In the New Charter Application, an applicant is required to provide an Academic Systems Plan ("ASP") that provides the plan for the academic systems of the school. Upon approval, this plan became part of the charter holder's contract.
In this plan, the charter holder identified specific documentation that would serve as evidence of implementation of the submitted ASP. As a component of the Second-Year Review, the school must provide this identified documentation to address the following areas/criteria:
Evidence of curriculum alignment with Arizona state academic standards for core content areas and grade levels for a full academic year.
Evidence of an assessment plan that includes the collection and review of data.
Evidence of a process that uses the collected assessment data to create a plan for instruction.
Evidence that classroom observations are conducted regularly to confirm that instruction is aligned to standards and that feedback is provided to teachers.
Evidence of complete teacher evaluations.
Academic Systems Review
"Curriculum"
Documentation of an explicit, written curriculum for core content areas that is aligned with Arizona academic standards, to include:
Evidence of curriculum alignment with Arizona's Academic Standards for core content areas and grade levels within an academic year.
Possible documentation could include, but is not limited to:
Curriculum maps / guides with Arizona State Standards
Pacing Guides with Arizona State Standards
Standards alignment documents
"Assessment"
Documentation of an assessment plan to track, analyze, and monitor student academic performance, to include:
Evidence of implementation of a balanced assessment system including the assessments, data collected and periods of review, covering all core content areas and grade levels.
Evidence of a process that uses assessment data to create a plan for instruction.
Possible documentation could include but is not limited to:
Assessment plan and calendar
Data Review Meeting Dates
Data from completed formative assessments
Data from completed summative assessments
Benchmark reports
Documentation demonstrating evaluation and use of assessment data
Data
PLC Meeting Agendas/Minutes
Targeted lesson plans that can be tied to data
In general, data demonstrating completed assessments is preferred over the assessments themselves.
"Monitoring Instruction"
Documentation of a teacher evaluation system, compliant with state statute, which monitors the integration of state standards into instruction, to include:
Evidence that classroom observations are conducted regularly to confirm instruction is aligned to standards.
Evidence of feedback being provided to teachers based on observations.
Evidence that the performance of teachers is evaluated using a summative evaluation system that is compliant with A.R.S. §15-189.06.
Possible documentation could include but is not limited to:
Teacher evaluations (completed copies)
Informal walkthrough / observation forms (completed copies)
Instructional Coaching Notes
Teacher evaluation process documentation
All documentation should demonstrate implementation of the ASP, not intent (for example: an plan to align instruction in the future, a plan to assess students, etc.).