Tour province administers to students in public schools and high schools standardized tests of reading, writing, and mathematics. Reports are produced both by school and for the province overall describing how students fared in these tests. Recently, the Annual Report of the Office of the provincial Auditor General evaluated this testing process. The report was thorough, describing the process and how it was audited and providing some observations and recommendations. One observation related to the methods of monitoring and comparing student progress. Issues raised were as follows:
• Not enough information is collected in student information systems about student practices such as homework assignment, homework completion, and whether remedial assistance was provided or available.
• There were questions about the accuracy of information recorded about students.
• Concerns were raised about the comparability of data for students from school to school.
• Information systems may not be capable of retaining sufficient student data.
REQUIRED
a. Using the seven different types of evidence listed in Table 8-5 on page 230, identify the evidence that the provincial auditor’s office might have collected to reach the conclusions described above. For each type of evidence, explain who would have provided the evidence, and note the level of objectivity of such evidence. Justify your answer.
b. What would be the relevant transaction-related audit objectives considered during this audit? List at least one audit procedure that could have been conducted for each of the transaction-related audit objectives from Chapter 5 that you consider to be relevant.