This is the program Superintendent Vitti and Executive Director Arlinda Smith fought to kill at Sandalwood:
| Course Name | Industry Certification |
|---|---|
| Computer Fundamentals | Microsoft Technology Associate (“MTA”): Windows OS |
| Web Technologies | Adobe Certified Associate (“ACA”): Web Communications |
| IT Systems & Applications | MTA: Networking/ CompTIA A+ |
| PLUS ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING: | |
| Database Essentials | MTA: Database |
| Programming Essentials | MTA: Software Development |
| Web Development Technologies | MTA: Web Development |
| Computer Networking Fundamentals | MTA: Networking/ CompTIA Network+ |
| Cybersecurity Fundamentals | MTA: Security Fundamentals/ CompTIA: Security+ |
This program led to eight state champions in IT competitions, 55 Microsoft Certified Professionals (#6 among all schools in the State of Florida) and a dozen paid internships. I believe it’s easy to see why; if you have competent instruction plus interested students for a program like this, students will learn very good entry-level skills. Our success was largely due to its appeal to students interested in an IT career. Taking away that relevance would kill the program; there would be no reason for students or parents to go out of their way to enroll.
To that end, Vitti and Smith wanted Sandalwood IT to switch to the following program, which was implemented at eight high schools in Duval County:
| Course Name | Industry Certification |
|---|---|
| Intro to Information Technology | CIW Internet Business Associate |
| Foundations of Web Design | CIW Site Development Associate |
| User Interface Design | CIW Web Design Specialist |
| Web Scripting Fundamentals | CIW JavaScript Specialist |
Here’s my opinion on the issues with Nikolai Vitti & Arlinda Smith’s program:
- Zero of the dozen or so IT managers I spoke to about this program had ever heard of CIW certifications.
- I do believe Web Design is useful for teaching design and usability principles in a relatively simple way, however:
- Web Design in my opinion is most often a supplemental skill — a line in a resume and a tool in one’s belt — rather than an in-demand, standalone career path.
- Neither our business partners, parents, nor our students had much excitement about the skills or certifications that came from this program.
- Based on the state standards for these courses we felt we taught, in one year, literally 90% of the useful skills they’d learn in four years.
- This means in our program, students could use the other three years to learn other skills like programming, networking, hardware installation/troubleshooting, server management, etc.
Keep in mind: I acknowledged this program might be OK for low-level students or non-techie teachers thrust into teaching tech classes. When I first gave my objection to implementing this at Sandalwood, I began speaking with them by acknowledging this. I told them I didn’t think this applied to Sandalwood’s students or teachers: we had four teachers with IT-related degrees (two of them graduate-level), and a fifth backup teacher (who took my position after I resigned) who also has an IT degree, so our expertise wasn’t dependent on a single teacher. We had the competence to start something great.
Additionally, and just as importantly, we had recruited students who had a high interest level in an IT career. They signed up for a rigorous program and they expected to learn something useful. Their extraordinary resistance to this baffled me at first. After pondering further, I understood they almost certainly wanted to offer easy courses with easy Certification exams, at the expense of teaching our students something useful.
I even understand on some level why they would retaliate against me as a teacher; that’s politics, when we push back against powerful people, we should expect backlash. What I don’t understand is their need to extract a pound of flesh from my students, which they most certainly did. To me, they lost complete sight of why we’re here: to educate students.
This program was eventually implemented at Sandalwood, replacing our Geospatial Information Systems program (but we were able to fight keep our main program intact). This now-defunct program died in 2014 after being denied financial support from the District to provide needed server and software licenses (this in itself was understandable). With the lack of District support, we could not in good conscience spend our limited time recruiting students to the GIS program, when we had stronger program to offer. CSX attempted to step in and provide the GIS program with software licensing we needed; the District wouldn’t contribute a penny towards costs behind the scenes, so logic compelled us to dissolve the only GIS program in the state of Florida, I’m sure to the chagrin of CSX (Aside: I’m sure CSX’s CEO was unaware of all this when he wrote his Op-Ed supporting our current Superintendent). I spent a good deal of time brainstorming way to inject GIS into the IT program, since CSX was so supportive of our Academy and was providing our students with paid GIS internships.
I still feel badly for what happened to the GIS program and the decisions we had to make considering all the support CSX gave us; I certainly hope my former business partners at CSX understand.
All politics aside: you’ve now read my opinion on the relative merits of the programs. Feel free to judge for yourself.