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About Blacksonville | Blacksonville.net | Urban Career Center | The Business Gala | Contact Us |
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*******MEDIA ADVISORY******* For Immediate Release January 24,
2005 Contact:
Christian Reis A SUPER EDUCATIONAL DIALOGUE A Jacksonville urban marketing firm stages a forum to discuss solutions to help improve students’ scores on statewide FCAT examination JACKSONVILLE - The Super Bowl will serve as a stage for Blacksonville, LLC to host a forum addressing critical educational disparities in Jacksonville, and across the nation. “After the FCAT, What’s Next?” is an educational forum that will highlight methods of alternative schooling and E-learning for children and adults. The workshop will be held Wednesday, February 2 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Bellsouth Towers in Jacksonville. Why now? “People from all over will be in a city [Jacksonville] where students are burdening the rap for drastically failing school, whereas the situation lies in a school system that is failing the students,” emphatically stated Jermyn Shannon EL, marketing director of Blacksonville LLC, a multicultural marketing firm in Jacksonville coordinating various special events throughout the week of the Super Bowl. “Every state is going through FCAT type of crisis and there are very few proposed solutions. We hope to add light to the confusion by connecting the best minds at a powerful forum during the world’s biggest celebrity social.” FCAT Educational Forum will kickoff long term effort Blacksonville was inspired by Dr. John White and M. L. Boone to begin preliminary research on poor Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, (FCAT) scores posted last year by many students in predominantly black schools in Duval County. School administrators and African-American community leaders have sought ways to reverse the trend of poor scores. However, some educational experts predict students could again score poorly later this year when the exam is administered. They say students do not have access to viable teaching tools. Blacksonville aims to inform and train parents and students of successful teaching tools to prepare for the FCAT through online tutoring and an offline Saturday Academy. The FCAT is a statewide examination administered to students in grades 3 to 10. Students are tested in reading, mathematics, science and writing. (For more details about the FCAT, log on to www.myflorida.com - keyword: FCAT). The exam will be administered in February and March depending on a student’s grade level and subject. Students are required to pass it at the 10th grade level in order to get a high school diploma. The forum will consist of two keynote speakers, a panel discussion and an open dialogue of comments and questions. “Although the forum is being held during Super Bowl week when all the attention is on Jacksonville, the forum is just a prelude to the real work that will occur long after the Super Bowl’s spotlight vanishes from Jacksonville,” said Shannon EL. Blacksonville steps up to make a difference
Blacksonville,
which owns and operates a community web portal, Blacksonville.com, is
using the educational forum as an avenue to bring about awareness to its
new Also, The Invitation, a monthly publication, will address community feedback and offer solutions as it pertains to the FCAT and statewide examinations. One of the speakers set to speak at the event suggests students will score better on the FCAT if they embody a rich knowledge of self and have a broader range of life experiences. “Children who develop well, learn well,” said M. Lewis Boone, a life counselor and motivational speaker. Boone, founder of Alpha Omega Systems will speak at the forum on the topic, “The Power of Intent through Knowledge of Self.” His company uses the game
of golf to educate students in various subjects such as math and
science. Boone says such a forum is long overdue. Community-based assistance can help problem Educational expert Dr. John White, co-founder of Alpha Omega Systems, said African American students have problems scoring well on the FCAT because many do not come from an environment that fosters reading skills. “African-American students struggle because this test is a misnomer for what is really going on in their lives,” White said. “It [The FCAT] is disguised as a reading test, reading to comprehend and problem-solving. But if you come from a background of poor reading, you can not be qualified for the test. The consequence is that it spills over into the math. If you can’t read, you can’t do the word problems in math. You have a lot of students who say they are good in math, but when they take the test they don’t do well.” White said the problem is not confined to Jacksonville. “It’s a national problem that is approaching epidemic proportions,” he said. “The state of Florida predicts that this year in Duval County 20,000 children will be in need of tutorial assistance to improve their FCAT performance. They already expect it to be an epidemic.” White said local churches, and community and civic organizations can help solve the problem by allocating space to setup learning centers. “Fixing this is our responsibility,” he said. We have to come up with community-based after school learning centers within close proximity to their [students’] homes.” He said this year’s community-based assistance for students will likely pay off next year. “Next year is the truth. In 2006, we will start to see some improvements.” White said parents and community leaders will need to next concentrate on how to help student matriculate into college. The event is in synergy with the fundamental principles of Blacksonville, which was started to address critical issues in the community routinely avoided most organizations and mainstream media. “The forum will bring national attention to a national problem, and residents of Jacksonville will benefit from an innovative, collective, solution-driven approach to a common problem,” says Shannon EL. “It means that we are
right on track with our initial plan…to revitalize and uplift the
infrastructure of predominantly black, urban communities,” he said. |
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