Meaningful student involvement
From YRN
Meaningful Student Involvement is the process of engaging students in every facet of the educational process for the purpose of strengthening their commitment to education, community and democracy. Instead of simply listening to the often contrived collective student voice, Meaningful Student Involvement recognizes the unique knowledge, experience and perspective of each individual student.
Contents |
About
Meaningful Student Involvement might include students as education researchers, school planners, classroom teachers, systemic evaluators and students as education decision-makers. Meaningful Student Involvement might also engage students as advocates in the classroom or community, calling for better schools, relevant learning, meaningful relationships, and more.
In action
The following cycle of meaningful student involvement transforms student participation from passive, disconnected activities into a process promoting student achievement and school improvement. The Cycle of Meaningful Student Involvement is a continuous five-step process. It can be used to assess current activities, or to plan future programs. The following explanations provide more information about each step.
1. Listen – The first step is for the ideas, knowledge, experience, and opinions of students to be shared with adults.
2. Validate – Students are acknowledged as purposeful and significant partners who can and should hold themselves and their schools accountable.
3. Authorize – Students develop their abilities to meaningfully contribute to schools through skill-sharing, action planning, and strategic participation.
4. Act – Students and adults are partners in school improvement through a variety of methods (see Chapter 4).
5. Reflect – Together, adults and students examine what they have learned through creating, implementing, and supporting meaningful student involvement, including benefits and challenges. Reflections are then used to inform Step 1, Listen.
Individually, these steps may happen in schools; when they do happen, it is rare that these steps are connected with school improvement, and even less likely, connected with one another. This Cycle is meant to illustrate the interconnectedness of these steps, and to illustrate their necessity in making student involvement meaningful.
Examples
In Poughkeepsie, New York, high school students conducted research on their district’s budget crisis as part of a government class. After designing a survey for students on what should be included in next year’s school district budget, student researchers hand-tabulated and analyzed data from 596 completed surveys - over half the student body. District board members then had student-created data from that survey to highlight exactly what students thought should be included in next year’s school district budget. When the Board of Education passed its budget for the coming school year, they introduced an unprecedented line item: $25,000 for “student-led initiatives.†Source
A public alternative high school in Bothell, Washington recently engaged more than 100 students in a new school planning process. A team of student facilitators led a school-wide forum, developed a report from their findings, and shared the report with the whole student body, with teachers, and with the local school district. In response to their findings, students are invited to join the formal school planning team, and their findings will be incorporated in new school plans, including school facilities, teaching practices, and decision-making processes. Source
Many schools are increasingly relying on students to provide training to teachers in a variety of areas, including technology and service learning. In a program called Generation YES located in Olympia, Washington, students across the United States are receiving credit for helping teachers learn how to use complicated hardware and software in their classrooms. An alternative school in Washington State recently had students conduct an in-service for teachers across their district on service learning. Source
In 2003, high school students in Oakland, California, designed and collected 1,000 report card surveys evaluating teaching, counseling, school safety and facilities at three local high schools. They compiled their findings, analyzed the results, and made concrete recommendations in an exciting, comprehensive report. The introduction to the report states, “There are 48,000 youth in Oakland’s schools that are experts – who are in class every day and who have a lot to say about how the schools are run and how to improve our education… [E]veryone wants to hear from the teachers and parents - but what about the students? Who asks our opinion? Why do we feel shut out, like no one cares what we think?†Source
A fifth-grade teacher in Salt Lake City, Utah, tells the story of her students in her elementary classroom. These young advocates have helped their elementary school reconstruct its library by researching, brainstorming, fundraising, giving speeches, lobbying, writing proposals and receiving local, state and federal support. Their efforts led to brand-new facilities and classes, flexible scheduling for increased library use, and a comprehensive technology system including a computer center and computers in every classroom.
A group of students in the Bronx, New York, have decided to start a school focusing on social justice and community leadership. Sistas and Brothas United worked to improve their own schools for several years. They rallied and researched, and as one student said, “[We] got a lot of stuff fixed.†The students are flexing their power in another direction now as they have begun working with the local school district and a coalition of organizations to start a new high school, called the Leadership Institute for Social Justice. [www.whatkidscando.org/bronxbooklet.pdf Source]
External links
- SoundOut - Promoting meaningful student involvement in school change
- What Kids Can Do, Inc.
- Project 540 - Students Turn for a Change
- At The Table - Youth in Decision-Making
