Duval County Public Schools Receives
Recommendation for District Accreditation
JACKSONVILLE - Duval County Public Schools has received a recommendation that it be awarded district accreditation, "without reservation," as a quality school system. This recommendation was made by the Quality Assurance Review Team from the AdvancED/Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (AdvancED) at a special School Board meeting held October 8.
District accreditation is the highest level of accreditation that a school system can receive from the AdvancED organization, the worlds largest educational accrediting agency for K-12 schools in the southern United States. In the past, all Duval County schools were individually accredited.
The Review Team's report commended the district for its establishment and articulation of the vision, mission, goals and strategic plan that has laid the foundation for the district’s continuous improvement efforts.
The report highlighted eight major strengths of the school district: 1) Openness to acknowledge strengths and weaknesses, and a willingness to learn and engage in continuous improvement; 2) A high level of trust, respect and confidence among all stakeholders for the current superintendent; 3) Dedication to build instructional leaders and quality teachers; 4) Commitment by district and school level administrators to monitor quality instruction through classroom visits, walk-throughs and feedback; 5) Variety and scope of programs and practices to meet varying needs of students and stakeholders; 6) Widespread commitment to the vision, mission and goals; 7) The development of a strategic plan to provide guidance and direction to the system and its parts; and 8) Efforts to reach out to community to create partnerships.
"This recommendation is a milestone for our district and validates how well all the parts of our education system – the district, school and classroom – work together to meet the needs of all students," said Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals. “"This process has allowed us to focus on our policies and procedures, and ensures that we will continue the quest to provide quality education for all our students."
Major commendations noted by the team were our culture for improvement, including the establishment of our Standards Assessment Report and our commitment to our vision, mission and goals.
The visiting team also made the following suggestions in the area of challenges were: Realities and limitations of an urban core; Performance discrepancies (school level); Achievement gap; Mobility, truancy, attendance and over-age of students; Finances and budget cuts; Dispersement of student population results in schools with a limited range of achievement levels; Communication that reaches all stakeholders; and Lack of consistency of access to and use of technology. The following recommendations were made during the report: Engage in a causal analysis to gain insight about differences/discrepancies in programs, resources, and performance; Conduct a thorough examination of research and literature on effective practices that have led to success in low performing schools; Investigate ways to attract and retain high quality teachers and administrators in low performing schools; Evaluate current programs and initiatives to identify “what works” and develop procedures to ensure their sustainability and implementation with fidelity; Implement district-wide procedures for horizontal and vertical planning and alignment to ensure professional dialogue and curriculum rigor and consistency K-12; and Bring consistency, coherence and meaningful focus to formative and summative assessment system to provide relevant information that guides instruction and results in continuous improvement.
A written report of the team's findings and observations will be sent to the Superintendent within six weeks. The district is then expected to communicate the information contained in the report, address the recommendations, continuously monitor accreditation standards and strategies for improvement.
The school district began preparing for District Accreditation in September 2007. Duval County Public Schools prepared a self-assessment that evaluated our work in collaboration with each of our schools. The seven standards evaluated include: Vision and Purpose, Governance and Leadership, Teaching and Learning, Documenting and Using Results, Resources and Support Systems, Stakeholder Communications and Relationships, and Commitment to Continuous Improvement. Each of these standards had a facilitator who worked with various community and business stakeholders to outline how the district meets the Quality School System Indicators listed under each standard.
In order to be eligible to apply for district accreditation, every school in the district had to be individually accredited and the district had to have in place a quality strategic planning process focusing on improving student learning. In addition, the district must have met accreditation standards, pursued a process of systematic continuous improvement and implemented methods for quality assurance.
Duval County Public Schools operates more than 160 schools and serves approximately 125,000 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.
Click here to review the presentation to the School Board
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