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A New Start:
Project SCOPE The New Year always brings hope – a fresh start – a new beginning – a definitive point in time when you can tackle an old problem with new vigor or start a Project with a finite deadline. Schools, however, work on a school year timeline, and the New Year is not quite half way through it. The good news is that we are already on a roll! That only adds to the wonder of the passing of another year, now firmly steeped in the events of the 21st century. At midpoint of our school year, Lawrence Public Schools and the Efficacy Institute are joining forces to embark upon a community campaign — Schools and Community Organizing for Proficiency in Education (S.C.O.P.E.). The sole purpose and only goal of PROJECT S.C.O.P.E. is academic proficiency for ALL students — defined as a student’s demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter, including subject matter knowledge, as well as application skills. What a student should know and be able to do. Putting it simply: Do they know it, and can they use it? Proficiency is also inextricable from a student’s strength of character. Strong character is grounded in the knowledge and truth of proper conduct, and results in young people choosing their actions out of a desire to have a constructive impact on their families and communities. The S.C.O.P.E. campaign will be built around three elements unique to the work of the Efficacy Institute. The first is Efficacy Training, which directly confronts the historical basis for low confidence in minority communities (the disabling idea of intellectual inferiority in people of color), and offers participants a basis for belief in their own capacities to achieve objectives with their children that are, in fact, quite achievable. Secondly, we build belief by presenting a credible and empowering “new” theory of development—that is based on effective effort—which becomes the basis for strong confidence. We also instruct people in a transformational method, which we have dubbed the Self-Directed Improve-ment System (SDIS), as a tool to analyze student performance data and construct strategies for improvement. The combination of debunking debili-tating ideas of inferiority and offering an effective approach to self-directed improvement is both liberating and motivating. The third is Perpetual Tech Transfer. The ultimate objective to the Lawrence S.C.O.P.E. campaign is a self-sustaining, institutional commitment to “proficiency into perpetuity.” By transferring the capacity and the competencies to deliver Efficacy Training, SDIS training, and coaching to community based organizations, elected officials, clergy, chief executives officers, private and public agencies, and all stakeholders. An investment in Lawrence’s S.C.O.P.E. campaign represents the acceptance of accountability by all the city leaders and stakeholders of public education for the academic and civic outcomes of our children. The Lawrence S.C.O.P.E. campaign will address high priority concerns for the city of Lawrence, with a focus on systemic reform in the public schools through a large-scale PROJECT of public engagement in improving children’s achievement to high level. The success of S.C.O.P.E. is dependent on five factors: Efficacy/Effective Effort, Community Summits, Family Involvement, Primary Role of Community, and Shared Responsibility. With all my heart, I wish everyone a Happy New Year! We are strengthened by the fact that our labor is not in vain and that we do make a difference. I am humbled and secure in the knowledge that the children of Lawrence will indeed reap the benefits of the collegial efforts of those who care. In the months ahead you will hear more about POJECT S.C.O.P.E. Stay tuned! You can email Superintendent Laboy at wlaboy@lawrence.k12.ma.us
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