Duval School Superintendent Nikolai Vitti is considering some major changes to improve student achievement in Jacksonville.
During an appearance on WJCT's First Coast Connect, Vitti talked about his proposals for the Duval County public school system.
“The changes are about raising student achievement but also about positioning our district to continue to offer a stronger menu of options for parents,” Vitti said.
He says one of his goals is creating more quality educational choices within the public school system so parents and students don’t feel the need to move to charter and private schools for better a better education.
“Today’s landscape in Jacksonville is about choice,” he said, “and that’s a good thing. We should empower parents to pick the right school or program that fits the individual need of their student.”
Vitti talked about bringing trade schools back to the public school system.
“I think our school system can be better served and children can be better served by creating some different pathways in the vocational,” Vitti said.
He says students would still receive a high school diploma and take classes like algebra or U.S. history, but they would also have the opportunity to take learn a trade at the middle or high school level.
Another change Vitti says he sees includes more schools throughout the county moving toward a uniform policy.
“Today’s teenager is easily distracted by what you’re wearing, what you’re not wearing, fitting the latest trend,” Vitti said. “Parents get frustrated about meeting those demands and those needs.”
He says uniforms make it easier for students to focus on their academic, social and civic development.
Listen to the full conversation with Nikolai Vitti on Wednesday’s episode of the “First Coast Connect” podcast on iTunes.
Vitti also talked about standardized testing in county schools.
“I believe that testing has dominated too much of the conversation and too much of the work that we do in education,” Vitti said.
He says the county needs standardized testing to identify gaps and inefficiencies in schools, but he also says it has exacerbated problems in the school system too.
“So what we’ve done in Duval is dramatically reduce the amount of district testing,” Vitti said.
He says these changes take time to integrate into the school system, and finding solutions to other challenges won’t happen overnight.
“We have to look at this as a short-term/long-term approach because if anyone thinks that you’re going to turn around a 160 schools and thousands of classrooms in a couple of years, I don’t think they quite know the scale of the challenge,” Vitti said. “But that’s part of the beauty of the work.”
Listen to the full conversation with Nikolai Vitti on Wednesday’s episode of the “First Coast Connect” podcast on iTunes.
