A better chance

Ever since schooling became a right to African Americans, there has been an extreme disparity between the quality of education of predominantly black areas in America vs white. In the 1960’s, segregated black schools received significantly less funding and staffing than their white counterparts. Following the end of segregation, there was still less opportunity for black communities. In 1962, 23 headmasters from the New England area gathered to discuss how to combat poverty and the racial divide in schools. Through their discussion, they determined that the best solution to combat poverty was to improve the quality of students’ educations (A Better Chance). These schools began an unofficial program, in which if students could pass an exam, they would be admitted to this school to provide a better education for the students. Years later, a program called A Better Chance was founded in 1963 as part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War On Poverty effort (A Better Chance). The purpose of the organization was similar to the idea of the headmasters plan from years before, and now received government funding from the E. Merrill Trust. The School Talent Search Committee began to search for overachieving students in impoverished areas. They would then place these students in preparatory schools, with the hope that they would later attend college. Their mission statement is as follows: "Our mission is to increase substantially the number of well-educated young people of color who are capable of assuming positions of responsibility and leadership in American society" (A Better Chance).

Masconomet adopted the ABC program in 1974. The Masconomet chapter ran as an independent non-profit under the larger A Better Chance organization. Students from impoverished areas of New York City, including Queens, the Bronx, and Harlem, were brought to the Tri-town and lived together in a house located at 40 South Main Street, Topsfield (O’Brien). There were around 6 students that came to Masco every year to participate in this program, many of which were the first to attend college in their entire family. The ABC program was a great success at Masconomet for many years, but heading into the 2000’s, it began to lose traction (Lewis). The reason for this was because the program took a large amount of resources, most notably, volunteers. They were needed for every aspect of the program, from tutoring the students, driving them to their everyday events, directing the whole organization, and more (O’Brien). There was simply not enough community participation to keep up with the needs of the program. The 2011-2012 school year saw the last class of ABC students at Masco, and after that the program shut down.