A retired teacher's attitude towards the FCAT: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
James E. Feazell Sr. doesn't want to fight the FCAT. As long as the standardized test is required, he's not going to challenge the rationale behind it. He would rather help the kids who struggle to pass the exam... As his retirement approached this past July, he wondered how he could help black students he knew who had failed the FCAT.
It was just an idea - until he saw statistics showing that the achievement gap affects not only black students who are poor, but those who are middle-class or affluent. In Pinellas County, 76 percent of black students scored below grade level on the FCAT math test last year, compared to 36 percent of white students. Those who fail get certificates of attendance instead of diplomas...
Others accuse the state of discriminating against minority students, but Feazell felt that complaining wasn't going to change anything. His mission became to help improve their test scores.
Bravo. Feazell feels that he received a great amount of help his entire life, from the Good Lord on down, and so he wants to give something back to his community in turn.
Feazell formed a partnership with various Pinellas County schools to create the "Bridging the Achievement Gap" program. The schools sent letters to 229 parents whose children had failed the FCAT, telling them about free tutoring in their neighborhood. Four seniors and five juniors came for tutoring three times a week in September. After two and a half weeks of tutoring, they took the FCAT. Three of the four seniors and all five juniors passed.
Good grief, why did he attract only nine students out of 229? For free tutoring? Did the others feel they didn't need it? Or were they too busy complaining instead of studying?
Now, about 45 students from Largo, Seminole, Osceola and Pinellas Park high schools attend tutoring sessions at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church and Young Life Center in Ridgecrest. With six Largo High School teachers and 10 student tutors, each group is capped at four students.
"I think this is going to be a model for other communities, other schools," said Largo High principal Barbara Thornton, who sits on the program's advisory board. "He's dedicating his life to it. When you create something like this, somebody has to drive it. It has to be somebody with this vision - and he has it."
Again, bravo.
Posted by kswygert at January 5, 2004 11:39 AM