The Norfolk Public School District is noted for its ethnic and racial diversity, largely as a result of the local military presence. Norfolk schools offer many special programs, such as gifted and special education programs and also utilize community-based education to reify the academic concepts being taught in classes. For example, Norfolk Public School District students have developed an artificial reef and grown their own oysters in conjunction with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and its Oyster Restoration Program. The innovations and improvements in the district received statewide attention in May 2004 with the selection of the superintendent, Dr. John Simpson, as Virginia Superintendent of the Year.
The following is a summary of data regarding the Norfolk public school system as of the 2003–2004 school year.
Total enrollment: 36,724
Number of facilities elementary schools: 35
junior high/middle schools: 8
senior high schools: 5
Student/teacher ratio: 11:1
Teacher salaries
minimum: $27,640
maximum: $73,731
Funding per pupil: $7,403
The area is also host to a variety of specialized education programs, from private schools founded in a particular religion, to Headstart programs, to technical/vocational schools.
Public Schools Information: Norfolk Public Schools, 800 E. City Hall Avenue, Norfolk, VA 23510; telephone (757)628-3843
Norfolk is home to a number of institutions of higher learning that span the spectrum of vocational specialty schools, community colleges, and colleges or universities. Old Dominion University is a public coeducational school and a sea- and space-grant institution with a combined undergraduate and graduate enrollment of about 20,802 students. From baccalaureate to doctoral programs, Old Dominion grants degrees in education, liberal arts, business and public administration, sciences, health sciences, engineering, and technology. The university capitalizes on its proximity to the naval base and the Virginia Space Flight Center on Wallops Island, creating fieldwork experiences that contribute to those industries.
Virginia Wesleyan College, with 1,400 students, is a private liberal arts college that emphasizes the value of gaining real-world experience through internships, field work, study abroad, and community service. The college offers baccalaureate degrees in various divisions of the humanities, natural sciences and mathematics, and the social sciences.
Norfolk State University is one of the largest predominantly African American institutions in the United States, with an enrollment approaching 8,000 students. It has undergraduate schools in business, education, liberal arts, social work, and science and technology, as well as 18 graduate departments.
The Eastern Virginia Medical School is a public institution with its main campus at Norfolk's Eastern Virginia Medical Center. It has 2,565 students enrolled in a selection of medical degree programs that lead to careers as physician's assistants, nurses, doctors, and researchers. The school is supported by a teaching hospital, a model that the Norfolk General Hospital also employs.
At ITT Technical Institute, students are enrolled in baccalaureate and associate degree programs in information technology, electronics technology, drafting and design, business, and criminal justice.
The more than 100 year old Norfolk Public Library system contains nearly 1 million books and subscribes to more than 1,250 periodicals. It serves patrons through 12 branches and a bookmobile. The library has special sections on African-American literature, business, juvenile literature, and local history. Within the next 10 years, the Norfolk Public Library plans to upgrade neighborhood branch facilities, renovate or rebuild the main library, and increase its efforts in the area of child literacy.
The city's Chrysler Museum of Art houses the Jean Outland Chrysler Library, containing 80,000 books, with special emphasis on Western European and American painting, drawing, sculpture, Art Nouveau decorative arts, textiles, glass, art history, and photography. The library's archives are home to many treasures, not the least of which is Mark Twain's original typescript of a speech he delivered at the Tricentennial Exposition of 1907 in Jamestown.
MacArthur Memorial Library and Archives has special collections on the life of American General Douglas MacArthur, who is buried nearby, and on American wars in the first half of the twentieth century. The U.S. Navy's Submarine Force Library and Archives has 6,000 volumes focusing on submarine development, salvage and history. The Joint Forces Staff College Library, with 113,000 scholarly volumes and periodicals, is available only to military personnel.
There are also college libraries at Virginia Wesleyan College, Norfolk State University, and Old Dominion University. Medical libraries are found at the local hospitals, at Norfolk Psychiatric Center, and at Eastern Virginia Medical School. The Norfolk Law Library provides legal reference material to the public, lawyers and the courts.
Specialized research facilities include the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine, which focuses on the study of human reproduction, and Old Dominion University, which is home to a diverse collection of research facilities ranging from the Langley Full-Scale Wind Tunnel to the Center for Advanced Ship Repair and Maintenance. Old Dominion University's Office of Research acts as a clearing house for research efforts centralized at the university.
Marine and naval research facilities abound within Naval Station Norfolk, including a laboratory that focuses on specific medical issues related to service in a submarine.
Public Library Information: Norfolk Public Library, 301 E. City Hall Avenue, Norfolk, VA 23510; telephone (757)664-4000