Melissa Ross
With bold proposals out this week for improving student achievement in urban Duval County, Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti acknowledges: “It’s a tough job.”
The challenge is one of scale,” Vitti said during an appearance on WJCT’s First Coast Connect. “It’s undeniable we have pockets of excellence even in very tough schools. We’re seeing improvement, the question is, is the improvement great enough to catch students up to where we want them to be, which is similar to performance at the state level?”
After vetting his ideas through various community groups, Vitti will ask the Duval County School Board to approve a series of changes at a number of schools countywide — everything from new magnet schools, to an increased focus on trade and vocational ed, to a special school for autistic kids, to single gender education, and a big push toward early literacy.
“The demand is to do this in a short amount of time with a high level of pressure and accountability,” he said. “We’re making inroads, but we have to look at this as a short-term, long-term approach. Because if anyone thinks you’re going to turn around 160 schools and thousands of classrooms in a couple of years, I don’t think they quite know the scale of the challenge. But that’s the beauty of the work.”
As the charismatic, plainspoken schools chief enters into year three of his five-year deal, he’s aware the pressure is on to close the achievement gap in Duval County, where test scores lag behind state averages.
Speaking of testing, Vitti echoes the concerns of a wide array of parents, teachers and activist groups about the prevalence and effects of standardized assessments.
“I believe that testing has dominated too much of the conversation and too much of the work we do in education. I think measurement is important, and the true rationale behind testing was to identify gaps and deficiencies. But it has become a silver bullet for all problems in education, and in fact it has exacerbated problems in school systems throughout the country,” he said.
“We have dramatically reduced the amount of district testing. So going into next year there will be no baseline assessment at all, and the two interim assessments will be eliminated as well.”
The political fallout and pushback over standardized tests in education has been felt strongly in the Legislature and with education officials. A review of just how effective the tests are, ordered by state lawmakers after tests were plagued by problems this spring, is just getting started.
Education advocates upset about testing have also sounded off about the rapid growth of charter schools in the state. Vitti pushed back on challenges from some listeners that he’s allowed too many charters to open up in Jacksonville.
“Charter schools were growing in Jacksonville before I became Superintendent,” he said. “I’ve rejected more charter applications under my tenure than my predecessor… if the board were to deny legitimate charter applications then it’s likely that the state board would overrule our objections, and that takes legal fees to go through the process. Ultimately, I think it’s a distraction.”
