100 Males to College:
Brotherhood for College Success

Background

100 Males to College (100MTC) leverages community and campus resources in a collective impact model so that public higher education institutions, school districts, community and business partners, and political leadership work together to provide additional targeted supports for these young people. The project theory of action is anchored in strengthening young people through a positive youth development model that embraces culture, identity and community by engaging some of our Commonwealth’s most promising yet underserved young people in a personally and educationally transformational journey.

Project elements include:

• Designating mentors and success coaches provided by high schools, community groups and/or higher education institutions
• Participation in at least one dual enrollment course
• Ongoing, in-school support
• Participation in financial aid literacy and college and career planning seminars
• Strength-based, courageous conversations about race/gender/income/equity issues and other issues that impact neighborhoods and families
• Full day and overnight visits to local campuses
• Family engagement activities and opportunities

Research in Context

Higher education achievement gaps are a consistent and pervasive challenge in education across the nation as well as in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. These gaps reflect socio-economic, racial/ethnic, and gender differences across a wide range of academic outcomes and indicators, along the entire educational continuum.

Young men are less likely to graduate from high school, enroll in college, and complete college than young women. Specifically, lower income males and young men from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups—particularly African American and Latino males—are less likely to graduate from high school and college than their White peers or their female counterparts.

Only 17% of low-income Latino male students and 22% of low-income African American male students who graduated from Massachusetts public high schools in 2010 went on to obtain college degrees or certificates within six years compared to an overall 50% degree/certificate six-year obtainment rate for the 2010 MA public high school graduating class.

Cohort: Massachusetts public high school students who were first-time 9th graders in 2002-03 academic year and/or who graduated high school in 2006. Source: Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, End-of-Year SIMS and Edwin Analytics (National Student Clearinghouse Data).

Closing the Gaps

There is an urgent need to reach more students and support their completion of postsecondary education in order to meet the growing need in Massachusetts for educated, skilled and engaged citizens. These achievement gaps translate into persistent inequities in educational outcomes, life opportunities and loss of human resource potential creating deleterious effects on society at large. Studies show that talent and motivation are evenly distributed among all young people, but the means to navigate the path of higher education and realize success are not available to all.

That’s why the DHE is committed to engaging in and supporting local, regional, and national efforts that support closing opportunity gaps for the most underrepresented student in higher education. Some of the strategies currently underway include:

• Working with our sister education agencies to develop goals and metrics (PK-16) by which the Commonwealth can measure progress and success in closing gaps along the continuum for LIM-MOC students;
• Identifying and maximizing current public policy initiatives and funding to enhance outcomes and to replicate and develop new research-based strategies;
• Serving as a connector and convener for public colleges and universities focused on advancing the success of LIM-MOC students; and
• Expansion of our Massachusetts-originated 100 Males to College (100MTC) initiative.

100 MTC Programs

Now operating in five locations, each program recruits and supports cohorts of up to 100 young people annually from local high school partners. 100MTC fosters success and higher education aspirations by providing support services, focused skills-building, and fostering of the habits of mind and practices that experience and research show can inspire and assure postsecondary attainment.

100MTC programs are committed to an identified set of outcomes and report this data to the MA Department of Higher Education on a yearly basis through a year-end report. 

Components

• Early College: Providing all students, if qualifying, with one or more of the following opportunities:
  • a course on student success competencies
  • dual enrollment course(s)
  • advanced placement (AP) course(s)
• Promotion of Positive Gender Identity:  Reflecting, with an intersectional lens, the various aspects of a student’s identity and those of others.
• Cohort-based model: Leveraging peer-to-peer support.
• Committed partners: Requiring secondary schools and at least one public community college and one public 4-year institution.
• Targeted supports: Offering students in the “moveable middle” support, knowledge, and competency development to succeed academically with the aid of comprehensive, wrap-around services.

The Department of Higher Education is currently working with partners in business, community and K-12 systems across the state to expand into other low-income districts.

For more information about how to start a 100MTC program in your community, contact Keith Connors at (617) 994-6911 or kconnors@dhe.mass.edu.

As of Fall 2018, there are five 100 Males to College programs in Massachusetts supported by the DHE Higher Education Innovation Fund, formerly known as the Performance Incentive Fund (PIF).

Other Campus Programs

There are numerous programs throughout Massachusetts supporting low income males and males of color. Below is a list of campus male student success programs underway at our public colleges and universities.

Berkshire Community College Men of Color Initiative
Contact: Colin Adams, Co-Coordinator

Bridgewater State University Men Integrated into Brotherhood (MIB)
Contact: Richardson Pierre-Louis, MIB Advisor

Bunker Hill Community College Halting Oppressive Pathways through Education (HOPE)
Contact: hope@bhcc.edu

Holyoke Community College ALANA Men in Motion Mentoring Program
Contact: Andrew Fletcher, Learning Resource Center Coordinator

Massachusetts Bay Community College Young Men of Color (YMOC)
Contact: Bill Raynor, Director of Athletics and YMOC Initiative

Massasoit Community College Ubuntu Scholars
Contact: Jeff Joseph, Director of Minority Mentorship Programs and First Year Experience

North Shore Community College M.A.L.E.S Mentor Program
Contact: Michele Cubelli Harris, NSCC Senior Special Program Coordinator  

Roxbury Community College Mentoring for Success
Contact: Elizabeth Clark, Coordinator for Student Activities

Salem State University Men of Color Success Initiative
Contact: Gail Gasparich, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences

Springfield Technical Community College Male Initiative for Leadership and Education (MILE )
Contact: James Lightfoot, Coordinator MILE (Male Initiative for Leadership and Education)

University of Massachusetts Amherst Men and Masculinities Center
Contact: Tom Schiff, Director, Men and Masculinities Center

University of Massachusetts Boston Ambitious Men Engaged in Necessary Dialogue (AMEND)
Contact: Liliana Mickle, Special Assistant to the Vice Provost, Academic Support Services & Undergraduate Studies