Grade Power

As Tony Mauro bounded off the final step of the Michigan State University graduation stage, his mind reeled at what he had just accomplished.

Growing up in his Detroit high school wasn’t easy. His blue-collar family encouraged him to attend college, but he said it wasn’t natural for him or anyone in his family. He struggled with grades and personal academic insecurity throughout school, but as he entered his junior year, something in him changed.

“It was like a light bulb went off,” Mauro said.

Then school began making sense to Mauro as he saw it in a new way and began to appreciate the importance of learning. It was those realizations that would lead him to eventually become who he is today.

On his birthday this year, Mauro quit his job at Compass Bank to start a new learning center called Grade Power. He prioritized his life to follow this new calling, and the center opened in June.

Grade Power is modeled after the Canada-based Oxford Learning Center created by R.N. Whitehead in 1984. Oxford Learning resolves learning issues through building the blocks of knowledge.

Whitehead believes most learning disabilities are diagnoses in students who might not actually have disabilities or academic weaknesses but simply a “cognitive disconnect.” His program teaches problem-solving, active learning, information seeking and retention of material.

That philosophy was the part that sold Mauro. It would allow students like him to stop considering themselves the problem.

Grade Power’s method is not the classic modes of repetition, but locating the fundamental learning issues. Instead of teaching how, Mauro and his team try to create a knowledge base. Their programs extend past facts and main ideas to help students understand why they should care and what effect it would have on them.

“We go about developing the learning skills, the learning awareness and also the academic skills concurrently so that the student, in short order, understands what they know,” Mauro said. “If the student isn’t grasping a particular concept, they’re more conscious of why they’re not and what information they need to seek to help it make sense or help them make the connection. They just become more self-sufficient as learners.”

The goal at Grade Power is developing students so they eventually don’t need a teacher. Mauro said the Grade Power method changes a student’s perspective, and it’s all the motivation he needs.

His role isn’t to act as a qualified teacher but an educator. He works everyday, arrives before and after business hours and loves what he does.

To Mauro, working isn’t work, it’s a mission. His role in students’ success validates the struggles of his schooldays.

“It’s like watching magic,” he said.

Mauro now works with 15 children out of his Village at Lee Branch store front and plans to accommodate 150.

“At the end of the day, it’s about hope for them,” Mauro said. “There is a plan for me, and there is hope for me. It’s just a matter of building and helping them become aware of the fact that they acquiring these skills. I can’t wait for these kids to go into the school year with what they’re picking up.”