James Gilmore (left) and Larry Minton work on the construction of one of five scheduled regional headquarters for county schools. SUBHEAD:Office would set student standards - Carrie Rosema/staff

Office would set student standards

By Jim Saunders
Times-Union staff writer

Interim schools Superintendent Donald Van Fleet said yesterday he wants to create a separate office to track student performance in Duval County schools.

The idea follows a recommendation made last week in a study that said the school system needs to do a better job of holding schools accountable for their performances.

It also would add to a list of major changes Van Fleet has made since taking over the superintendent's job in January. Those changes included an administrative reorganization and the proposed shuffling of principals at 29 schools.

The idea of creating an office to better track student performance was included in a study released last week by SchoolMatch, an Ohio-based consulting firm hired by The Florida Times-Union.

SchoolMatch officials saidthe system needed to create an office that would set standards for student performance and make independent judgments about where improvements need to be made.

Van Fleet said the new office would report directly to him. It would be broken off from the system's instruction department, which now oversees evaluation efforts and academic programs.

Past studies of the school system have called for steps to improve school accountability. Other school systems, including the Chicago public schools, have recently created accountability offices as part of their efforts to overhaul and reform their districts.

Van Fleet, who was attending a conference in Tampa yesterday, said he plans to send a memo to School Board members next week recommending the office's creation. Board members, who would have to approve the office, have been frustrated in the past at what they view as a lack of adequate information about student performance.

''I think it [improved accountability] is certainly something that's been lacking for quite a while,'' board member Cheryl Donelan said. ''I think it has been brought to the forefront that that is something that needs to change.''

Board member Susan Wilkinson said it is important the office be separate from the instruction department. She said the system shouldn't have the same people in charge of drawing up academic plans and evaluating the results.

''We are not always sure that the data is coming to us objectively,'' she said.

In Chicago, the accountability office has wide range of duties, including developing standards for performance, reviewing school performances, intervening in troubled schools and holding teachers accountable, said Patricia Harvey, chief accountability officer of the 421,000-student school system.

The process has resulted, in part, in schools being placed on probation if they don't perform up to standards and unproductive teachers being fired - something that rarely happened in the past.

In a school system that for years has been considered one of the worst in the nation, test scores are rising, Harvey said.

''There is a real feeling [and] belief that we are an improving school district,'' she said. ''It has not been easy.''

Van Fleet's proposal, if approved, would add to a reorganization plan he drew up this spring. Six of the seven School Board members have supported the reorganization, which will break the school system into five geographic regions and move administrators into offices closer to the schools they serve.

The lone dissenter has been board Chairwoman Gwen Gibson, who has questioned whether an interim superintendent should make such sweeping changes. The changes also come as an appointed citizens commission is working to come up with recommendations for improving the school system.

''Our board has bought into all these kind of changes during an interim period,'' Gibson said recently about the reorganization. ''It doesn't make sense to me.''

Though he is an interim superintendent, Van Fleet said School Board members want him to recommend changes he thinks are necessary. He said he is not a candidate to be hired as the permanent superintendent.

''They did not want me to come in here and be a place holder,'' he said.

University of North Florida President Adam Herbert, chairman of the citizens commission, said Van Fleet has an obligation to do what he thinks is best for the school system.

''What I'm glad to see is he's biting those bullets,'' Herbert said. ''He's making personnel decisions that have to be made. He's making some of these reorganization decisions that have to be made.''