S.C.H.O.O.L.S.

The specific problem is the lack of "personalized learning and individualized instruction for learners who are most at risk for disengagement and school drop-out." 

The scale of the problem in the US, in 2019, was that 56% of the approximately 73 million US students age 18 or under needed additional financial aid to attend college due to low standardized test scores, inhibiting the receipt of merit-based scholarships and occasioning student loan debt.

Due to limited geographical and financial access to high-quality, cost-effective test prep, intergenerational poverty abounds from 2 to 3 generations attempting to fund college with loans.

S.C.H.O.O.L.S. offers personalized prep that is culturally appropriate with individualized learning to help marginalized students attain composite score increases of 5-10 ACT points or 100-200 SAT points in as little as 5 weeks for a fraction of the cost of the US "brick and mortar" companies.  US "brick and mortar" companies charge 3,500 or more, require a commute of 30+ miles for 3 times a week over 6 months for test prep, with no score guarantee or insurance that instructors are ACT certified.

S.C.H.O.O.L.S. offers high-quality cost-effective test prep that raises standardized test composite scores 5-10 ACT points or 100-200 SAT points in as little as 5 weeks. We use innovative GEROTECH (c) to fuse the best of gerontology and technology from Gen Z tech-savviness, promoting intergenerational programming.  

The target population is students under the age of 18 from marginalized communities with limited financial and geographical access to high-quality, cost-effective standardized test prep.  By offering individualized instructions and personalized prep, S.C.H.O.O.L.S. can help marginalized students create financial estates with ACT 28s and SAT 1400s from academic merit-based scholarship refunds at many US schools. These high test scores eradicate intergenerational poverty stemming from student loan debt for three generations.

I am an ACT Certified Educator with over 30 years of experience tutoring in marginalized communities raising standardized test scores to occasion merit-based scholarships. I still reside in the red-lined. marginalized zip code where I began this company as a free tutoring service at the age of 12. Test prep began by Kaplan in 1938, from my great-grandmother's time to now, there has NEVER been a "brick and mortar" test prep service from a national chain in my neighborhood. I am proximate to the poor students I have served for the past 30 + years and continue to serve.  I am a product of the test prep I provide. I made a 26 on the ACT before my 16th birthday because I was an elite track athlete allowed to commute to the prominent side of my city to attend the IB high school due to my high standardized test scores. The community high school in my neighborhood has been poor-performing since my existence began, now 50 years. My Chief Operations Officer is also a minority female instructional designer.  We are both currently pursuing the completion of our Doctoral degrees in Education and will be there first in our families to achieve this milestone. In 2019, during a pandemic, I was able to allow 12,000 inner-city kids to attend college debt-free. With cloud-based technology, I could reach SO many more! Scholars and scholar-athletes who successfully complete our test prep intensives are hired as peer tutors and employed throughout college. We even hire their grandparents and provide adequate training for them, even if they are not former educators. This business model allows for greater financial stability for their families until degree completion, as many marginalized students are breadwinners for their families as soon as they are able to legally work.  My company is female and minority-owned and led, employing 95% African American young adults and Seniors 65+, with 5% of our company identifying as LGBTQIA which is an anomaly in the ed-tech space for test prep. In addition, our product is priced at 1/10 of the market price, with score increases 10x the national average, earned in a fraction of the time. S.C.H.O.O.L.S. is 5 weeks in duration versus 6 months for national "brick and mortar" test prep companies".

I need legal, technical, and marketing support to scale. All of our 12,000 clients have found our product offering my word-of-mouth referrals from trusted sources, primarily our past customers or their parents or children.  I began this quest as a mission to eradicate poverty caused by student loan debt in marginalized communities through access to high-quality, cost-effective standardized test prep that was culturally relevant.  What started as a mission with a message has now generated hope for many professional athletes, members of the military, and healthcare personnel, as all three careers are impacted by standardized test scores. Our demand far exceeds our ability to supply due to technology limitations. We are seeking help in scaling to a cloud-based platform from our current website.

My solution to the problem of learning losses is intergenerational in nature. At SCHOOLS(c) using GEROTECH(c), we provide high-quality, cost-effective standardized test prep offering 10 x the national US score gains with 1/10 of the costs of online test prep producing merit scholarship earning scores in as little as 5 weeks. Currently, US students in redlined or rural zip codes are tasked to seek "brick and mortar" test prep locations that require a 30+ mile commute 3 times weekly, cost on average $3,500 for superior scores results, and take 6 months to complete. These geographical and financial access barriers leave marginalized students that need standardized test prep the most charged the highest with the lowest return on investment, as many national US chains do not allow refunds or guarantee score increases.  I believe that standardized test prep is a matter of social justice. I have experienced first-hand the freedom occasioned by debt-free education at the post-secondary level. The scholars and scholar-athletes that have completed our standardized test prep courses earn acceptance to colleges and careers that stabilize their entire families financially through scholarship refunds. We create financial estates with ACT 28s! Our innovative intergenerational ed-tech, GEROTECH, fuses the wisdom of gerontology with the tech-savviness of college students. The applications of this technology are limitless. In addition to decreasing learning losses statistically by producing composite score gains of 5-10 points for the ACT and 100-200 points for the SAT, the application has also been used in conjunction with the MIT AgeLab and the World Health Organization. We allowed Seniors to share the best of their experiential expertise to tangible credence to the value of education in solving real-world solutions. Working with the MIT AgeLab, students were able to apply basic principles of social media to lessen social isolation and food insecurity with Seniors during COVID. Seniors 65+ were taught to provide ACT and SAT prep, as well as encouraged to seek opportunities to tutor subjects they possessed mastery in, to tutor students virtually. Students enjoyed learning from "REAL" people who loved the interactions and cared for the students' positive outcomes without the pressures of administration for score increased typical in many modern educational environments. In addition, students could ask Seniors what we deemed as "longitudinal inquiry" - the ability for students to "see" the results of plausible future decision-making through discourse with Seniors, seeing their decisions through the "eyes" of the Seniors' lived experiences. In our humble opinion, it was "REAL TIME" AI :) allowing students to interact with their possible selves 60+ years later. Seniors patiently offered students wise counsel, flexible scheduling, and safe spaces for educational and social-emotional growth. These interactions heightened critical thinking and added to the growth mindset of both generations.  Seniors were taught by their students to set virtual health visits, schedule vaccination appointments, order food and groceries online from delivery services, and use free social media services to stay connected socially.  Seniors without education degrees were empowered to learn to teach, and students who demonstrated mastery through grade improvements and standardized test score increases were encouraged to join the workforce as tutors and educators, regardless of their intention to major in education or not. We believe that ALL students possess "standardized test prep potential" that can be unlocked through human interaction with Seniors and peers who completed our SCHOOLS test prep programs. The second GEROTECH application was working with Unleash Hacks USA in the Alabama Black Belt to address wastewater management intergenerationally to decrease learning losses and increase public health advancing SDG Goals 3 and 6. Students received ACT Prep at the local high schools and incentives to use creativity to solve wastewater treatment operational issues.  Students participated in virtual town hall meetings and created public health educational materials for use in community health education. Students also participated in a Hack-A-Thons with wastewater management experts throughout the globe from Selma Alabama!  Watching the students' excitement as their physical science, health, and math texts literally "CAME ALIVE" through "REAL WORLD" application of their solutions for the WHO through UNLEASH HACKS was fascinating! Many of the students are now employed as wastewater technicians or majoring in wastewater management or environmental engineering due to their exposure to global issues similar to their own!

2022 Impact Goals

1) To raise $750,000 for scale and expansion in the test prep marketplace by purchasing an interface to handle increased domestic and international programming.

2) To build a proprietary cloud space technology to handle the 10X growth over the next 5 years.

3) Scale our impact to 120,000 scholars and scholar-athletes. (10X Growth)

Since 2009, I've coached more than 12,000 scholars and scholar-athletes from being standardized "test avoiders" to becoming "test attackers" enabling each to attend college debt-free by raising their ACT scores 5-10 points and their SAT scores 100-200 points. 

4) Net company profits of $3,300,000 (10X Growth)

In 2021, during the pandemic, I grossed $330,000, a figure we've surpassed during the first two months of 2022, slated with $1 million dollars in academic contracts for the 2022-2023 school year.

5) Global Expansion

We launched in the Caribbean (Fourth Quarter 2021) and Dubai (First Quarter 2022) online.

2027 Impact Goals

1) $54 million dollars in revenue to afford 1 million scholarships globally to attend a SCHOOLS test prep initiative 

In 2019, approximately 41 million US students age 18 and under needed additional funding to attend college due to low standardized test scores, requiring their extended college stay due to remediation or seeking additional funding through student loans to attend college. 

2) 10X Revenue Growth Year to Year for Five Years

3) 10X Increase In International Growth  

Primary Initial Targets : The Caribbean and Dubai

Measurable indicators currently tracked for entering college students who successfully complete a US SCHOOLS' test prep intensive in accordance with SGD Goals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16, and 17 include:

Acceptance to college rates

FAFSA completion rates

Scholarship funding for college

Food insecurity after college enrollment

Employment during college with SCHOOLS (tutors)

Internships secured during college with /by SCHOOLS (STEP Internships)

Acceptance after 2-year college for 4-year admission

Acceptance after 4-year college for advanced degrees

Student loan debt savings (2-year and 4-year college)

ACT 18 score attainment for advancement to Upper Division (LPN, RN, Surgical Tech, EMT)

Food insecurity for GEROTECH Seniors 

Social isolation for GEROTECH Seniors

Yearly income for SCHOOLS student staff

Yearly income for GEROTECH Senior staff

Tuck and Yang (2012) refer to a theory of change as a "belief or perspective about how a situation can be adjusted, corrected, or improved." (Tuck & Yang, 2012, p.10).  Theory of Change (TOC) challenges mere concept formation to create strategies that skillfully implement to achieve the desired change.  Marginalized students experiencing learning losses are not culturally socialized to seek assistance for their physical and mental health, social support for their well-being, or financial aid in their K-12 experiences as a norm, which permeates into food and financial insecurities as first-generation and non-traditional college students. As many marginalized students live in communities with failing schools, their access to high-quality, cost-effective standardized test prep is geographically and financially unavailable, stemming from systemic inequities, interlocking oppressions in unseen dimensions that lead to stress and depression from intersectionality conflicts. Many feel asking for help makes them appear "weak".

I am employing my Theory of Change as the subject of my current dissertation in Organizational Change and Leadership at the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California.  I believe that a new logic model for US community college nursing schools be enacted that embeds high-quality, cost-effective test prep ACT prep into the Nursing Plan of Study that is covered by Financial Aid and is available both onsite and online as a workforce development solution.  For my research study, the assumption proposes that change emerges when Community College Admitted Pre-Nursing Students (CCAPNS) receive ACT Prep initiatives from Southern Black female ACT Prep providers and interact socially with other "Deep South" CCAPNS who have experienced ACT 18 attainment who are successfully advancing to the Upper Division of Nursing School with self-care.  ACT 18 attainment is a requirement for CCAPNS to advance to the Upper Division of Nursing School at all 24 community colleges with ADN Programs in the State of Alabama. At present, only 1 of 24 has an ACT Prep delivery embedded in their workforce development class offerings. 

Theory of Change offers context between ACT Prep delivery and ACT 18 score attainment through social interaction for the demographic.  Modeling behaviors that transfer self-efficacy to promote ACT Prep-seeking behaviors from ACT Prep providers and CCAPNS with similar race and gender could replace the culturally disconnected institutional current practice of rote dictation of expected ACT 18 attainment goal behaviors by non-minority ACT Prep providers.  The modeling of behaviors from ACT Prep providers that are similar in race and gender could possess value as a reward for the demographic's internal motivation to exert continued mental effort against institutional racial inequality, which may serve as an intuitive conditioned motivating operation for CCAPNS who have experienced barriers when seeking ACT Prep from non-minority ACT Prep providers in the past. Individuals within the demographic are not held culpable for Community College Nursing Programs' factor failings, resulting in change through CCAPNS empowered to ask for the services they both need and deserve boldly.  Southern Black Female ACT Prep providers, armed by acknowledging barriers that persist through actively listening to the voice of the demographic, fight for change at the individual CCAPNS level by assisting "Deep South" CCAPNS to navigate through the Community College Associate Degree of Nursing system. 

The program that is the focus of this study is the S.C.H.O.O.L.S. Programs ACT Prep Intensive.  The goals of the SCHOOLS ACT Prep Program are to 1) increase CCAPNS’ ACT scores, and 2) increase CCAPNS’ agency, or decision-making power, to forecast their next steps to RN licensure pursuit.  Ideally, CCAPNS who've enrolled, fully participated and completed the S.C.H.O.O.L.S. ACT Prep Program attained ACT 18 scores, advanced to the Upper Division of Nursing school, and acknowledged self-efficacy gains in their degree of competence and confidence with regards to ACT test-taking skills, recorded with a number from 0 to 100 using the scale adapted from Bandura’s (2006) self-efficacy scale.

It is critical to note the nursing shortage since COVID in the State of Alabama. In 2021, the State of Alabama employed 79,771 registered nurses for a 2020 State population of 5,100,000, or 15.6 working registered nurses available per 1,000 residents (ABN, 2021b; PopulationU.com, 2021).  Even though the Governor declared a COVID-induced state of disaster in 2021, the State of Alabama's Board of Nursing did not relax the ACT 18 score attainment requirement to advance to the Upper Division of Nursing School for Community College Admitted Pre-Nursing Students (CCAPNS), or currently practicing Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), seeking Registered Nurse (RN) licensure for career advancement (Wallace State, 2021). 

The study will address the problem of practice of low levels of advancement to the Upper Division of Nursing School for CCAPNS due to failure to obtain an ACT score of 18. A program theory-driven approach based upon the Kellogg Logic Model (  ) guides the evaluation of the effectiveness of the S.C.H.O.O.L.S. Programs ACT Prep Intensives in facilitating the attainment of ACT 18 scores. The study provides a detailed explanation of the mixed-methods evaluation design, employing both qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys for evaluation. 

To validate proof of concept of the Belle Method of Academic Currency(c) and the Belle Obsidian Principle (c), please consider ASU + GSV, the AREA, and the Wharton School of Business.  As a start-up, I've demonstrated my Belle Method of Academic Currency (c), with its proven critical thinking strategies and ability to eradicate intergenerational poverty from student loan debt with one standardized test score at Harvard, MIT, USC, and Wharton.  The Wharton Business School named my company V B Ideas as 1 of 6 Inaugural Knowledge For Impact Award Winners in 2021 as a "unicorn company with demand economies of scale entering network effects". I will pitch in early April 2022 at ASU + GSV as a member of Cohort IV of the University of Southern California's Ed Tech Incubator founded by Doug Lynch and Mark DeGennaro. My dissertation has been accepted for presentation at the 2022 American Education Research Division H's Research Roundtable held in San Diego, California in late April 2022.

I am partnering with two companies to move our current online business from a website to an actual platform, Spearhead Technology and Corporate Lounge.

It was important to me to include a female and minority-owned ed-tech company in the development of my product offering. Crystal LaShay's Corporate Lounge fulfilled that requirement. She will be working alongside me to guide the website restructuring for easier access to the platform.

Spearheard Technology will build the platform. 

Per Ali Khan, President and COO of Spearhead Technologies,

"We are building a highly scalable, flexible, resilient, secure, and cost-effective enterprise level SAAS based platform by leveraging the latest technologies such as AngularJS, Java Spring Boot, REST API, Spring JPA, Redis, AWS RDS, AWS S3 buckets, Oauth, JWT, etc. with AWS cloud partner for hosting the platform."

We promote the infusion of each of our employee's intersectionality by allowing them to bring to work their very best creativity and innovation through interacting as their authentic selves. Our company is female and minority-owned, with 95% minority employees using GEROTECH (under 25 and over 65+). and 5% LGBTQIA. We believe that our diversity makes sound business sense and drives our business growth.  We have less than 1% employee turnover.  Our referral base generates our pipeline of employees from previous test prep intensive completers. As we pay $25 per hour, we offer financial stability to our employees in college and their families until degree completion, as many are wage earners for their families, especially first-generation college students and non-traditional students.

Our test prep is $375 for 5 weeks of 20 hours of live instruction.  Our cost is 1/10 of the national average with 10x the national score increases for a fraction of the time. We initially offer ACT and SAT prep for college entrance. We then follow our student's college and career readiness trajectories to offer the test prep needed to advance their entrance to their terminal degrees (ASVAB, DAT, GRE, GMAT, NCLEX, MCAT, and PRAXIS). Our social business model is GEROTECH (c). We hire 25 and under and 65 and over contractually to provide financial and food stability and decrease social isolation through intergenerational programming.  Our DTC product is provided online with our LMS housing the instructional content.   

We are a debt-free company. in 2019, during the pandemic, we grossed $330,000. In 2022, we've exceeded that amount during the first quarter of the year.  We retain 94 cents to every 1 dollar made due to our online delivery. We have not raised capital as we have not needed to raise funds. We have purchased every need from revenue. The cloud-based application was initially sourced at $3 million dollars, but we were able to decrease the cost of the computer application to $750,000. 

Previous Contracts : 

MSU Gear Up - $50,000

MIT Age Lab - $30,000