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Future Kings and Math Mastery Movement pitch STEM and math coaching for Petersburg students
Summary
Presenters from Future Kings and Math Mastery Movement urged the Petersburg City School Board to partner on after-school and Saturday STEM and math programs focused on boys of color, teacher coaching and workforce pathways; presenters outlined results, estimated program costs and asked the district to explore a contract and funding options.
Pastor Leonard Davis, Dr. Eric King and visiting educators urged the Petersburg City School Board on July 15 to consider a formal partnership between the district and Future Kings, a STEM-focused mentoring and workforce-preparation program, paired with Math Mastery Movement’s teacher-coaching model.
Assata Moore, introduced as a mathematician and former school principal, said district math data are troubling and argued that tools alone — curricula or devices — have not raised scores. ‘‘It is teacher content knowledge, teacher pedagogy,’’ she said, urging sustained coaching so teachers can teach deep conceptual mathematics rather than procedural shortcuts.
Demaria Scathe, chief operating officer of Math Mastery Movement, described classroom-level results from other districts and said focused coaching can move low-performing cohorts toward proficiency. She gave an example of a third-grade group that moved from 0% to 33% proficiency after a year of targeted instruction and coaching.
Dr. Eric King, Future Kings’ executive director, framed the program as a three-part workforce pathway: advanced STEM training, workplace protocols and soft skills. He said the program surrounds students with mentors and community supports and presented alumni who testified to college and career outcomes; King also said that students who participate at least two years in their program show high graduation outcomes (the presenters described a claimed 100% graduation rate for students in the program two years or longer).
Board members asked about scheduling, recruitment and cost. King said Future Kings can customize a model for Petersburg and typically runs both after-school and Saturday cohorts; he cited a common after-school cohort cost of about $15,000 per school-year cohort and suggested some intensive Saturday instructional options have per-student costs in higher ranges (presenters said an instructional figure of about $4,500 per student was used in other sites). He said local funding sources often include school budgets, grants and business partners, and that the group could help locate grant support.
Several board members recommended a follow-up meeting with district leadership. The superintendent’s designee was asked to arrange a meeting between the presenters and the superintendent’s team to map goals, staffing and any contract terms before the group returns to the board.
What happens next: Presenters and the board agreed to schedule a meeting with district leadership to review goals, staffing, data alignment and potential funding before any formal contract is considered.
