Applying His Own Student Experiences in Detroit

Profile: NIKOLAI P. VITTI

Nikolai Vitti knows exactly what it’s like to be a struggling student whose dyslexia went undiagnosed until college. As the child of a single parent growing up in Detroit — the school system of 47,500 students that he now leads as superintendent — he says his mother “didn’t know how to navigate the school system.”

Small wonder Vitti has dedicated substantial efforts as the system’s chief executive since 2017 to elevate the role of parents. “If they feel more involved and comfortable,” he says, ultimately that benefits students. “We need to use school system resources to overcome obstacles so parents feel more engaged. … It’s always about the child.”

Vitti views parents as partners, not problems, says Sharlonda Buckman, assistant superintendent of family and community engagement in Detroit.

She cites the monthly sessions for parents to talk directly with the superintendent. During the pandemic, the two checked on families. When Vitti and Buckman recognized COVID-19 financial hardships interfering with student participation in school, the leadership used CARES Act funding to offer parents paid work supporting parent engagement in the district.

What Vitti has called Detroit’s “history of neglect and racial injustice” — the district had been taken over by the state and run by emergency managers for about two decades prior to his appointment — informs many of his initiatives. Education Week recognized his parent empowerment work when naming him a 2021 Leader to Learn From.

Previously superintendent in Florida’s Duval County, as well as deputy chancellor with the Florida Department of Education, Vitti says he became an administrator “to achieve a greater scale than what I saw in my classroom.”

As one measure for creating trust in a community that had been scarred and dispirited for so long, Vitti asked his governing board in his first year to adopt a resolution that school district employees would refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials who were targeting foreign nationals in the city.

Building trust with staff also was deemed essential to any district turnaround. That meant paying teachers more and on time. “We have a strategic plan and we created goodwill,” Vitti says. “We did what we said we’d do.”

When the pandemic struck, equity took top priority. He made sure Detroit opened its schools during the summer of 2020. “If private schools could do it, so could we,” he says. “Our students’ parents were essential workers.”

Addressing inequity also meant rethinking the student code of conduct. “We have restorative [justice] practices in the actual code,” Vitti says, and improved systems were put in place to track chronic absenteeism to improve attendance.

His personal experiences as a student inform the transformative process for students of color and immigrants. Vitti remains grateful to a high school English teacher who “saw my talent, who said, ‘Nikolai, you’re smart.’ That gave me a boost of confidence. I quickly fell in love with books and knowledge.”

He adds, “As I started to come alive intellectually, I wanted to move into a profession where I could focus on social justice and create the change I saw within myself.”

Vitti earned a B.A. in history and a master’s in education from Wake Forest University, and master’s and doctoral degrees in education from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.

“Being in my home community is everything,” says Vitti. “I’ve had a lot of hardships to overcome. I was a student who struggled in school and hated it. I was a principal who turned around a school. I’m excited to use the system’s resources to help families and children. I couldn’t imagine another job.”