“No Excuses” for Nikolai Vitti in year 3

Perhaps the most misunderstood figure in public life in Jacksonville: Duval County School Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

The question you hear around town more than any other: why is it that Duval County schools aren’t on the same level as those in St. Johns County and Nassau County?

There are loads of reasons for this, of course. Many of them were discussed during the morning portion of a school board workshop on student achievement on Tuesday.

One of them comes down to what School Board member Scott Shine called “adverse selection.” This involves people in the area who have the means and the recourse to do so making the voluntary choice to move their families to outlying counties.

For the schools. For the quality of life. Et al.

Still, just as Donald Rumsfeld once said “you go to war with the army you have, not the army you want,” the same conditions hold true for a big city superintendent like Vitti, who presides over a district with plenty of achievement gaps that start in the homes of kids throughout the city, many of whom are doomed before they emerge from the high chair.

In addition to that, there are profound resource issues. As well as a school board with a number of divergent personalities. And a job in which the average superintendent lasts roughly five years.

Dr. Vitti is in year 3.

He gets the sense of urgency, as he said in the meeting.

“In every grade level, every subject area, the mantra is no excuses.”

There are more than a few areas where an excuse or two might help.

And there are also bright spots.

Consider elementary math, which is “progressing rather nicely.”

“For elementary math, teachers and instruction adapted well to the new standards,” Vitti said.

It’s a different story, alas, for middle school math, where “the story changes a bit.”

DCPS “did not make the target” with 8th grade math students.

The challenges in middle school math, according to Vitti: leadership and curriculum instruction. The instructors understand how to teach in the theoretical realm; implementation, however, is “challenging,” and the “connection is not as strong as it could be at this point.”

There are isolated success stories, yet while “we are doing a good job of identifying individual schools,” “district wide work has to be improved.”

Algebra. 66th out of 67 counties in the state.

Vitti was blunt: “middle school mathematics is broken” and “the challenge of middle school math is a historical problem.”

Algebra, the Superintendent said, historically is a “gatekeeper” for advanced math.

Appears that the gate is busted. “Many kids are not ready” in eighth grade for algebra, he said.

The teachers ain’t all that ready either. The best teachers would prefer to teach upper-level math; this is a challenge faced in geometry also.

After minutes or hours of going through the data on the charts, Connie Hall spoke up, saying that the real issue wasn’t data but students.

For Vitti, the data is the means to understanding.

“Anyone who sits in this chair and tells you that this [improvement] is going to happen overnight isn’t realistic with scale,” he told the board member.

It goes beyond math, of course.

The issues in middle school, which include kids reading below grade level, obviously don’t start there. Issues with reading in Duval County schools start early. Kids aren’t reading to comprehend, and from third grade on, they aren’t reading at a high level.

Duval is “not teaching children starting in Kindergarten how to read,” Vitti said, “and think critically at the same time.”

Vitti believes that there needs to be a comprehensive approach to reading instruction; the core previously was a “hodge podge” of different approaches.

Tenth grade reading, likewise, is a mess. Duval is 7th in the Big 7 metropolitan counties in Florida. The principal decline is in the last six or seven years.

A comprehensive reading plan, such as Orange County has, might help.

Another problem that Vitti outlined illustrates the big box approach of a metropolitan district.

In biology, civics, and US history classes, Vitti claims that instructional quality is diluted because “teachers go off on tangents” which preclude “consistent implementations” of the course material and “fidelity to the pacing guide.”

Consider that last paragraph. Some would deride that approach as an example of “teaching to the test.”

Especially when compounded with one of Vitti’s improvement strategies, which boils down to a “less is more” approach in teaching “what matters most.” This is a deliberately simple, results driven strategy to pushing the metrics up and scoring some statistical wins.

“What has to happen this year is a focus on what matters most,” Vitti said.

“This is a year of no excuses… we have to see improvement moving forward.”

Whether that claim is a rhetorical measure, or one that is literal, is subject to interpretive bias. Being superintendent of Duval County schools doesn’t come with the three year plan that being picked to coach the Jaguars might. And he’s got some long range plans on how to reallocate physical resources.

Some preliminary proposals include moving Andrew Jackson High School to becoming an Advanced Studies magnet, and Ed White High to a military magnet. A. Philip Randolph would become a trade school, and Northwestern Middle would likewise be tracked to a vocational/trade purpose.

As well, boundary changes are proposed for First Coast High School and Oceanway Middle, to stop them from becoming Intervene Schools.

These still have an extensive discussion process before coming to pass, of course.

New vocational magnet schools are an interesting idea. There is a realization, on some level, that bringing the entire student population up to a truly college-ready ideal is never going to happen. The blue collar trades, meanwhile, are always in demand.

During the concluded mayoral campaign, Bill Bishop made the case for more vocational education. I’ve heard similar sentiments from Denise Lee, in charge of anti-blight initiatives at City Hall. Reading, writing, and basic skills are important. But so too is the nurturing of the other types of intelligence that our city and society requires. Making that case just might be a launch pad to having other meaningful conversations.

Vitti is committed to his job. Jax Chamber is all in behind him. During that whole four and a half hour meeting, Vitti was the only one at the table who never got out of his chair, not for a bathroom break or to get a bottle of water.

That’s a measure of his staying power. Which is something a superintendent in Duval County needs.