Examining the Impact of a Unique Early-Intervention Academic Program on 250 Inner-City Children

by Westina Matthews, PhD.

In 1988, Merrill Lynch promised 250 randomly selected, predominantly Black inner-city first graders -- the Class of 2000 -- in 10 cities across the United States (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.) that if they graduated from high school and enrolled in college, the company would pay the entire cost of their higher education or technical training.

WESTINA MATTHEWS, PHD., retired from Merrill Lynch after 24 years with the title of managing director, reflecting broad experience in business development, education, community relations, philanthropy, and diversity.

TTHOSE WHO FINISHED high school and chose instead to enter full-time employment or the military, would receive a onetime stipend. Merrill Lynch partnered with the National Urban League (NUL) and 10 Urban League affiliates to administer the program, which was called ScholarshipBuilder.

Twelve years later – in the year 2000 – more than 90 percent of this special cohort graduated and 95 percent of that cohort reported planning to go on to college, trade schools or military service. In 2019, a small team of former Merrill Lynch employees joined with the National Urban League to begin a search for these students and determine the long-term impact of this program.

Background Although ScholarshipBuilder was developed in the spirit of other tuition-guaranteed programs that have funded college costs for inner-city children, this program was unique in several important respects: children were identified in the first grade; the scope of 250 children in 10 cities; parent and teacher involvement; and the dedicated support provided by the National Urban League and 10 of its affiliates.

In the selection process, “random” meant different things in different cities. In Los Angeles, a pre-requisite was that students had participated in Head Start, and a computer was used to randomly identify the Scholars. In New York City, an intact first-grade class met the criteria and was selected. In Philadelphia, the names of all first-graders in one elementary school were put into a hat and 25 names were drawn during an assembly in the auditorium. Based on Dr. Ronald Edmonds’ classic research in “Effective Schools, for the Urban Poor” (Edmonds, 1979), the original intention was for one school to be selected in each city – but in Miami, Scholars were picked from eight schools.

In some cities, the Scholars were kept together in the same class through the third grade. In Boston, under a court order to desegregate, the Scholars were bussed to schools outside their own community. Elsewhere, by the time these students reached high school, several of the full-time coordinators had already located an office in the school to allow for ready access by the Scholars.

Supported by Merrill Lynch volunteers as well as parents, guardians, mentors, and school personnel, the Scholars were surrounded by a cocoon of encouragement and support – including tutoring, mentoring, emergency financial support for the family, and cultural enrichment – as they wound their way through elementary, middle and high schools.

Unanswered Questions The lapse in tracking the ScholarshipBuilder students after the year 2000 left some important unanswered questions. Among them:

How many ScholarshipBuilder graduates actually made it through college? What careers did they take up, and how successful were they? What were their dreams, and did they achieve them? How were their personal lives affected? Where are they today, and how are they faring? Are there long-term lessons that can be drawn, and do they offer tangible solutions for current and future generations?

Study Team Five years ago, a small team of former Merrill Lynch employees – Dr. Westina Matthews, retired Managing Director, originator and chief architect of the program; Paul Critchlow, retired Vice Chairman and former President of the Merrill Lynch Foundation; and Richard Meier, original videographer for the ScholarshipBuilder program – joined with the National Urban League to begin a search for these students. The three principal researchers had been involved with the program itself since its very inception in 1988. Joining the team later was Thomas Milligan, former head of Merrill Lynch Employee Communications.

This follow-up study was entirely funded by generous personal donations, from former and current Merrill Lynch employees, Urban League participants, the students themselves and many interested individuals.

Sample Unfortunately, due to damage sustained by Merrill Lynch World Headquarters during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the company’s subsequent acquisition by Bank of America, ScholarshipBuilder records were either destroyed or lost. With information gleaned with the help of the National Urban League and a Facebook page created by ScholarshipBuilder alums, Matthews and Meier traveled to eight of the 10 cities (Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Washington, D.C.) and interviewed 65 students, parents, volunteers and staff. A total of 187 (including five deceased) members of the original cohort of 250 were located, either through direct contact with the Scholar or confirmation of their status from another Scholar, a parent or former Urban League/ Merrill Lynch participant.

In 2000, it was determined that 90% (225) of the ScholarshipBuilder cohort of 250 graduated from high school. Based on the survey as well as interviews, at least another 16 Scholars were identified as having graduated from high school or having earned a GED by 2000. This placed the overall graduation rate at 96% -- six percentage points higher than the original 90% as of 2000.

An online survey was completed by 83 of the Scholars. This represented 46% of the 182 located, surviving Scholars, a statistically significant representative sample.

Overview of Findings Among the results:

In 2000, 90 percent graduated from high school (vs. an approximate 48 percent in the peer group). 88 percent of the graduating cohort entered some form of post-secondary education, vocational training or the military (vs. an estimated 55 percent among peers). 66 percent chose four-year colleges, 16 percent community/ two-year colleges and 6 percent vocational training. 84 percent of the graduating cohort completed some form of post-secondary education (vs. estimates ranging from 21 percent for urban graduates to 40 percent for all Black students graduating from high school). 34 percent earned bachelor’s degrees, 24 percent master’s degrees, 11 percent associate degrees, 2 percent doctorates, and 13 percent technical college or training. At the time of the study, 93 percent were employed full-time.

Lessons Learned Twenty years after this Class of 2000 Scholars graduated from high school, 15 lessons were identified as worthy of attention by those contemplating other early-intervention college prep programs for inner-city students. Perhaps the most important lesson was the power of persistence.

The traditional expectation for young people entering college is that they will graduate within four to six years. For many of the Scholars, it took longer. Life circumstances (e.g., illness, unplanned pregnancy, family obligations) interrupted their timetables but most persevered to eventually achieve degrees. Unquestionably, one of the transcendent achievements of ScholarshipBuilder was to plant the seed that, with persistence, they could do anything.

Conclusion November 22, 2020 marked the 32nd anniversary of the launch of ScholarshipBuilder. On launch day in 1988, 250 inner-city first graders stood before family, friends, teachers and principals and in unison spoke this pledge: “Come the year 2000, I will graduate from high school and I will go to college."

To commemorate this anniversary, a virtual reunion was held for the Scholars, their families, and Merrill Lynch and Urban League staff and volunteers. Hosted by the ScholarshipBuilder Study and Reunion Project, the full report was released as well as a 30-minute documentary film, “A Chance to Win”2 (Meir, 2020).

The final report, “The ScholarshipBuilder Children of 1988: How They Fared, Examining the Impact of a Unique Early-Intervention Academic Program on 250 Inner-City Children”3 (Matthews and Critchlow, 2020) documents how the ScholarshipBuilder students fared; provides lessons learned for organizations contemplating such a program, and includes individual profiles of 27 of the students.

Brief profiles for 27 Scholars are included at the end of the report. You will meet: Shanita, who graduated from her Washington, D.C., high school a year early and was first of the Scholars to enter college; Niema of Philadelphia, an NAIA track and field championship sprinter who today is an author, educator, and meditation coach; Chantelle of Houston who is a teacher in the same elementary school she attended; and Joseph, an executive chef on the West Coast.

Also found were a firefighter, a barber, a champion bodybuilder, a rapper and a comedian as well as entrepreneurs, educators, health-care specialists, pharmacists, photographers, social workers, full-time mothers, and government employees, among so many other professions. Many are now parents themselves, deeply engaged in the education of their own children, and “paying it forward” in other ways in their own communities.

Edmund’s story begins two years after becoming a ScholarshipBuilder, when he witnessed his mother being killed, an innocent victim of gang violence. While in high school, his younger brother died of bone cancer and Edmund was diagnosed with Lupus. Although he barely earned a diploma, his participation in the ScholarshipBuilder program enabled him to attend a residential junior college. Slowed down by kidney failure and dialysis, it took him four years to complete the associate degree program. Ten years later, after working part-time and going to school part-time, he finally graduated from college (paid by Merrill Lynch), had a kidney transplant, got married, and earned his master’s degree in guidance counseling.

When asked what kept him going, he responded: “Because when I was in the first grade, I was told that I was a Scholar.”

ScholarshipBuilder is a program about much more than money. Thirty-two years after the initial launch, when asked what ScholarshipBuilder meant to them, many Scholars openly shed tears. Heard repeatedly was that ScholarshipBuilder created a family. This program provided for them not only an opportunity but a sense of confidence that, with the support of the ScholarshipBuilder family, they could overcome any personal circumstance to achieve their dreams.

Notes:

1 – Edmonds, R. (1979). ‘Effective Schools for the Urban Poor’, Educational Leadership, vol. 37, no. 1, pp.1518, 20-24. 2 – Meier, R. (Producer and Director). A Chance to Win (Documentary), ScholarshipBuilder Study and Reunion Project. Available from https://scholarshipbuildernow.org. 3 – Matthews, W. and Critchlow, P. (2020). The ScholarshipBuilder Children of 1988: How They Fared. The ScholarshipBuilder Study and Reunion Project. Available from https://scholarshipbuildernow.org.