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Schools

After achievement gap, group faces money gap

With a grant gone, a tutoring organization seeks money to keep building on its success.

By LORRI HELFAND, Times Staff Writer
Published August 8, 2007

Educator James Feazell Sr., standing visits with Largo High students, from left, Marcel Durham, 17, Malcolm Durham, 18, and Reggie McCray, 16, at a Bridging the Achievement Gap event at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Largo recently.
	[Douglas R. Clifford | Times]

Stefanie Bay was afraid she would never pass the test she needed to get her high school diploma.

After she failed the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test four times, her mother enrolled her in a free tutoring program called Bridging the Achievement Gap.

Three times a week, a tutor worked with her until she was ready to pass the FCAT's math test. Then she passed its reading test. Then, in May, she graduated from Largo High School.

"They make you want to keep going," said Bay, 18, now a nursing student at St. Petersburg College.

But the program, founded in 2003 by James Feazell Sr., faces the loss of a key source of funding.

Since early 2004, Bridging the Achievement Gap has been funded by a $228,000 four-year grant from the Eckerd Family Foundation. That grant runs out in December, said Jane Soltis, foundation program officer.

Feazell had expected to turn to Pinellas County's Juvenile Welfare Board. But the board, facing reduced property tax revenues, has reduced its support to many agencies.

So Feazell, 60, is looking for new support elsewhere.

One sold-out fundraiser already is scheduled this month, and Feazell has no doubt the program will continue. The question, he said, is "how well we're going to be able to deliver."

The students at Bridging the Achievement Gap come from all over Pinellas County.

Three times a week, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., tutors work with students at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in the Ridgecrest neighborhood near Largo.

Some students work on homework. Others prepare for the FCAT or college entrance exams.

The program also provides scholarships and helps needy students pay for tests required for college or college applications.

Some students who took part in the program said they struggled with school in general. Others had high grade-point averages, but had difficulty with the FCAT or specific subjects.

Bridget Perenyi, a former Boca Ciega High School student, said she grappled with the FCAT because English isn't her first language. She grew up in Africa speaking Swahili and studying French. "This program helped me tremendously," said Perenyi, 16, who eventually passed the FCAT, graduated from high school and now attends Eckerd College.

The program provides transportation for many students who live in mid Pinellas and attend Largo, Osceola and Seminole high schools.

Feazell got the idea for Bridging the Achievement Gap as he approached retirement with Pinellas County schools about four years ago. The former Largo High teacher knew a lot of black students were failing the FCAT.

But he was leveled when he saw statistics that showed about 75 percent of the county's African-American students scored below grade level on the tests.

"When I saw those numbers, the implications of that, it was frightening," said Feazell, whose wife, Gwen, is a former Pinellas County elementary school teacher.

Within a couple of months of their retirement in 2003, the couple started tutoring students in their Ridgecrest neighborhood.

The Feazells formed Bridging the Achievement Gap and partnered with a few local schools.

By early 2004, 45 students from Largo, Seminole, Osceola and Pinellas Park high schools attended tutoring sessions at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church and Young Life Center in Ridgecrest.

It began to help bridge the gap between white and black students. But since its inception Bridging the Achievement Gap has helped about 400 students of different races and backgrounds, Feazell said.

Each year, 64 percent of the students pass the FCAT, and about 16 of them go to college.

Fast Facts:

Bridging the Achievement Gap

Tutoring begins Aug. 27 at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, 13225 118th St. N, Largo. For information or to help, call 586-4682.

[Last modified August 7, 2007, 23:46:01]