Academic Program Survey Instructions
The Academic Program Survey (APS) is a tool designed to help a school determine how well it is implementing the nine components considered to be crucial to an effective academic program. The nine Essential Program Components (EPCs) include:
- Instructional program (use of State Board of Education [SBE]-adopted
and standards-aligned instructional materials, including intervention
materials) and high school access to standards-aligned core
courses (9-12)
- Instructional time (adherence to recommended instructional
minutes for reading/language arts and mathematics [K-8])
- Principals' instructional training (principals' AB 75 training
on SBE-adopted instructional materials)
- Sufficiency of credentialed teachers and teacher professional
development, e.g., access to AB 466 training on SBE-adopted
instructional materials
- Student academic achievement monitoring system (use of data
to monitor student progress on curriculum-embedded assessments
and modify instruction)
- Ongoing instructional assistance and support for teachers
(use of content experts and instructional coaches)
- Teacher collaboration by grade level (K-8) and department
(9-12)
- Lesson pacing schedule (K-8) and master schedule flexibility
for sufficient numbers of intervention courses
- Fiscal support
A school should invite the school site council or other leadership team to participate in the process of assessing the school's implementation of the nine EPCs as outlined in the survey. Because the summary data from all schools assigned to complete the APS will then inform the response to the items in a District Assistance Survey, it is crucial that each school team completing an APS do so accurately.
The California Department of Education (CDE) recommends that an APS should be completed by any school that is in Program Improvement (PI) or has a schoolwide Academic Performance Index (API) of less than 620.
Directions for the school site team completing the APS:
- Have the school site council or leadership team, including
teacher leaders, complete the APS and then prepare a consensus
copy. Team members should be able to document the ratings for
each item.
- Using the online version of the APS, access the online system
with the user ID and password provided by your district. Enter
the data from a single consensus hard copy into the online system.
- Alternatively, the district may collect the consensus copy for manual aggregation of the school level data at the district level.
Use of the online APS
- Schools will be provided with their user identifications
and passwords at the September 27th and October 4th orientations
if they wish to complete the APS online.
- Detailed instructions for use of the APS online and summarization
of results will be provided at the orientations.
- Summary data from the school-level Surveys will inform the response to the items in the District Assistance Survey.
For districts using the paper version of the APS
- Collect the consensus copy of the APS from each school. Devise
a method to summarize the data and display the distribution
of responses across the various ratings for the schools surveyed.
- Use the summary data from the school-level APS to inform the response to the items in the District Assistance Survey. Use of the District Assistance Survey and work with the external organization on LEA Plan revision will be discussed at the orientations.
