A Journey from Immigrant Boy to Leader of a Large District

Dr. Robert Avossa is the superintendent of the School District of Palm Beach County in Florida, which is the 10th largest district by enrollment in the US. Before Palm Beach County, he was superintendent of Fulton County Schools in Atlanta, another very large district, so it goes without saying that Robert knows a thing or two about running a large operation.

Sharing Experiences

As an immigrant, Robert is very sensitive to the needs of minorities and English Language Learners in his district. As he explains, “My family moved to the U.S. when I was a little boy. English was not my first language. We came from Italy. I’m a naturalized American citizen, and I tried to use my story and my passion for the work to show kids that anything is possible in this country, and the way is through education.”

Investing in the Future

He is a big proponent of offering personalized learning paths to individuals, a concept he brought with him from Atlanta. Palm Beach County offers the vast 200,000 student population over 300 choice programs for students and parents to choose. Different schools offer different programs and specialties, such as medical, cybersecurity, police, and firefighting in the form of academies that students attend. The result is thousands of kids being far more invested in their education than they would be in a traditional one-size-fits-all setting.

Robert is a walking and talking American success story. Starting with his early beginnings as an immigrant boy from Italy, he has forged a career path through study, determination, and grit and is now making an incredible impact on the lives of thousands of kids and their families.

Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.