by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
John Fryer may have stepped down as superintendent of the Duval County school system on May 7, but he’s actively involved in education on both local and national levels.
On July 1 Fryer will take over as president of the National Institute for School Leadership, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm.
“It’s a company that provides training to principals in school leadership,” said Fryer, who was the guest speaker at Monday’s Rotary Club meeting, where he couldn’t wait to share the results of this year’s FCAT tests in Duval County. “We are going to sign a contract soon to provide consulting for the entire state of Massachusetts.”
Fryer will be based out of Washington but he and his wife Carol will retain their Jacksonville residence. The new job will be a change of pace for Fryer who once oversaw a system with about 160,000 students in more than 60 schools.
“It’s a small firm, but the size of the firm is not important,” said Fryer. “We do not have a big permanent staff because we have the ability to use adjuncts all over the country. We have hundreds of people willing to teach these leadership courses.”
The NISL is a relatively new consulting firm, but they have garnered the support of several educational foundations. The firm specializes in training principals that work in systems with standards-based criteria. Fryer and the NISL were familiar with each other long before Fryer stepped down in May.
“We (Duval County) piloted their leadership program here,” said Fryer, who had several options after his tenure with Duval County. “I had a lot of offers and some of them were not in education. One was a very large school district, and three different private schools outside Jacksonville talked to me. They offered me a great salary, benefits and a house. But that was not what I wanted.”
Although Fryer wasn’t technically superintendent when this year’s FCAT scores were released, he still revels in the success and overall improvement in Duval County across the board. Judging by his enthusiasm, you’d almost think Fryer is still on the job and plans to stay a while. He said he’s extremely proud of the fact that there are no “F” schools in Duval County this year and, contrary to a few recent letters to the editor, Fryer points at this year’s math scores as proof that the system is working in Duval County.
“Look at the math scores,” he said. “In 1998, only eight percent of African-American students were at grade level. This year, that number is 40 percent. In 1998, 45 percent of the white students were at grade level in math. This year, it’s 72 percent. That’s a great improvement. We are the only large district in the state with no failing schools. Broward has seven and Dade has 15.”
Fryer credits a program he created for much of that success. Along with his staff, Fryer created a sub-region within the district where he placed the best teachers and principals and provided them with what he called top-notch training and financial incentives. Fryer was sure the approach would work and the results speak for themselves.
“We were very confident we would get off that list (of failing schools),” said Fryer. “We used to have 22 ‘D’ schools, now we have 11. Ninety-two percent of our schools are at ‘C’ or above. We have the highest learning gain in the Florida in math and the secondary school level.”
Fryer said he has had no input regarding his replacement, but would gladly assist if asked. He said the next superintendent needs to concentrate on middle school math and secondary school reading programs and scores. However, teacher recruiting and training should be at the top of the list.
“What we need more than anything is professional development time for training,” he said. “We need more professionals to teach math
and science.”