Defining educational success in the Laval region

Since its founding in 2017, le Regroupement lavallois pour la réussite éducative (RLPRE) has been engaging stakeholders from various fields around student retention and educational success. With collaboratively designed projects that bring people together, like the “I’m Getting Ready for Kindergarten” readiness tools, the “Hooked on School Days” retention campaign and the “Lire, ça se vit!” literacy campaign, the RLPRE has thus far attracted more than 175 committed members from 108 distinct organizations.

The young association recently adopted a shared definition of educational success, to promote better understanding of its mission and generate awareness of everyone’s shared responsibility in ensuring the success of Laval’s young and old alike. The definition was developed and adopted following a collective process involving partners from the many areas involved in the issues of student retention and educational success. In the fall of 2018, online consultations were followed by a joint action forum where a draft definition was debated and refined. The final version, reworked based on the discussions held during the forum, was adopted this past March by the RLPRE Board of Directors, and reads as follows:

Educational success is a shared responsibility requiring the support of all members of society. Educational success means developing people’s life skills, knowledge, expertise and abilities for the duration of their entire lives. It demands environments that are conducive to each person developing their potential on every level—physical, intellectual, emotional, social and moral—so that they can live fulfilling personal, social and professional lives and in so doing contribute fully to the development of society.

The RLPRE hopes that this inclusive definition will enable its members and partners as well as the public to acknowledge the importance of their roles in educational success and to identify themselves as agents of change with meaningful power to act. Through this definition, stakeholders can also realize that they belong to an extensive network of individuals committed to educational success, whose efforts have complementary and cumulative effects. In this way, the RLPRE hopes that the definition will be an instrument that generates broader and more diverse engagement around this issue of concern to all Laval’s residents. Because there are multiple factors influencing optimum development, each person depends on the contributions of many others at various moments in their life to reach their full potential.

“This vision of educational success is proof that the RLPRE is doing meaningful work,” explains RLPRE Coordinator Johanne Mc Millan. “Our mission consists precisely in supporting the development of joint, inter-sector initiatives with the goal of creating the best conditions for educational success.” To ensure ongoing dialogue on the subject and promote networking, collaboration and joint action among stakeholders, the RLPRE offers workshops and is developing an animated video as a communications tool.

Adoption of this new definition was a fundamental objective for this young association as well as a mandate entrusted to it pursuant to the action plan of the City of Laval’s Regional Social Development Policy (Politique régionale de développement social). Acknowledging the RLPRE’s key role in joint action and mobilization in support of educational success, the Policy partners asked it to develop a shared definition for the region.