The veteran educator refuses to sit back and enjoy retirement when there are students who need help with the FCAT.
By SHANNON TAN
Published January 4, 2004
[Times photo: Libby Volgyes ]
Taylor Swan, center, a senior at Largo High School, helps Alisha Rudd, 16, left, and Ozni Rhodes, 14, study their FCATs after Largo High classes at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Largo.
[Times photo (2003): Douglas Clifford ]
James Feazell retired in July after 33 years in the Pinellas County school system.
LARGO - 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.
When he taught social studies at Largo High School, students often dropped by for dinner or a quick game of basketball. Later, as the school district's recruiting specialist, he hired black teachers and welcomed them into his home. 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.
"Lord, what in the world is happening to our young folks?" Feazell wondered. "It was something that weighed on me."
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.
Feazell, 56, has always shared the motto of his alma mater, Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach: Enter to learn, depart to serve.
"I had teachers and preachers and a momma who helped me," he said. In turn, he does "whatever I can do for everybody, especially educationally."
He decided to start small - in his neighborhood of unincorporated Ridgecrest, where 32 black seniors had flunked the FCAT.
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.
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."
* * *
Feazell and his wife both retired in 2003. Sure, he planned to teach Bible study at church and continue being a deacon. But they promised each other they would travel for a year first.
That lasted for two months.
Feazell decided his kids needed him.
"My initial reaction was, "I wanted to take a year off!"' said Gwen Feazell with a laugh. "He won me over in a short period of time."
She took on the unofficial position of data prep clerk - keeping track of students' attendance and grades. That's the way she's always worked, as a "behind the scenes" person.
"This is just another phase of his life," said the grandmother of three.
The trunk of their maroon Toyota Camry is packed with boxes and boxes of folders containing student's test scores and report cards. Feazell often gives students rides to and from the two-hour tutoring sessions. His daughter, Deanna, 20, tutors students in math, while another daughter, Tashyra, a 10th grader at Largo High, attends the sessions.
The couple point out that running the program doesn't take up all of their time. It's more like a part-time job. Except that they're not paid, at least not in dollars.
"You feel good about being part of their success," Feazell said.
Feazell plans to take pictures of those who passed the FCAT and create a "Wall of Fame" in his new office at the Young Life center. He got the idea from their family room, which is plastered wall-to-wall with certificates and awards won by their four children.
"He always says, "You can do it,"' said Christina Rudd, 18, a Largo High senior. "They've got your best interests at heart."
Rudd had failed the FCAT before she got involved in the program. During tutoring sessions, Feazell told students to focus, focus, focus.
Rudd passed in October.
"I didn't take it all that seriously (before)," said Rudd. "Some of the teachers, they didn't really care if you passed or not. Mr. and Mrs. Feazell, they did care."
The key to their success is not some newfangled teaching technique.
By practicing two hours a day, three times a week, students reinforce skills they're already learning in school. They're not there to socialize. If they won't tackle their work, Feazell tells them to go home and come back another day.
"We're here to love you and help you and encourage you," Feazell tells them.
"But you got to help yourself," his wife adds.
The small tutoring groups also help. It's hard for some students to get extra attention when they're in a class of 25 or 30. Many don't have computers at home and are unable to access an online program on the FCAT. Others can't stay after school for tutoring because then they have no transportation home.
Now, those obstacles don't exist for Kiara Coleman.
On Wednesdays and Fridays, the Osceola High ninth grader walks from her home in Rainbow Village to Young Life Center. Her school bus drops her off near the church in Ridgecrest on Mondays.
"I had a reading class I wasn't doing too good in until I started the program," said Kiara, 14.
Now, she's improving, and her mother attributes the success to Feazell.
"He just has that positive personality that reaches the kids and gets to them that they really need to do this," said Michelle Coleman. "It makes them do it for themselves instead of, "My mom is making them come."'
Feazell also makes sure students won't have an excuse not to attend tutoring sessions.
He set up a special tutorial time for basketball and football players at the nearby YMCA. It wasn't hard, since his next-door neighbor is the girls' basketball coach. And as the girls' basketball academic adviser, he wants them to succeed.
"I tell the kids right off, "Don't allow people to use things to keep you down, to give you an excuse,"' Feazell said.
Feazell expects more students will show for the tutoring sessions with the next FCAT test looming in March. He has asked school guidance counselors to pass out fliers to at-risk students.
The program recently received a four-year grant from Eckerd Family Foundation. A local company donated 30 refurbished computers. But they still need computer tables, office supplies and more student tutors.
He doesn't know how many years he plans to put into the program, or how much it's going to expand.
"The Holy Spirit allows me to know when it's enough," Feazell said. "God has been good to me."
- Researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Shannon Tan can be reached at shtan@sptimes.com or 445-4174.
