principal’s Summit on June 13th to give an overview of the audit and progress the system has made.

I hope this little snippet of information is helpful to you in understanding the progress that the school system is making towards the audit findings. If there are any questions, please feel free to ask me!

Until Next time – Keep on ROARing
Jim