Life Pieces To Masterpieces

In the broadest sense, LPTM strives to reach the goal of having 100% of our apprentices graduate high school and go on to secondary education as well as grow into responsible, intelligent, engaged gentlemen, scholars, artists, and athletes who are able to create their own destiny. Our boys and young men learn that they are part of a far-reaching community and are introduced and exposed to different cultures as global citizens. The goal of the LPTM human development system is to create positive, forward-thinking decision-makers who are able to overcome difficult situations. Our artistic system strives to allow our apprentices to release their emotions and experiences through artistic expression.

Specific program outcomes/objectives can be seen as independent measures (e.g., academic performance, social-emotional growth) and as intermediate outcomes in the process of developing into responsible, intelligent, engaged individuals able to create their own destiny and positively impact the lives of others. Outcomes incorporated within the most recently completed external evaluation (attached to this profile), include:

-- 40% of LPTM students will improve their Math and/or English Language Arts (ELA) grade during the 2020-2021 school year, as measured by the change in their grade between the first and last grading terms.

-- 25% of LPTM students will meet or exceed expectations in Math and/or ELA by April 2021, as measured by achieving levels 4 or 5 on the PARCC standardized assessment.

-- 40% of students will demonstrate increased engagement with learning, as measured by the Academic Engagement component of the S-EA and classroom observations, as well as anecdotal information from interviews with key staff at students’ day schools.

-- 40% of students will demonstrate social-emotional learning in one or more key domains, including socialization and relationships with their parents and other positive adults, as measured by the Social-Emotional Assessment (S-EA) and classroom observations.

In addition, the impact of the Color Me Community program that began in the 2021-2022 school year is being assessed through holistic social-emotional assessments of the students, surveys of their public school teachers, and feedback from the teachers themselves and school administration on the impact of the program on the teachers' instruction and classroom environment.

Additional organizational goals include:
-- Codifying and clarifying our teacher training process, including a teacher manual that provides specific guidance on the incorporation of HDS into all learning elements.
-- Expanding Color Me Community Education and Professional Development program within DCPS and into DC public charter school networks.

Life Pieces To Masterpieces’ work is based on the theory that any human being with a strong foundation (purpose, premise, and process) and the proper tools has the power to create his or her own destiny. Our Human Development System is a concrete set of beliefs that address the challenges that our young people and their families face through artistic expression, increased self-awareness, and positive decision-making. It is a proven system that has elevated our Apprentices to discover a more positive perspective focused on preparing for their own future and giving back to their communities.

The LPTM Shield of Faith, inspired by the color wheel, is a decision-making tool that reminds Apprentices, mentors, staff members, and volunteers of the core values of Life Pieces To Masterpieces. Each value is associated with a color, so that when an apprentice sees a particular color throughout the day, he is reminded of LPTM values. Values include loving, giving, language, arts, discipline, leadership, spirituality, and meditation. The Shield serves as a behavior management tool for the young boys; for the older boys, it is a jumping-off point for deeper discussions about values.

Our Process: LPTM 4 Cs
Life Pieces To Masterpieces employs the 4 Cs as part of our curriculum:

• Students CONNECT to themselves and to their classmates.
• They CREATE -- homework, artwork, and poems.
• They CONTRIBUTE -- sharing their work and their thinking with a greater community.
• And they CELEBRATE their successes.

The HDS and its expression through the 4 Cs are more than a program component. The HDS lives within each program component and guides each daily activity, including the Arts and Education Program, the Saturday Academy, the summer program, Color Me Community (both community and school-based components), and Art by Life Pieces. [Each program is described in detail in the prior discussion of programs.]

Two aspects distinguish LPTM from the great majority of programming for young Black men, and programming for youth in general:
1) Rather than being an intervention or a service delivered at a point in time, our boys and young men become part of the LPTM community, participating throughout their elementary and secondary school years and into college and university. Among our current staff, there are three men who literally grew up in the program.
2) Rather than attempting to teach the concepts of equity and inclusion (as many programs do, largely outside of the context of what it means in the daily lives of youth) in an effort to support change, LPTM youth and the adults who participate in Color Me Community become agents of change in their families, their communities, their workplace, and among their peers. These youth and adults ARE the change, carrying the principles of HDS into institutions built on inequity with traditional barriers to participation by people of color and those in low-income neighborhoods.

Our core expertise is in comprehensive youth development for African American boys and young men built upon the Human Development System. Our entire staff has received extensive training in the District of Columbia’s Advancing Youth Development (AYD) outcomes. Of these outcomes, we track self-efficacy, temporal orientation, safety and structure, and membership and belonging. Our curriculum is the vehicle through which our youth development outcomes are achieved. Our methodologies have been recognized by The Catalogue for Philanthropy since 2003, we have been featured in a book called Rhetorics for Community Action by Dr. Phyllis Ryder of George Washington University, and we are currently a finalist for the Mayor’s Arts Award in the Innovation in the Arts category.

Every staff member, teacher, volunteer & partner receives training in the LPTM HDS quarterly to understand who they are within the context of LPTM's mission, vision & activities. This ensures that all who touch our mission see themselves as contributing to the organizational culture through unique innate creative abilities that can contribute to the advancement of our mission, with a sense of equality and a partner connection with our boys & young men, with the understanding that our boys have gifts to share with them just as they have gifts to share with our boys. Staff also receive the tools necessary to build environments of love, security, & creative expression inside & outside the classroom.

In addition to our own internal training, we have several other resources to support staff & volunteers. By being located on the 4th floor of Dr. Charles R. Drew Elementary School, we are a partner with DCPS & have a valued relationship with the Office of Partner Engagement. Our LPTM youth, staff & volunteers have access to Drew's teacher training opportunities on-site, & we in turn provide training to the staff & administration at Drew. Another resource is our membership with DC Action for Children, which provides training opportunities & conducts advocacy on behalf of youth programs in the District. We also partner with DC Reads of American University, Education Pioneers, The George Washington University Neighbors Project, Maya Angelou Public Charter School, ARCH Development Organization, and The Washington and Lee University Shepherd Internship program.

Looking at th emost recent external evaluation:
ACADEMIC GROWTH
- 100% of our eligible students have graduated from high school and have been accepted to college or post-
secondary training.
- 11 of 22 students, or 50%, improved their Reading grade, exceeding the target of 40%.
- 12 OF 29 students, or 41%, improved their Math grade, just above the target.
- The percentage of students improving was higher for both Reading and Math than the target.
- The percentage of Apprentices demonstrating academic growth exceeded the target of 40% for all key factors
among Tree House and Legacy Apprentices.
- Across all groups, 48% or more of all Apprentices demonstrated growth in the key academic factors,
exceeding the target in each case.
OUTCOMES: ENGAGEMENT WITH LEARNING
- The percentage of Apprentices demonstrating engagement exceeded the target of 40% for both key factors
among Tree House and Legacy Apprentices. For Kings Apprentices, growth was just under the 40% target.
- Across all Apprentice groups, over half (52%) or more of all Apprentices demonstrated growth in all three
academic factors, exceeding the target in each case.
OUTCOME: ENGAGEMENT WITH LEARNING, SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL ASSESSMENT
- 56% more of Apprentices in all three groups indicated growth in their learning engagement, looking at the
combined average for the cluster of 7 factors measured. This exceeds the target of 40%.
- 64% or more of Apprentices in two of three groups indicated growth in their learning engagement, looking at the
combined average for the 8 factors measured. This exceeds the target of 40%. One group, Legacy, fell below the
target, but with 31% of Apprentices still showing growth.
- 74% or more of Apprentices in two of the three groups indicated possession of the cluster of the desired Social-
Emotional Assets, looking at the combined average for the 5 factors measured. For the Legacy group, an average
of 37% possessed the cluster of assets, approaching the target of 40%.

Additional outcomes are described in the Metric section, following.