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 Our Strategic Plan Reveals Progress
It has been three years since Duval County Public Schools first introduced and implemented our Strategic Plan aimed to build Duval County into one of the top performing school districts in the country.
The plan provides the district with guidance and direction to ensure that all internal and external stakeholders in the district have a clear understanding of what we expect to achieve and how we expect to achieve it. It also helps assess the effectiveness of our action plans, programs and resource allocations to see what we should continue, discontinue or modify.
We have seen ample progress in our six goals during these few years, and I am pleased with the direction we are heading. Based on the data presented, 77% of the objectives in the Strategic Plan were either achieved or improved from the previous year.
This year we will continue to focus on our students’ reading techniques and make sure we give them access to all the resources necessary to develop extensive reading comprehension skills. We are continuously reviewing our students’ progress to determine their areas of strength and areas that need improvement to ensure our students are receiving the most effective level of teaching.
With help from parents, teachers and the community we can continue to make great strides in achieving the objectives derived out of our six overarching goals. Each year we are finding more innovative and creative ways to provide our students with the means to excel in post-secondary education or the workforce using the fundamental tools learned in our schools.
We are encouraged by the positive results of the Strategic Plan and we are confident that we will be able to maintain this level of achievement over the next several years.
If you have not done so, please visit our website to review the plan.
Ed Pratt-Dannals
Superintendent
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 Duval County Public Schools and Mayor Alvin Brown teamed up to support another public-private partnership benefitting public schools. Comcast, along with city and school leaders, held a news conference recently to announce a new program, Internet Essentials, designed to help low-income families bridge the digital divide.
“The Internet provides access to numerous resources for project research, homework help and practice problems that can assist students at home,” said Duval County Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals. “We are so thankful that Comcast has developed this program to provide such a valuable service to students who would otherwise not be able to afford and benefit from it.”
“This is a great example of how public-private partnerships are working to help us become a stronger community,” said Mayor Brown. “Comcast is demonstrating good corporate stewardship. This program helps to advance our mission of providing students in Jacksonville with a world-class education on limited public resources.”
The cable company is offering Internet service at a reduced price to families with students who receive free lunch as part of the National School Lunch Program. The reduced cost of the service for qualifying families is $9.95 a month, plus tax. Families can also purchase certain laptops from Comcast for $150.
“The Internet is a great equalizer and a life-changing technology,” said Tim Horn, vice president and general manager of Comcast in Jacksonville. “Internet Essentials helps level the playing field for low-income families by connecting students online with their teachers and their school’s educational resources, and by enabling parents to receive digital literacy training so they can do things like apply for jobs online or use the Internet to learn more about health care and government services available where they live.”
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The Duval County School Board was presented with the final report from Education Resource Strategies (ERS), which for the last year has been working with the district to conduct a comprehensive resource analysis.
ERS has partnered with large urban school districts around the country—such as Charlotte, Baltimore and Los Angeles—to build strategies for improved instruction and performance.
“As standards for achievement rise and resource levels fall, DCPS must build on current efforts and be more deliberate than ever about the way it uses people, time, and money to support student success,” says ERS Director Jonathan Travers. “Our objective was to show how DCPS, even with its low funding level, can reduce costs, rethink existing resource use, and make limited new investments to improve teaching effectiveness and student performance overall.”
Duval County Public Schools, in partnership with the Jacksonville Public Education Fund, engaged ERS in the fall of 2010.
“This study provided the district with valuable insights on how to take existing money and focus on more efficiency to improve the outcomes for our students,” said Duval County Public Schools’ Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals. “Benchmarking our district against other large urban districts provided a critical analysis of our funding, staffing levels, planning and instructional time.”
“Duval County Public Schools has taken a bold step toward improvement,” said Trey Csar, President of the Jacksonville Public Education Fund. “The Jacksonville Public Education Fund is proud to partner with the district on this important project. We look forward to supporting the district as it takes action on these findings.”
Among the report’s key findings:
- Duval County Public Schools is one of the lowest funded districts ERS has studied. Compared with peer districts, it spends the lowest share of its budget on central management functions and the most on instruction.
- Duval County Public Schools should focus on improving teacher effectiveness by comprehensively implementing the new evaluation system and bringing together pieces of DCPS’s current >$100 million investment in instructional support to strengthen teaching teams.
- The school district must expand and improve individualized supports for highest-need students.
- DCPS must change strategy to attract and develop top talent and better support students’ readiness to learn in turnaround schools.
- Through school consolidation the district can free up some of the $26 million invested in smaller school size to increase the funding it can allocate based on prioritized need.
“It’s not easy to put yourself and your organization under the microscope for this type of analysis,” said Gary Chartrand, chairman of the board of directors for the Jacksonville Public Education Fund.
Chartrand, who is executive chairman of Acosta Sales and Marketing and also sits on the Florida Board of Education, said he knows first-hand how valuable it can be for organizations to bring in outside experts to evaluate policies and practices.
“The superintendent and school board members should be applauded for undertaking this work. This short-term investment will yield significant, long-term, positive change for our district and the kids of Duval County, just as it did for our business,” Chartrand said.
Click
here to review the report in its entirety.
About Education Resource Strategies, Inc.
Education Resource Strategies, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping urban school systems organize talent, time and money to create great schools at scale.
About Duval County Public Schools
Duval County Public Schools operates 177 schools and serves approximately 123,000 students. The school district is committed to providing high quality educational opportunities that will inspire all students to acquire and use the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in a global economy, and culturally diverse world.
About the Jacksonville Public Education Fund
The Jacksonville Public Education Fund is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of public education so that all students graduate from Duval County Public Schools career and college ready. JPEF invests in high-quality research, engages the community to elicit civic voice and action, and advocates to improve policies and practices.
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Highlands Elementary School was presented a $5,000 check from State Farm Insurance as part of the
Read It Forward Jax campaign. School Board Chairman W.C. Gentry and School Board member Paula D. Wright attended the check presentation ceremony to show appreciation for the generous donation.
The funds will be used to purchase five complete classroom library sets for the third- and fifth-grade students at Highlands Elementary. Classroom libraries are sets of books for each grade level that have been pre-selected as age and content appropriate material for students to read. Students will be able to use these books in the classroom to practice their reading and comprehension skills.
“It is essential that students are capable of reading at or beyond grade level by the time they leave the third-grade,” said Board member Paula D. Wright. “When students are able to have access to content appropriate and relevant books in their classrooms, this increases their level of engagement, comprehension, and retention of the information read.”
“We are so thankful to have the support of such a prestigious organization as State Farm Insurance,” said Board Chairman W.C. Gentry. “It is companies like this that makes a difference in the educational system by offering to provide essential resources to our students that will enable them to receive the highest quality education.”
State Farm executives spoke about the importance of promoting reading throughout the community. They contribute their success, both personal and as an organization, to building a strong reading foundation at an early age, and they want to make sure that the students at Highlands Elementary have the same opportunity to excel. They encouraged all of the students to share their reading activities with parents, siblings and everyone around them.
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October
5 |
Student Early Release Day |
19 |
Student Early Release Day |
28 |
Teacher Planning Day-No school for students |
November
1 |
School Board
Meeting-DCPS' Administration Building, Cline Auditorium, 6 p.m. |
2 |
Student Early Release Day |
11 |
Veteran's Day (Schools and
District Offices Closed) |
16 |
Student Early Release Day |
23 |
Weather Day (Schools Closed) |
24-25 |
Thanksgiving (Schools and District Offices Closed) |
28 |
Weather Day (Schools Closed) |
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Read It Forward Jax! is a district-wide initiative designed to improve our students reading skills to ensure they are reading at
or beyond grade level.
Through this campaign we have asked for community leaders from city, non-profit, faith-based and business organizations to partner with us in providing the necessary tools and resources for our students to succeed.
There are several opportunities for individuals and/or organizations to contribute to Read It Forward Jax!
You can sponsor
TVtextbooks for students or
classroom libraries for schools. You can also sign-up to be a
reading volunteer
to students.
If you would like to make a donation, fill out this
donation card
and follow the instructions on the form to send donation to Duval County Public Schools.
Parents can get involved too. This
brochure provides helpful tips for parents to use when working with their
children at home.
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REAL School and
School Matters are our two student-hosted shows that showcase and address current events and important topics going on throughout the district.
With school officially underway, these shows are swinging into high gear as the new student hosts have been selected for the 2011-12 school year.
These shows are informative and entertaining as they take you inside classrooms, pep rallies and assemblies, and give you
in-depth discussions with Superintendent Pratt-Dannals on key issues facing the district.
REAL School airs the first Sunday of every month at 10 a.m. on WJCT.
School Matters airs the fourth Sunday of every month at 10 a.m. on WJCT.
Visit the district's
YouTube page to watch
dozens of recent videos of district activities.
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DCPS' Title I Office is sponsoring Parent University Fall 2011 at FSCJ-Downtown Campus. Parents and caregivers of students, who attend a Title I school, are invited to register and attend this free event.
WHEN: Saturday, October 22, 2011, from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. DCPS Parent RSVP Line at 633-5356.
For more information, click
here.
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Duval County Public
Schools
1701 Prudential Drive
Jacksonville, FL 32207
www.duvalschools.org
Superintendent
Ed Pratt-Dannals
School Board Members
Frequently
Called Numbers
Main Line
904-390-2000
Transportation
904-858-6200
Human Resources
904-390-2840
School Board Office
904-390-2293
Community & Family
Engagement
904-390-2960
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Duval County Public Schools has a Facebook page. To follow us, visit
Facebook and select 'Become a Fan' at the top of the page.
You can also follow DCPS on Twitter by visiting
www.twitter.com/DuvalSchools and clicking 'Follow.'
Both pages are
updated regularly with news, important messages and information about current
events.
 Looking
for photos from school events? Visit our
flickr photostream.
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News Update
Looking for the latest school and
district news? Read our most recent
news releases, visit our
Spotlight on Education section or tune in to
dcpsTV for a detailed look into what's going on at DCPS.
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