As more districts consider a systems-wide approach to student voice, Chicago Public Schools and Washoe County School District in Reno, Nev., stand out as leaders in the field. ASCD spoke to Cristina Salgado, the student voice specialist for Chicago Public Schools, and Michelle Hammond, the student voice coordinator in the Washoe County Office of Accountability, about what drives their work.
What prompted your district's investment in student voice?
Salgado: In the past, school and district decisions were made for students, not with them. Now, our mission is to ensure student voice is at the center of school improvement, visioning, and decision making at the district and school level. We can't take on "big problems" like attendance and behavior without asking students to play a role. We want students at the table and with a mic.
How do you address barriers to student voice?
Salgado: First, by creating systems and structures for student voice, like our school-based Student Voice Committees. We have curriculum, grants, student-led events, and training for adult facilitators to support schools in this effort. Second, adult training is key, and we focus on things that lead to shifts in instructional practice, like training in adultism. Our training and events help educators reflect on their own biases, realize youth leadership roles, and shift educator mindsets. Participants say, "You're right, from the minute students come to school, we're telling them what to do. We're not creating the environments to tap into what students think and want for their community." Our trainings aim to change that.
Hammond: For decades, our education system has functioned in a way where students are reactive agents and adults hold all the power and knowledge. Students show up for school and wait for adults to tell them what to do. When you embed student voice practices into your school system, it changes all of this! Students become proactive in their own educational journey and teachers start to view themselves as cofacilitators of the learning process. It's a huge paradigm shift and we address this with a lot of professional learning and coaching. I spend a lot of time in trainings pausing to talk about teachers' beliefs regarding students. Once we shift the way we see and value students, practices that honor student voices will naturally occur.
Your districts take pride in the diversity of your student leaders. How do you get so many students interested in leadership?
Salgado: We do a lot of training [with students and educators] on traditional and nontraditional student leaders, with the message that we need all students to see themselves as leaders. As communities, we have to stop picking that same student and saying, "You're an awesome student—you go represent us!" There are students who may not have the best grades but have a lot to say about school. Those are the students you want to engage because school is not working for them.
Hammond: Kids can identify, "Yeah we don't have the kids who aren't at school all the time or aren't engaged in extracurricular activities." Then we work with kids to come up with strategies to recruit those nontraditional leaders. Not all students are interested in fundraising and planning school dances, but when you start talking about sitting with your principal to make decisions about your own educational experiences, a lot more kids come to the table.
We use a combination of random selection and strategic staff recruitment to make sure we have kids who struggle with behavior, attendance, or grades, and kids from different cultural backgrounds and genders participating in leadership. When you gather diverse groups of students, you get stories unlike those the data can tell us.
In what ways have students led reforms in your district's schools?
Salgado: Students have led PD on teaching and learning practices they want to see applied in the classroom—for example, instituting protocols to create a classroom culture where students give teachers feedback on curriculum and instruction. Students led reforms to the schedule during finals week. They said, we need more time to reflect, debrief, and study. Now, instead of several exams in one day, students have one or two and the rest of the day is for teacher feedback on their exam or for studying.
Students are shifting health and nutrition policies so that we accommodate home-cooked meals, provide microwaves, and access to clean water just like the filtered water stations on university campuses. I wish you could be at these meetings where our students are making connections between access to water and academics by pointing out how dehydration leads to a lack of learning and focus.
Hammond: Student voice begins in PreK and some of our most exciting school projects have come from elementary schools. We've had elementary-level student voice advisories focus on cleaning up the playground or improving school lunch options. In one elementary school, teachers worked with students to examine school behavior data (using simple pie charts) and identified the playground as a problem area. Students were integral in the plan to improve experiences on the playground. When the school showed the kids data months later that reflected a reduction in problematic behaviors on the playground, it was exciting to them because they were a part of it. One boy pointed to the data and said, "We did that!" while others were like, "Okay, what other problems can we solve?"
Another exciting thing that recently happened at the district-level was a change in the district's dress code policy following a session at our annual student-led symposium. Students talked about inequities in our current dress code policy and got the attention of our legal department who helped them come up with proposed changes that were later approved.
Students Speak: Our Voices Are Valued
Students from Chicago Public Schools describe how amplifying student voice improves their experiences in school. |
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| I feel like I'm seen and valued for more than my GPA or standardized test scores. School becomes less of an environment full of stress and endless expectations and more like a community where you're welcomed, listened to, and cared for. —Crystal |
| I feel more confident in school, whether in joining extracurricular activities or taking risks in class. I feel more inclined to stand up against prejudice because I know I have trusted adults who will support me. I participate more in class and encourage others to advocate for themselves. Seeing the joy on my classmates' faces when they finally feel heard inspires me to continue creating outlets for them to find their voice and make the change they want to see in the world. —Tri Ho |
| When I know everyone's voice is important and backed up, it makes me feel like the school really does care for its students and not just the ones with high grades or status from popularity or sports. As a community, our school is stronger when everyone can contribute. —Daniel |
| I know I am not the only one learning, that teachers and adult allies are learning alongside me. —Nicole |
| I don't feel separated. I feel empowered to be bold and speak how I feel. —Noel |
| I feel a sense of eagerness to prioritize those students who feel like their voice is not at the decision-making table. —Anely |
| I've gone to two separate high schools in the last three years. At my first high school, every time I voiced an opinion it was shut down or I was told that it was invalid. This made me feel unsafe, uncomfortable, and like I was not worthy of my own ideas. When I voice an opinion at my current school, administrators, teachers, staff, and peers all listen, throw in their own ideas, and we work together to make our school a better place. —Alicia |
| I feel confident in sharing more during class, as well as asking questions if I am unsure about a topic, without the fear of being judged. —Guadalupe |
Your districts host annual, student-led conferences. What are some of the big themes at these events?
Salgado: Students have general "how to be a leader" workshops but also break off into subtopics like how to lead an effective meeting with the principal, understanding school systems and structures, youth participatory research, and how to navigate external and internalized oppression. Identity is a huge topic. Students say, "We learn about everything and everyone else, but we don't ever learn about ourselves in school." Our students also lead workshops at our Principal Leadership Conference on ways to meaningfully engage student voices for school improvement.
Hammond: Last year, the topics at our Strength in Voices symposium were 100 percent student-selected and student-led, and included sessions on SEL, mental health awareness, school climate and inclusion, bullying, learning styles, art as a form of student voice, and equity in dress code policy and enforcement.
Students also wanted to create a space at every school where they could collect data on student voice. They came up with "student voice walls"—a visible place where voice team members could post a prompt and gather diverse perspectives. One school's prompt simply read, "What does student voice mean to you?" Students can anonymously post sticky notes that represent their ideas.
What advice do you have for educators working to embrace student voice?
Hammond: Often, when I talk to schools, the adults will say, "Oh yeah, we listen to students all the time." When we talk about student voice it's not just about listening. It's about really including and valuing students as active change agents. I think that's such a huge shift and takes time. Our instinct as adults is to take control when things get challenging. That balance of being able to scaffold for students—just like we would do to support learning—is important. Start simply by being more mindful of how you listen to students and what you do with the information they give you.
Salgado: We need to make better use of quantitative data. Student voice impacts attendance, behavior, and academics, but we're not really tracking that connection. When educators value student voice, students invest in their school and culture. School shifts from something "I go to" to something "I am a part of." If you care about educational equity then student voice is the foundational ingredient for creating change.
