Two Duval County high schools with predominantly low-income students are getting a federal grant that’s changing the curriculum for incoming freshmen. Duval Superintendent Nikolai Vitti says the three-year award will allow Ed White and Andrew Jackson High Schools to offer emotional and social training alongside reading and math. Vitti says the grant is sure help the schools build on their recent double-digit graduation rate gains.
He says he can envision the story he’ll be telling four years from now: “Despite poverty, despite parents’ not having gone to college, and despite challenges in the overall community near those schools, we had even higher numbers of students graduating, going on to college and being successful.”
Starting next fall, incoming freshmen at the schools will take visits to college campuses and workplaces, get more ACT and SAT practice training and take summer leadership seminars. In addition, students whose parents didn’t attend college can qualify for mentors through Take Stock in Children.
Vitti says he plans to seek private and state funding to continue the program after the three-year grant runs out.
