Read It Forward Jax Coalition moves ahead

education

Jacksonville’s Read It Forward Jax Coalition is composed of some real heavy hitters across the 904, such as Kerri Stewart, chief of staff to Mayor Lenny Curry; Susie Wiles, chairwoman of the Donald Trump campaign in Florida; and many more.

But the coalition’s creator has the respect of them all: attorney and former Duval County School Board member W.C. Gentry.

Known for his sharp legal mind, Gentry is of course renowned for his $11 billion legal victory over the nation’s tobacco companies.

Now retired, he’s convened the literacy effort to try to improve the region’s dismal reading scores, particularly in the early grades.

As he spoke at this week’s meeting, there is progress to report.

Duval County Public Schools and the Early Learning Coalition of Duval have signed a Data Sharing Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, so that DCPS can access student data back through PreK programs, and the Early Learning Coalition can follow children throughout their elementary education experience. It’s an arrangement Gentry and other education advocates have long sought.

“Having comprehensive longitudinal data will provide valuable feedback to DCPS and ELC and will allow data based assessment of true readiness and effects of various interventions. As far as we know, Duval is the only school district in the state that has comprehensive access to student data from PreK forward. We are also one of the few districts in the nation that has accomplished this,” Gentry said.

Melissa Ross

In addition to her work writing for Florida Politics, Melissa Ross also hosts and produces WJCT’s First Coast Connect, the Jacksonville NPR/PBS station’s flagship local call-in public affairs radio program. The show has won four national awards from Public Radio News Directors Inc. (PRNDI). First Coast Connect was also recognized in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014 as Best Local Radio Show by Folio Weekly’s “Best Of Jax” Readers Poll and Melissa has also been recognized as Folio Weekly’s Best Local Radio Personality. As executive producer of The 904: Shadow on the Sunshine State, Melissa and WJCT received an Emmy in the “Documentary” category at the 2011 Suncoast Emmy Awards. The 904 examined Jacksonville’s status as Florida’s murder capital. During her years in broadcast television, Melissa picked up three additional Emmys for news and feature reporting. Melissa came to WJCT in 2009 with 20 years of experience in broadcasting, including stints in Cincinnati, Chicago, Orlando and Jacksonville. Married with two children, Melissa is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism/Communications. She can be reached at [email protected].



#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, Anne Geggis, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Gray Rohrer, Jesse Scheckner, Christine Sexton, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704




Sign up for Sunburn


Categories