School Zone
Points of Pride
Seven
DCPS Students Named Semifinalists in the 2008 National
Achievement® Scholarship Program
More than 140,000 high school
juniors from all parts of the United States requested
consideration in the 2008 National Achievement Program
when they took the 2006 Preliminary SAT/National Merit
Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®). Of those
140,000 students who took the qualifying test only 1,600
African American high school seniors were designated
Semifinalists in the 44th annual Achievement
Scholarship® competition. Seven scholastically talented
high school students from Duval County now have an
opportunity to continue in the competition for
approximately 800 scholarships worth over $2.5 million
to be awarded next spring.
The National Achievement
Program, conducted by National Merit Scholarship
Corporation (NMSC), is a
privately financed academic competition that operates
without government assistance. It was initiated in 1964
to recognize promising black students throughout the
nation and to provide scholarships to a substantial
number of the most outstanding participants. To date,
over 27,800 young men and women have received
Achievement Scholarship awards worth more than $88
million.
Click here
to see the official press release which includes Duval’s
semifinalist.
Real
School Airing
“Real School,” a monthly
television program centered on DCPS students, airs this
Sunday, October 7, at 10 a.m. on WJCT, Channel 7,
Comcast 8. This edition features students and staff at
Duval County’s newest school, Chaffee Trail Elementary.
Also, Robert E. Lee High School students explain how the
AVID program propels them to academic success. Finally,
DCPS students discuss how they balance the demands of
academic rigor, sports and jobs. This edition premieres
our new student hosts, Hannah-Maria Roder and David
Emanuel.
Fletcher High School Band to Perform in Washington, D.C.
Congratulations to the Duncan
U. Fletcher High School Marching Senator Band for being
invited to perform in the 2008 National Independence Day
Parade in Washington, D.C. The parade committee selects
one band from each state to perform at this prestigious
event. After a nomination this past spring by John
Peyton, the band sent off an audition DVD and
application. They were selected to represent
Jacksonville and the State of Florida in this wonderful
event.
Upon learning of the band’s
selection for this performance, Band Director Jonathan
Maerkl said, "I am very proud of the hard work that the
students and parents have done to get us to this level.
I am also very grateful for the support of our
community. This once again confirms that we are truly
The Pride of the Beaches."
DCPS
Students, Teachers Learn History From Aviation Pioneers
That Made It
Tuskegee airmen tell takes of
discrimination, WW II antics
Two-hundred Duval County
public school students– most of them involved in junior
ROTC programs at their schools – and dozens of district
teachers learned history recently from three men who
made it. This trip was made possible by the Living
History Project which was funded by a grant from the
U.S. Department of Education.
A trio of the few surviving
Tuskegee Airmen – Hiram E. Mann, John Gay and William
Surcey – told tales of historic World War II bombing
missions and the discrimination that existed when
America’s first black military aviation unit was formed
in 1941.
As retired U.S. Air Force Lt.
Col. Hiram E. Mann
spoke inside a hangar at
Craig Airport, on Sept. 13, he did so in front of a
restored P-40 Warhawk similar to the one he piloted. He
told students from William Raines, Jean Ribault, Edward
H. White, Robert E. Lee and Terry Parker High Schools
about a harrowing, extreme long-distance bombing raid in
1945 during which Mann and other Tuskegee pilots
escorted American bombers to and from Berlin. Not a
bomber was lost on the important mission near the end of
World War II, he boasted. He also spoke of the
discrimination he experienced when he first attempted to
become a military aviator shortly after WW II erupted.
He also urged the students to “stay in school” and
“persevere when you know you can do it, even if others
tell you that you can’t.”
Englewood High School Teacher Receives Funding to Field
Test Innovative Photonics Curriculum
The New England Board of
Higher Education (NEBHE) has provided funding to Bill
Pugh of Englewood High School in Jacksonville, FL to
field test a photonics curriculum developed through
PHOTON PBL, a project funded by a three-year, $750,000
grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The NSF grant to NEBHE is the
fourth in a series that fund curriculum and professional
development projects that strengthen photonics
curriculum in secondary schools and two- and four-year
colleges in New England and throughout the country. The
new grant employs problem-based learning (PBL) in which
students solve real-world “challenges” presented by
industry and research partners.
PBL has been used extensively
in medical education since the early 1970s and widely
adopted in other fields including business, law and
education. Now, it is beginning to emerge as an
alternative to the traditional lecture-based approach in
engineering and technology education.
Englewood High School is
among 27 secondary and postsecondary schools accepted to
the project. Once the field tests are underway, the
project team will conduct quantitative and qualitative
research on the efficacy of PBL in photonics education
and eventually publish and present the findings to an
international audience with a focus on U.S. secondary
schools and community colleges. |
