OUR STORY

On May, 17th. Raeshonda, attended her son's end of the year Academic Awards Ceremony.  Students were rewarded for either having a cumulative GPA of 3.5 of or higher, they were recognized for their community service efforts, and/or was celebrated for outstanding citizenship by their teachers.  Her son was honored for having outstanding citizenship.     

 What Raeshonda witnessed was quite confusing, she was shocked to see so little African American students represented on stage for maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or above.  Immediately, Raeshonda, did what any concerned parent would do, which was to evaluate her own efforts.  She looked back at her sons report card and reviewed his academic performance over the years, she wanted to see her if her son, has ever had a 3.5 GPA or higher on his report card, and the answer was yes.   His GPA, has always between a 3.0-3.4.  There was one time that he received a 2.9.  On three instances his GPA was a 3.5, 3.6, and 3.7.  Then she looked to see if his cumulative GPA was ever 3.5 or higher, and the answer was no.  Additionally, she evaluated all things that she has done with him over the years.  Raeshonda understood and appreciated the value of having an education, and always talked to all of her children about the importance of doing well in school.  She has helped him with his homework as long as she could.  In some instances, she kept her son at home to learn the subject, so that she could help him, because he was having such a difficult time, grasping the material in school.  She even encouraged her son to try Honors and AP courses to boost his GPA.  

Next, Raeshonda started to research academic statistics in the district, from her States Department of Education website.  What she discovered, was heartbreaking, and extremely alarming.  There was a huge achievement gap between the African Americans students, and other races/ethnicities in her district at every grade level.  Initially, she assumed that this achievement gap was due to the COVID epidemic.  Nonetheless, after further research the data revealed that this is a consistent problem.  The persistent underachievement of African American students has been an overwhelming problem for decades, in her district as well as across the nation. 

Many programs have been implemented to try to alleviate this problem.  Nonetheless, Raeshonda was not aware of any interventions that have been successfully implemented in her local school district targeted specifically towards overall academic outcomes and achievement of African American students.  

One of the District's Board of Education Members encouraged her to advocate for the MAC Scholars (Minority Achievement Committee) program.  The MAC Scholars program was implemented by another local school district in 1990. The mission of the MAC Scholars program is to promote confidence, pride, respect and increased achievement amongst African American students. Beginning in the elementary grades, and continuing throughout their high school experience. By supporting students with mentoring, advising, achievement supports, community service and leadership opportunities, the MAC Scholars program provides a space for African American students to be successful in a supportive environment.  Raeshonda was not familiar with the MAC Scholars program, so researched the it.  She was very fortunate to talk to one of the founding members of the program.  He explained the program to her in great detail.  What he did emphasize to her was that the MAC Scholars Program was a school based program, and that the program would have to be implemented by the school district.  He told her that she could be an advocate for the program.   Raeshonda did just that, she called and emailed the District's Superintendent, and the School Principals, she spoke at Board meetings, and Town meetings.  She sent messages to other parents informing them about this opportunity to start the program.  

It was not until one of the Principals said to her that, The MAC Scholars is an excellent program, however due to the recent firings in the district, it would be difficult to find a teacher to oversee this program, because the teachers that are still employed by the district are being pulled in every direction.  At that moment, God put in Raeshonda's heart to be the change she wanted to see. This was the start of Major Goals and Objectives for Academic Liberty and Success.   

 Major G.O.A.L.S. is a community-based program, aimed at providing educational services, create support networks, and establish academic resources to African American, and economically disadvantaged families through targeted monthly workshops focusing on the dimensions of wellness, and core academic subject  tutoring.  Our primary mission is to provide high quality educational services, mentoring support, resources to improve overall academic outcomes and achievement, increase cumulative G.P.A., SAT/ACT preparedness, college, military, career readiness, increase attendance, and decrease disciplinary incidents of African American and economically disadvantaged students.

 Major G.O.A.L.S. is designed with a key focus on parental involvement and community engagement.  Encouraging students to create academic goals, early in life teaches them a form of responsibility, and leadership by giving them something to work towards.  When students have academic liberty, they have the freedom to choose what they would like to do after high school, college, military, trade school, and/or entrepreneurship.  Our prayer is that all of the skills, academic knowledge, and resources gained throughout our program experience will not only turn the tide on academic underachievement, but also have a lasting positive impact on program participants throughout life.