MyScore - Empowering Student Voices in Self-Relational Practices

We address the issue of students who live inside a story that tells them they are "dumb", "losers", "kids with no future." Such students who face daunting internal obstacles to learning that often reflect their external circumstances of being victims of poverty, racism, struggling minority status or trauma. Emphasizing better grades does not address the underlying cause of their failure to achieve because it does not address their fundamental lack of self-belief. MyScore is a new instrument to address this.

Paul Costello is a Taos Associate and an international educator who has worked in Ireland, South Africa and Israel-Palestine as well as his native Australia. Currently he runs a local AmeriCorps education program focused on the Social Emotional needs of students in the local school district who are recent immigrants, refugees or other under-served minorities. The program uses the narrative method and is developing an innovative instrument called MyScore. paul@storywise.com

Akufuna Ngonda is a member of project CHANGE Montgomery, currently serving the AmeriCorps Sligo Middle School program and the George B. Thomas Learning Academy’s Saturday School Program. She has over 18 years of youth mentoring experience in a faith-based organization, in civil society organizations and also with the private sector. Her expertise is in the logical framework approach, instructional design methodology, project monitoring and evaluation of education systems. asngonda@gmail.com