Program Accountability Team
Contact: Nancy Baenen, Senior Director, (919) 431-7193
The Program Accountability (PA) office promotes continuous improvement and accountability in WCPSS programs in order to optimally meet the needs of students. The primary way this mission is accomplished is through evaluations of WCPSS programs. Board Policy 5600, as recommended by Curriculum Audit Recommendation 5, encourages all programs to be evaluated, and considers the Data and Accountability Department (formerly Evaluation and Research) a clearinghouse for evaluation activity. In this role, the Program Accountability team provides varying levels of direct and indirect support for evaluations of WCPSS programs. Some programs are evaluated through department staff directly, while others are self-monitored with more limited support available from the PA team.
The levels of support generally include:
Definitions of Terms
Program:Any planned, sustained effort intended to improve or modify learning outcomes or school/class conditions.
Evaluation: A documented effort to place value on the degree of change brought about by a program or effort..
Monitoring: Periodically assessing the status and impact of efforts, often against improvement benchmarks or goals.
Clearinghouse: An organizational structure through which types of efforts must pass before being put into practice and that fills a number of different roles related to program implementation and evaluation
- Basic resources and training to provide all staff with resources to monitor their efforts.
- Technical support to provide more tailored support with specific data analyses or evaluation methods for a project.
- Implementation/process evaluation to assess whether a program is reaching the intended target audience and whether it is being implemented with fidelity.
- Impact/product/outcomes evaluation to assess attainment of shorter- and longer-term goals and overall program impact.
- Inputs/needs/cost benefit analyses to assess the level of need for a program and the system’s ability to support it.
Data and reports are provided to decision makers to inform discussions about whether to continue programs or efforts as they are, make improvements, or discontinue efforts. Reporting may take the form of presentations, memoranda and charts, bulletins, reports, or data files for each school and the system. Most reports are posted on the department's Internet Web pages. Reports that focus strictly on early implementation (usually in the first or sometimes the second year of implementation) are generally posted on the intranet because their primary purpose is to provide management information to program staff. Data files or information that are strictly for school or program staff use will generally be posted in online folders for schools or sent to program staff.
Work plans for the Program Accountability office are developed each year in collaboration with the Instructional Services Division (ISD) Strategy Team. Programs selected represent a combination of curricular studies, evaluations required for grant-funded programs; discretionary evaluations, and ad hoc requests. Schedules for curricular study reviews and priorities for discretionary programs are under development to promote long-range planning and coverage.
The Data and Accountability Department, in collaboration with ISD and Communications, has set up a system to document actions taken in response to evaluation report findings and recommendations. This process began in 2009-10. To request a copy of available responses, for an electronic copy.