This Audit of Educational Effectiveness for the Duval County Public School District was commissioned by the Florida Times-Union. The Times-Union editorial staff reviewed similar studies implemented in other large school systems throughout the country. Subsequently, publisher Carl Cannon sought and received the cooperation Duval County School Board Chair Gwen Gibson, Esq., and Interim Superintendent Dr. Donald S. Van Fleet.
The Times-Union retained SchoolMatch to conduct this audit in a fashion similar to that which has assisted several hundred school systems throughout the country. Through an article by Times-Union staff writer Stephanie Desmon, the audit was announced to the Duval County community in the Tuesday, March 18th, 1997 edition of Times-Union. Since mid-March, SchoolMatch has collected and analyzed Duval County Public School District data. The SchoolMatch site team conducted its on-site visitation of the Duval County Public School District May 5-9, 1997. The on-site work was announced to the public in a May 6, 1997 article by Nancy Mitchell in the Times-Union.
The SchoolMatch evaluators commend Duval County school personnel for the assistance provided during the audit and the many courtesies extended to us. We appreciate the interest of the Board Chairman, Superintendent, central office directors and coordinators and the secretarial staff. It was a pleasure to work with such courteous and congenial school personnel.
The four members of the audit team who visited the ten schools selected at random by the audit team were especially pleased by the warm welcome they received from school staff, students and parents. A special thanks to the Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education for facilitating these school site visits. The students were vivid reminders of why this study was commissioned by the Times-Union. We seek to assist the school district and the community to create enhanced educational opportunities for Duval County's children.
In the mid-1980s, Dr. M. Donald Thomas initiated the "Audit of Educational Effectiveness" process using carefully designed levels of effectiveness and the SchoolMatch databases. Dr. Thomas, Superintendent Emeritus of the Salt Lake City Public Schools, has achieved national recognition as a widely respected school administrator, state education reformer, researcher, author and speaker.
Recently, SchoolMatch has assumed the responsibility of working directly with school systems to continue this important process. In initiating the Audit for the Duval County Public School District, SchoolMatch involved ten consultants, its databases and support staff. The on-site consultants include:
This educational effectiveness audit compares the Duval County Public School District to similar student and staff demographics nationwide.
Using a variety of data sources, including SchoolMatch records, data available from the U.S. and Florida departments of education, professional judgment and research techniques (data analysis, interviewing, polling, etc.), our auditors examined a wide range of performance indicators in the Duval County Public School District. These indicators range from test scores to student and staff attendance to public support for the school system (without which no school system can succeed). In addition, individual school building results indicators were reviewed and compared with student populations across the country having similar demographic profiles. In each case, the results have been compared against those of the best of similar student and staff demographic populations nationwide.
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