As plans for a highly-anticipated partnership between the Mattahunt Community Center and Wheelock College continue to take shape next door, administrators at the adjoining Mattahunt elementary school are trying out some new programs of their own. This semester, teachers and volunteers have been running the Mattahunt Boys Academy, a mentoring program held on Saturday mornings.

MBA, as the program is called, is the brainchild of the school’s principal, Ruby Ababio-Fernandez. Its target demographic are boys of color in grades 4 and 5.

That the program shares an acronym with a certain Masters degree is no accident. Fernandez cites several statistics as inspiration for the program, all of which illustrate trends of deficiency in the educational experiences of children of color, especially in black males.

She may have a point if the National Department of Education is to be believed. Studies have shown black children in grades 4 and 8 consistently falling behind in average math and reading scores compared to other racial groups, and actually coming in last place in 2009.

According to Fernandez, the initial targets for the program — which supports 40 boys— included students who had fallen just short of proficiency on the Math and Reading sections of standardized tests such as the MCAS.

“Most of these students range from 2 to 14 points below proficiency,” said Fernandez. “Through these nonlinear mentoring experiences, and a focus on them during the school day, I hope that this will be a recipe for success.”

Though academics are major goals of the program, MBA doesn’t resemble anything you’d expect to see in most elementary school classrooms. Every session is held in formats that many of the students would not likely encounter until high school or college.

Participants sit in a circle for an open discussion of math and reading exercises. Students are discouraged from raising their hands when they want to speak, in order to build real world communication skills. Personal reflection is encouraged through such methods as journal keeping, open discussion of inner thoughts and feelings, and short periods of meditation. The aim seems to be less about drilling the boys in facts or figures and more about teaching them to be better learners. Such lessons are reinforced through games, field trips and physical activities.

“When you create a certain type of experience for [students,] they can rise to or even exceed your expectations,” said Principal Fernandez.

“I like it,” said Eddie Hassell Jr, a ten year-old MBA student who enjoys learning about math. “It’s fun, but not only fun. We actually do work, too.”

Behavioral and social development are also included in the learning process. Mentors attempt to instill a sense of community in the boys, requesting that students regard each other as “brothers” and that they hold themselves accountable to one another, and a creed of values.

According to MBA organizers, the program has no funding to speak of, outside of small provisions set aside in the principal’s budget for essentials such as bus fare and reading materials. All of the staffers are volunteers. The mentors are currently all male, with several adult and teen mentors “donated” from Wheelock College’s Upward Bound mentoring program.

“MBA is basically going on a wing and a prayer,” said Mattahunt teacher Donna Laschus. “It’s really just surviving on the support of the community, which we’re thankful for.”

Principal Fernandez also hopes to use MBA, which is only a pilot program currently, to gather data--anything from attendance records to test scores. She hopes this will be useful elsewhere in the school.
“I have almost 700 kids in the school. 40 doesn’t even begin to fill the need,” said Fernandez. “If we can use this pilot to see what experiences changed things...we can find out what we can do to ensure the academic, behavioral and emotional success of all our boys.”

MBA will be running until June 16th.