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Students use the QFT process to determine their top questions they want answered in an upcoming unit. 

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Students use the QFT process to determine their top questions they want answered in an upcoming unit. 

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Developed by the Right Question Institute, the Question Formulation Technique, or QFT, is a structured method for generating and improving questions. It distills sophisticated forms of divergent, convergent, and metacognitive thinking into a deceptively simple, accessible, and reproducible technique.

The QFT builds the skill of asking questions, an essential - yet often overlooked - lifelong learning skill that allows people to think critically, feel greater power and self-efficacy, and become more confident and ready to participate in civic life.

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What is the QFT? - Right Question Institute

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The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is a simple but rigorous step-by-step process designed to help […]

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There is a fear that given the agency to set classroom guidelines, students won't take them seriously, like demanding everyday to be ice cream day or asking to install a classroom water slide. However, according to Lifshitz, students come up with thoughtful ways to coexist in the classroom alongside their classmates with the right scaffolding.

It took a while for her class vision activity to evolve into what it is today. When she first started doing the activity, she didn't do a lot leading up to it. "On the first day, I just asked the kids what did they want from their classmates and what did they want from their teacher?" says Lifshitz. She was surprised to see that her students' voices still seemed missing from the final product. "I often still ended up with that same list of rules that I would have written on my own," she says. "It wasn't doing what I needed it to do, what I wanted it to do or what kids deserved for it to do." Her attempt at encouraging student agency felt "hokey," like she was just going through the motions of collaboration without actually getting to the core of what they needed from her or what they needed from each other.

To make more room for authentic collaboration, Lifshitz began to start the school year with a conversation about rules. She wanted learners to think critically about how rules work in the world outside of their school, where rules come from and why we might choose to follow them or not follow them.

She gives students prompts to think through as a class while she takes notes of the questions and comments that come up during the discussion. First, students are asked to define a rule. Next, she'll ask students if they should follow rules. Then, she'll ask why students need to follow rules. She says at this point, most students feel as if they can predict where the line of questioning is going, which is why some collaborative rule setting activities, like the ones she initially tried out, didn't work.

When they deliberate on the next question, she says there's a shift in the room: Are there other rules that treat people unfairly? In response, students bring up the Civil Rights Movement and specific moments in history where rules were used to treat groups of people unfairly . Together they talk through the distinction between injustice from unequal access and things that just seem unfair like an older sibling having a later bedtime.

Sometimes she'll read " The Wedding Portrait'' by Innosanto Nagara or " with her class to provide more examples of when and why one should break rules. The class eventually arrives at a collective decision that rules are not the best way to express what kind of classroom they are hoping to build together. The Library Lion " by Michelle Knudsen

"From there, we then shift to this idea that maybe what we need is a vision that allows us all to thrive. That shifts us to this conversation around creating a class vision statement."

Core Questions For Visioning

Lifshitz and her students use four core questions to help them think about how their class environment enables everyone to be their full self and learn in the best way possible. The core questions are:

What do you need from this physical space?

What do you need from yourself?

What do you need from the people learning around you?

What do you need from the people teaching you?

"I didn't want to use words like 'classmates' and 'teachers,'" says Lifshiftz. "I really wanted to reinforce that idea that depending on what moment it is we are all learners and we are all teachers in different ways."

Lifshitz uses a multimodal approach to invite kids to think through the questions and make sure she has engagement from all of her students. She starts with Jamboard so kids can individually consider and record their answers to each question.

"I have found that when we do these activities and solely rely on verbal conversation, that tends to privilege certain students." she says, referring to students that are more extroverted. "I wanted to make sure that there was space for my more quiet students, more introverted students, [and] students who maybe verbal processing isn't a strength of theirs."

For students who benefit from thinking things over with peers, Lifshitz also makes room for them to work together in small groups to discuss each question. She'll circle the classroom while taking notes and then engage the whole class in a discussion.

Using a big piece of chart paper divided into four sections and labeled with the four core questions, she writes down their themes and ideas, leaving space for students to verbally add anything they didn't surface in their groups.

Each section forms the basis of the class vision statement, which Lifshitz types up and shares with students to review. "I show them our draft of the vision statement and allow them to leave notes on paper copies of what they think we're missing." When students are done with their revisions, she uploads the finalized vision to Google classroom so her entire class has access to it.

Addressing Challenges

In a time where many students are transitioning back to learning in school buildings, having authentic input from her students to co-create a class vision has helped Lifshitz understand students' needs.

"It's really important to me that I adjust my teaching in those first few days to meet my kids where they are," she says. "Making sure this process is collaborative and hearing from my kids what they need in this moment really allows me to do that in a way that I couldn't if it wasn't collaborative."

For example, this year, Lifshitz's learners talked about needing a calm environment more than they had in past years. Kids also expressed desires regarding the classroom that she couldn't meet such as wanting more flexibility in the physical space.

"A lot of that had to be taken away last year as social distancing became so very important in keeping our kids healthy and alive and well" says Lifshitz. "They missed having the flexibility of working in a spot that felt comfortable to them or moving around the room when they needed to."

Co-creating a classroom vision has also given her students the opportunity to grow in a way that a strict set of rules might not have. She says students in one of her classes used to push and shove each other as they raced into the room to pick out the seats they wanted. Lifshitz was worried they were going to hurt each other and was also concerned that certain kids were feeling left out if other students did not want to sit next to them. Her first thought was to take away the ability for students to choose their own seats. Instead, she took time with her class to revisit their vision.

"The issue [was that] our actions weren't making everyone feel included," says Lifshitz. As they looked through their class vision, they assessed whether they were living into their expectations. They were able to have conversations about their intention and impact: even though students were just wanting to sit next to their friends, the impact was that other students were feeling excluded. When they recognized that they were straying from their class vision, several students noticeably changed their behavior.

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How student-led vision statements can nurture school community - MindShift

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There is a fear that given the agency to set classroom guidelines, students won't take them seriously, like demanding everyday to be ice cream day or asking to install a classroom water slide. However, according to Lifshitz, students come up with thoughtful ways to coexist in the classroom alongside their classmates with the right scaffolding.

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Student partners/ pairs use the Thinking Routine: Praise, Polish, Ponder to give feedback to each other's writing

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Student partners/ pairs use the Thinking Routine: Praise, Polish, Ponder to give feedback to each other's writing

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Student groups self-assess their participation and contribution to the team task. 

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Student groups self-assess their participation and contribution to the team task. 

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students engage with people outside the classroom at the beginning, middle, and end of a project to hear stories that relate to the problem context, receive guidance on the technical aspects of the content they are learning, and ask questions.

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students engage with people outside the classroom at the beginning, middle, and end of a project to hear stories that relate to the problem context, receive guidance on the technical aspects of the content they are learning, and ask questions.

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Project-Based Learning (PBL)

The closer project-based learning comes to the messy, complicated problems of our world today, the more students benefit.

Frances Roberts / Alamy Stock Photo

In March 2020, I faced a number of challenges as a school superintendent. Earlier in the month, I had read about a virus that was sweeping the world, and while American schools had not shuttered, the challenge seemed both eminent and far off.

I was never given one problem but was presented with a number of problem situations in which I and my team needed to derive key questions that drove our decision-making.

The problems we faced continued to change, requiring us to go back and learn new content, prepare for multiple contingencies, and communicate up-to-date information and our plans for multiple scenarios.

Over the next several weeks, months, and years, I, and every other leader, faced a series of problems, including closing schools, redesigning in-person instruction, developing virtual learning programs, and working in partnership with public health organizations.

Interestingly, I learned that authentic, real-world problem-solving has a few key features:

Contemporary learning frameworks and related methodologies can learn a lot from what we are experiencing with Covid-19. Applying the two features above to project-based learning (PBL) by using a more fluid rather than static, linear model may best prepare students for what the future of learning and work actually looks and feels like.

The extraction of cobalt to build electric cars and the negative impact on rural African communities

The development of wind farms and the decline of the golden eagle

5 Strategies to Make PBL More Authentic

1: Students derive the driving question from multiple contexts or multiple issues within a context. In one third-grade class, students read the book We Are Water Protectors and discuss the challenges Native Americans face with the introduction of the Keystone pipeline. Next, the teacher presents two problems:

Students then work together in this strategy to determine the key challenges facing Indigenous people and native species. Next, they develop core questions they want to answer and determine what they need to learn to answer those questions.

2: Students face changes in the problem(s) they are contemplating. Problem environments are fluid, not static. In an AP economics class, students are analyzing supply and demand of a new video game system and preparing to advise the company on what it should do to improve profits.

Every day at the beginning of class, their teacher asks them to scan reliable news sources to report any changes to supply chains, governmental restrictions such as embargoes, or any other factor that would influence their solutions to the client.

The students found out that there were major supply chain issues with essential parts needed to create the video game console. Moreover, some of the ships carrying current consoles are sitting in Asia awaiting passage to the United States because of a political dispute.

Students learn about changes to the problem content (this could be via reading multiple news reports, listening to daily podcasts, or engaging with actual people in the field).

In small groups, students share their key understanding of the changes and how that impacts their current understanding and strategy.

Students determine key "need-to-knows" they have and work with the teacher and peers to gain competencies.

Students plan for multiple contingencies and tentative solutions.

The students worked together in small groups and discussed the key factors that were impacting the company they were advising, along with what the students needed to learn and understand before meeting with the client, and finally developed multiple recommendations based on multiple contingencies.

The general strategy looks like this:

3: Presentations are short bursts of what students think and propose during the project with dollops of feedback to make adjustments. Seventh-grade students are sending in their persuasive essay on one of a number of topics (e.g., addressing the homelessness crisis, engaging with politicians on critical race theory).

Students have a mid-lesson stop in which they have 5 minutes to prepare to present their current work.

Students conduct a feedback protocol (tuning or critical friends) in which one or two students receive feedback.

Students who received feedback share what they have changed in a reflective journal or exit ticket.

This process is repeated daily.

As they are drafting their papers, students are randomly assigned to present their ideas and current drafts to other students and receive feedback on their writing as well as their persuasiveness to opposing views.

The strategy looks like this:

4: Authentic audiences engage with students throughout the project rather than just at the beginning and/or end. In a fifth-grade art class, students have been commissioned by the local town council to paint murals that represent voices that are largely marginalized in their community. During their work, students meet with a number of artists and community members who share their stories, offer feedback, and address questions.

In this strategy, students engage with people outside the classroom at the beginning, middle, and end of a project to hear stories that relate to the problem context, receive guidance on the technical aspects of the content they are learning, and ask questions.

5: Groups work together in small bursts of time to solve problems. Students in Algebra II are working with logarithms to solve a number of problems related to stomach acid, algae-filled hot tubs, soil composition, and buffalo teeth.

While each student may be solving a different problem, students form small groups to share their learning, evaluate the connections between each context, and give each other feedback. After approximately two weeks of solving complex math tasks, the teacher presents three new problems and forms new groups for students to solve the problem in one or two days.

In this strategy, students form temporary groups of two to three to solve a new challenge and work together for one to two days without forming task-specific roles.

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5 Strategies for Aligning PBL to Real-World Problem-Solving

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The closer project-based learning comes to the messy, complicated problems of our world today, the more students benefit.

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Instead of each group of students presenting a math project back to the class, they send it to a class of college students who give them feedback and answer their questions about real-world applications. 

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Instead of each group of students presenting a math project back to the class, they send it to a class of college students who give them feedback and answer their questions about real-world applications. 

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Students determine their own project to show/ learn the skill of data collection and interpretation. 

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Students determine their own project to show/ learn the skill of data collection and interpretation. 

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All students share their work / input via polling sites i.e. Goformative, PollEverywhere, Mentimeter...

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All students share their work / input via polling sites i.e. Goformative, PollEverywhere, Mentimeter...

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Students set the norms and learning goals for the class vs. learning the 'rules'

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Students set the norms and learning goals for the class vs. learning the 'rules'

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"Our students take part in international projects, where we raise our voices against global issues."

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"Our students take part in international projects, where we raise our voices against global issues."

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STUDENT AGENCY

Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship are the basis for the construction of a better world. It needs the courage to think independently and act with kindness and care for the world. Agency provides enhanced student independence and empowerment. It also emphasizes relevance over engagement.

Initiating independent learning is the only way to achieve 21st-century learning skills. As learners, students should be encouraged to raise their voice against real-life problems, explore the different choices, and take ownership in creating constructive solutions. Implementing our vision and mission on the learners cannot be called enhancement unless or until it cares about the student's interest.

Student agency promotes self-efficacy, self-awareness, self-regulation, and individual variation. It is a tool to execute and regulate student-centred learning practices. It empowers students to determine their path to proficiency. By encouraging students to take action, we enhance their cognitive ability to manage, develop motivation, and ensure students respond to their activities.

At Manchester International School, our learning environment makes way for the voice, choice, ownership concept. We provide space for the collaboration of learners across the globe. Our students take part in international projects, where we raise our voices against global issues. Students can make wise choices only if they explore and experience the outcome of the choices they make. Taking ownership is the attitude of a risk-taker. By developing this nature, our students will stand as a pillar for the future generation.

At our school, we co-design the curriculum with our students, focusing on the student interests, backgrounds, stories, and needs, the possibilities for the agency are likely to expand. Agency is the only way to spread awareness of the responsibility of one's actions on the environment and others. Here, our students have ownership of their learning and action that comes from that learning. Our role is to expedite opportunities that empower participants.

Our focus is to promote student-centred learning and change our approach to learning. Our curriculum is dependent on the inquiry process, starting with teacher-guided inquiry targeting on the student agency. In this way, our students will gain the confidence and clarity to decide what is right and wrong.We incorporate technology in our learning process to initiate and develop the self-learning process. Students get enthusiastic when they explore digital opportunities. We use technology as a tool to rediscover and engage ourselves in the independent learning process.

At Manchester, we build a learning community, where we join hands with our parents, community people, local and global learners. We grow as a community by enhancing our skills, establishing our knowledge, and effectively take action. Our vision is to create young and dynamic leaders who can adapt to the changing world and strive for a peaceful world. We believe that students who have agency in their learning are more motivated, expertise greater satisfaction.

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STUDENT AGENCY Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship are the basis for the construction of a better world. It needs the courage to think independently and act with kindness and care for the world. Agency provides enhanced student independence and empowerment. It also emphasizes relevance over engagement.

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As part of their playlist, students regularly conference with their teacher about learning goals and accomplishments. They self-assess and set new goals

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As part of their playlist, students regularly conference with their teacher about learning goals and accomplishments. They self-assess and set new goals

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TED-Ed as a Tool for Student Choice and Voice

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TED-Ed as a Tool for Student Choice and Voice

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TED-Ed as a Tool for Student Choice and Voice

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Change The World In 5 Minutes - Everyday at School

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As part of class roles, 3rd graders act a Marketing Specialists and post the day's learning to a classroom twitter account. 3 other classes are connected and ask questions/ share their learning also. 

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As part of class roles, 3rd graders act a Marketing Specialists and post the day's learning to a classroom twitter account. 3 other classes are connected and ask questions/ share their learning also. 

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Spring CUE_ Student Voice from Talking to Taking ACTION!

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Spring CUE_ Student Voice from Talking to Taking ACTION! (1)

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Twin Cities teens demand a true ban on deadly "no-knock" warrants, a broken promise from Mayor Frey.

Students rally outside the Governor's Residence as they stage a walkout to protest the killing of Amir Locke last week on February 8, 2022 in St Paul, Minnesota. Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

More than 3,000 high school students from across the Twin Cities metro area in Minnesota walked out of class February 8 to march to the governor's mansion and demand justice following the death of Amir Locke.

Locke, a 22-year-old Black man, was shot and killed February 2 by a Minneapolis Police Department SWAT officer during a no-knock apartment raid. Locke was neither named in the no-knock warrant nor a resident of the apartment.

In an area beset by the police killings of Black residents - including 46-year-old George Floyd in May 2020 - Locke's death sparked marches and car caravans across the Twin Cities.

Twin Cities high school students organized quickly through social media to demand the demilitarization of the Minneapolis Police Department, the resignation of those culpable in the killing of Amir Locke, and a ban on no-knock warrants. Their demonstration garnered even more attendees than the downtown protest held the night before.

Student organizers who spoke with In These Times voiced anger at the system responsible for the killing and at their city leaders, who they say have failed to protect residents from a violent police force.

"The system is quite literally working how it's supposed to work," Ezra Hudson, 17, a leader of MN Teen Activists, tells In These Times over the phone a day after the walkout. ​"Oftentimes they're not going to reach the final answer and safest answer for the Black community."

Hudson got involved with racial justice organizing in his first year of high school, joining the group Students Organized Against Racism at St. Louis Park High School, in a Minneapolis suburb. He co-founded the nonprofit MN Teen Activists his sophomore year. As a senior, Hudson has helped organize multiple walkouts around Minnesota.

"I think the key is being conscious enough to see why you have to keep going," Hudson says.

Some of the student leaders were politicized by events that were traumatizing on a personal level. Sandra Tougnon, 18, co-founded the Black Student Union at Central High School in St. Paul in 2021 in collaboration with a friend. At the time, ​"We didn't have the space to talk about issues or what was happening," Tougnon tells In These Times. Her motivation was to create a space for other Black students who were feeling similarly - ​"who look like me, who deserve that community," she explains. Central's Black Student Union now has 40 members and, according to Tougnon, is growing by the week.

Student protesters gather at Central High School in St. Paul, Minnesota to demand justice for Amir Locke and the demilitarization of the Minneapolis Police Department. Photo provided by Sandra Tougnon

While the high school students' walkout escalated quickly, it took behind-the-scenes coordination across schools to pull off.

Tougnon credits one of Central's Black Student Union members, Grace Mutombo, with organizing the walkout. After attending a protest for Amir Locke in downtown Minneapolis, Mutombo asked Black Student Union members what they thought of organizing their own protest. ​"She was thinking about how this has affected her and other youth in our community," Tougnon says. Grace reached out to another activist, Chauntyll Allen, who put Central's Black Student Union in touch with Jerome Treadwell, executive director of MN Teen Activists.

Students from Central's Black Student Union and MN Teen Activists met over Google Meet on February 6 and 7 to organize. Tougnon says the students' six demands arose from two questions: ​"What led to this situation?" and ​"How can this situation never occur again?"

The students' demands include a complete ban on no-knock warrants and a full overhaul of the Minneapolis Police Department - to, as Tougnon says, ​"re-evaluate the practices of the MPD." Another demand, to demilitarize the MPD, aims to ​"rebuild the police system and base it on collective care for all," Tougnon says.

The students are also calling for a full review of MPD and SWAT practices, the resignation of MPD's Interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman, the resignation of Mayor Jacob Frey and accountability from Judge Peter Cahill, who approved the no-knock warrant that led to the death of Amir Locke. Some are calling for Cahill's resignation.

On February 2, Locke was shot and killed by MPD officer Mark Hanneman during the no-knock raid. Originally, St. Paul police had requested a ​"knock and announce warrant" to be carried out jointly with the MPD SWAT team, but that warrant was never executed. Instead, a separate no-knock warrant was filed by MPD and approved by Cahill, the same judge who presided over the trial of former MPD officer Derek Chauvin, who murdered George Floyd.

This no-knock warrant is the same type of warrant Mayor Frey had once claimed to have banned, through a November 2020 policy, in Minneapolis. By April 2021, however - after a botched SWAT raid ended in a family being held at gunpoint - Frey clarified the policy had exceptions for ​"exigent circumstances" and for the county SWAT team. (An archived version of Frey's election campaign website shows that, as recently as Oct. 23, 2021, the Frey administration claims the ban on no-knock warrants as an accomplishment.) Frey was reelected in 2021 with 49.1% of the vote; a ballot measure to replace the MPD was voted down in the same election.

MPD, meanwhile, has applied for no fewer than 90 no-knock warrants since the mayor's purported November 2020 ban. In September 2021, Minnesota passed a law that required police departments to report the number of no-knock search warrants requested, the number issued and the number executed. Data from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety shows that, between September 2021 and February 2, the MPD executed at least eight no-knock warrants under Frey's leadership. (Because the agency is allowed three months to report, the number is likely low.) Frey's own reporting suggests a higher number: The mayor's office told the Intercept that MPD has served 11 no-knock warrants between January 1 and February 8. It's unclear which of these warrants was carried out by SWAT (MPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment), as the state tracks data based on which agency reported the warrant, rather than who carried out the warrant.

Data also shows that Black people are disproportionately targeted by aggressive police raids. According to an American Civil Liberties Union report from 2014, nationwide, 42% of those ​"impacted by a SWAT deployment to execute a search warrant" were Black. In Minnesota, while only 7% of the population is Black, MinnPost finds that 70% of subjects of executed no-knock warrants from September 2021 through February 2 were Black.

The police killing of Amir Locke - and the actions of Frey, Cahill and Hanneman - illustrate too clearly a continual failure of the state to protect Black people, students say. The clarity of the students' demands stand in stark contrast with the confusion around the 2021 police overhaul ballot measure and Frey's claim that he already banned no-knock warrants.

Following the shooting of Amir Locke, Frey addressed the warrant issue again, saying his language had at times been too ​"casual" in explaining the change in the city's policy on no-knock warrants. Some argue that Frey's talking point was used not only in service of his reelection - but to prove a more radical solution was unnecessary.

Tougnon says it is time to ​"re-strategize and say this is not working."

Thousands take the street as students walk out of class in St. Paul, Minnesota to protect Black lives. Photo provided by Sandra Tougnon

The plans for the walkout only included students from Central High School and members of MN Teen Activists - at first. Then, on February 6, Hudson reached out to Jerome Treadwell, executive director of MN Teen Activists, asking if St. Louis Park High School students could join.

Treadwell responded, ​"I think we might as well try to make it statewide."

Ultimately, students mostly filed in from across the Twin Cities metro area, but Hudson says word spread fast.

According to Tougnon, more than 3,000 students walked out of school February 8, including students from St. Louis Park, Benilde-St. Margaret's, Breck, Hopkins, Patrick Henry, North, Cretin-Derham Hall, Roosevelt and Washburn. Participants first convened at Central High School before marching to Gov. Tim Walz's house to make demands.

Tougnon says the response was overwhelming: ​"Knowing that people are with me, with us, we just all have one message - that was really amazing."

Though the walkout's aim was to influence community support and changes from local officials, students want to advocate for change in their schools as well.

A few weeks ago, Tougnon and the Black Student Union held a segregation forum about the racial divide they see in enrollment for advanced classes - in a school setting where the higher-track classes are physically higher in the building. ​"As you get higher in the building ... it gets less colorful," Tougnon says. ​"People who look like me are directed towards the lower classes," located in the physically lower parts of the school.

Tougnon explains that, as one of the only students of color in her advanced classes, she has had to advocate for herself. A 2019 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found that Minnesota has one of the worst achievement gaps in the country in terms of race and socio-economic status.

Tougnon reiterates support for other teens hoping to form organizations in their high schools. ​"Creating a community is so powerful," Tougnon says, ​"leaving a legacy for the generation that's coming." Hudson lifts up what he calls ​"solo activists" who haven't yet found a political home, and both encourage young people to build community and to support each other through what can be the exhausting and traumatizing work of organizing.

"We're fighting for the people, but we're also fighting for ourselves and fighting for our own lives," Hudson says. ​"That takes a mental toll on you."

Hudson also notes the steps MN Teen Activists has taken to prioritize both community and self-care. ​"At first we were kind of just like, ​'go, go, go,' but never really taking the time to realize how this has mentally impacted us." Now, Hudson says MN Teen Activists recognize they will only succeed if they are ​"physically being out there and also mentally being at home and resting."

Hudson also emphasizes the importance of recharging. ​"I think that's something people often forget to do," Hudson says. ​"Just clear your head and just let you be you for a second."

The students have yet to receive a response from officials about their walkout. In the meantime, they are present on social media, connecting with fellow activists and asking people to text ​"Amir" to 33777 to receive updates from MN Teen Activists, take action and continue to raise awareness of their demands.

Hudson says they plan to hold future walkouts as well: ​"At the end of the day, [walkouts] force people to pay attention, they create change and they show that we want change."

While they monitor reactions from their most recent action, Hudson and Tougnon are eyeing the future. ​"I think down the line we want to do some more national stuff," Hudson says. ​"Garner some more attention to garner some more power to push more on issues."

"It doesn't end here," Tougnon reassures. ​"It does not."

Paige Oamek is a fact-checker and editorial intern at The Nation. Their writing appears in In These Times, The American Prospect and elsewhere.

Maggie Duffy is a Brooklyn-based writer and an In These Times editorial intern. She is a graduate of Occidental College where she earned a degree in sociology. She most recently worked as a researcher for American Friends Service Committee.

More than 3,000 high school students from across the Twin Cities metro area in Minnesota walked out of class February 8 to march to the governor's mansion and demand justice following the death of Amir Locke.

Locke, a 22-year-old Black man, was shot and killed February 2 by a Minneapolis Police Department SWAT officer during a no-knock apartment raid. Locke was neither named in the no-knock warrant nor a resident of the apartment.

In an area beset by the police killings of Black residents - including 46-year-old George Floyd in May 2020 - Locke's death sparked marches and car caravans across the Twin Cities.

Twin Cities high school students organized quickly through social media to demand the demilitarization of the Minneapolis Police Department, the resignation of those culpable in the killing of Amir Locke, and a ban on no-knock warrants. Their demonstration garnered even more attendees than the downtown protest held the night before.

Student organizers who spoke with In These Times voiced anger at the system responsible for the killing and at their city leaders, who they say have failed to protect residents from a violent police force.

"The system is quite literally working how it's supposed to work," Ezra Hudson, 17, a leader of MN Teen Activists, tells In These Times over the phone a day after the walkout. ​"Oftentimes they're not going to reach the final answer and safest answer for the Black community."

Hudson got involved with racial justice organizing in his first year of high school, joining the group Students Organized Against Racism at St. Louis Park High School, in a Minneapolis suburb. He co-founded the nonprofit MN Teen Activists his sophomore year. As a senior, Hudson has helped organize multiple walkouts around Minnesota.

"I think the key is being conscious enough to see why you have to keep going," Hudson says.

Some of the student leaders were politicized by events that were traumatizing on a personal level. Sandra Tougnon, 18, co-founded the Black Student Union at Central High School in St. Paul in 2021 in collaboration with a friend. At the time, ​"We didn't have the space to talk about issues or what was happening," Tougnon tells In These Times. Her motivation was to create a space for other Black students who were feeling similarly - ​"who look like me, who deserve that community," she explains. Central's Black Student Union now has 40 members and, according to Tougnon, is growing by the week.

Student protesters gather at Central High School in St. Paul, Minnesota to demand justice for Amir Locke and the demilitarization of the Minneapolis Police Department. Photo provided by Sandra Tougnon

While the high school students' walkout escalated quickly, it took behind-the-scenes coordination across schools to pull off.

Tougnon credits one of Central's Black Student Union members, Grace Mutombo, with organizing the walkout. After attending a protest for Amir Locke in downtown Minneapolis, Mutombo asked Black Student Union members what they thought of organizing their own protest. ​"She was thinking about how this has affected her and other youth in our community," Tougnon says. Grace reached out to another activist, Chauntyll Allen, who put Central's Black Student Union in touch with Jerome Treadwell, executive director of MN Teen Activists.

Students from Central's Black Student Union and MN Teen Activists met over Google Meet on February 6 and 7 to organize. Tougnon says the students' six demands arose from two questions: ​"What led to this situation?" and ​"How can this situation never occur again?"

The students' demands include a complete ban on no-knock warrants and a full overhaul of the Minneapolis Police Department - to, as Tougnon says, ​"re-evaluate the practices of the MPD." Another demand, to demilitarize the MPD, aims to ​"rebuild the police system and base it on collective care for all," Tougnon says.

The students are also calling for a full review of MPD and SWAT practices, the resignation of MPD's Interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman, the resignation of Mayor Jacob Frey and accountability from Judge Peter Cahill, who approved the no-knock warrant that led to the death of Amir Locke. Some are calling for Cahill's resignation.

On February 2, Locke was shot and killed by MPD officer Mark Hanneman during the no-knock raid. Originally, St. Paul police had requested a ​"knock and announce warrant" to be carried out jointly with the MPD SWAT team, but that warrant was never executed. Instead, a separate no-knock warrant was filed by MPD and approved by Cahill, the same judge who presided over the trial of former MPD officer Derek Chauvin, who murdered George Floyd.

This no-knock warrant is the same type of warrant Mayor Frey had once claimed to have banned, through a November 2020 policy, in Minneapolis. By April 2021, however - after a botched SWAT raid ended in a family being held at gunpoint - Frey clarified the policy had exceptions for ​"exigent circumstances" and for the county SWAT team. (An archived version of Frey's election campaign website shows that, as recently as Oct. 23, 2021, the Frey administration claims the ban on no-knock warrants as an accomplishment.) Frey was reelected in 2021 with 49.1% of the vote; a ballot measure to replace the MPD was voted down in the same election.

MPD, meanwhile, has applied for no fewer than 90 no-knock warrants since the mayor's purported November 2020 ban. In September 2021, Minnesota passed a law that required police departments to report the number of no-knock search warrants requested, the number issued and the number executed. Data from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety shows that, between September 2021 and February 2, the MPD executed at least eight no-knock warrants under Frey's leadership. (Because the agency is allowed three months to report, the number is likely low.) Frey's own reporting suggests a higher number: The mayor's office told the Intercept that MPD has served 11 no-knock warrants between January 1 and February 8. It's unclear which of these warrants was carried out by SWAT (MPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment), as the state tracks data based on which agency reported the warrant, rather than who carried out the warrant.

Data also shows that Black people are disproportionately targeted by aggressive police raids. According to an American Civil Liberties Union report from 2014, nationwide, 42% of those ​"impacted by a SWAT deployment to execute a search warrant" were Black. In Minnesota, while only 7% of the population is Black, MinnPost finds that 70% of subjects of executed no-knock warrants from September 2021 through February 2 were Black.

The police killing of Amir Locke - and the actions of Frey, Cahill and Hanneman - illustrate too clearly a continual failure of the state to protect Black people, students say. The clarity of the students' demands stand in stark contrast with the confusion around the 2021 police overhaul ballot measure and Frey's claim that he already banned no-knock warrants.

Following the shooting of Amir Locke, Frey addressed the warrant issue again, saying his language had at times been too ​"casual" in explaining the change in the city's policy on no-knock warrants. Some argue that Frey's talking point was used not only in service of his reelection - but to prove a more radical solution was unnecessary.

Tougnon says it is time to ​"re-strategize and say this is not working."

Thousands take the street as students walk out of class in St. Paul, Minnesota to protect Black lives. Photo provided by Sandra Tougnon

The plans for the walkout only included students from Central High School and members of MN Teen Activists - at first. Then, on February 6, Hudson reached out to Jerome Treadwell, executive director of MN Teen Activists, asking if St. Louis Park High School students could join.

Treadwell responded, ​"I think we might as well try to make it statewide."

Ultimately, students mostly filed in from across the Twin Cities metro area, but Hudson says word spread fast.

According to Tougnon, more than 3,000 students walked out of school February 8, including students from St. Louis Park, Benilde-St. Margaret's, Breck, Hopkins, Patrick Henry, North, Cretin-Derham Hall, Roosevelt and Washburn. Participants first convened at Central High School before marching to Gov. Tim Walz's house to make demands.

Tougnon says the response was overwhelming: ​"Knowing that people are with me, with us, we just all have one message - that was really amazing."

Though the walkout's aim was to influence community support and changes from local officials, students want to advocate for change in their schools as well.

A few weeks ago, Tougnon and the Black Student Union held a segregation forum about the racial divide they see in enrollment for advanced classes - in a school setting where the higher-track classes are physically higher in the building. ​"As you get higher in the building ... it gets less colorful," Tougnon says. ​"People who look like me are directed towards the lower classes," located in the physically lower parts of the school.

Tougnon explains that, as one of the only students of color in her advanced classes, she has had to advocate for herself. A 2019 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found that Minnesota has one of the worst achievement gaps in the country in terms of race and socio-economic status.

Tougnon reiterates support for other teens hoping to form organizations in their high schools. ​"Creating a community is so powerful," Tougnon says, ​"leaving a legacy for the generation that's coming." Hudson lifts up what he calls ​"solo activists" who haven't yet found a political home, and both encourage young people to build community and to support each other through what can be the exhausting and traumatizing work of organizing.

"We're fighting for the people, but we're also fighting for ourselves and fighting for our own lives," Hudson says. ​"That takes a mental toll on you."

Hudson also notes the steps MN Teen Activists has taken to prioritize both community and self-care. ​"At first we were kind of just like, ​'go, go, go,' but never really taking the time to realize how this has mentally impacted us." Now, Hudson says MN Teen Activists recognize they will only succeed if they are ​"physically being out there and also mentally being at home and resting."

Hudson also emphasizes the importance of recharging. ​"I think that's something people often forget to do," Hudson says. ​"Just clear your head and just let you be you for a second."

The students have yet to receive a response from officials about their walkout. In the meantime, they are present on social media, connecting with fellow activists and asking people to text ​"Amir" to 33777 to receive updates from MN Teen Activists, take action and continue to raise awareness of their demands.

Hudson says they plan to hold future walkouts as well: ​"At the end of the day, [walkouts] force people to pay attention, they create change and they show that we want change."

While they monitor reactions from their most recent action, Hudson and Tougnon are eyeing the future. ​"I think down the line we want to do some more national stuff," Hudson says. ​"Garner some more attention to garner some more power to push more on issues."

"It doesn't end here," Tougnon reassures. ​"It does not."

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Meet the High School Students Who Organized Thousands to Walk Out for Amir Locke

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Twin Cities teens demand a true ban on deadly "no-knock" warrants, a broken promise from Mayor Frey. More than 3,000 high school students from across the Twin Cities metro area in Minnesota walked out of class February 8 to march to the governor's mansion and demand justice following the death of Amir Locke.

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During Youth Takeover Week, tune in to KQED on air and digital as Bay Area youth take over programs like Perspectives, Forum, KQED LIVE and Bay Curious and have their say about the issues affecting their lives.

Need more youth media right now? Browse the showcase below to see stories from all 6 years of Youth Takeover!

Teens have a lot to say about our constantly changing world. Throughout the school year, our Youth Media team works with select Bay Area high schools to help students produce stories reflecting their experiences and those of their communities. Each spring, we feature their stories on The California Report Magazine, Perspectives, Forum, Bay Curious, Rightnowish and other programs during Youth Takeover Week.

KQED Youth Takeover features student-produced content from the nine Bay Area counties - Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo, Sonoma and Solano. This year's Youth Takeover will run from April 24th to April 28, 2023. Below, you'll find pieces from all Youth Takeover cohorts.

If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area:

High School Students: Join our Youth Advisory Board to experience direct mentorship opportunities with KQED Staff and work with a like-minded cohort of local youth.

If you are outside the Bay Area, you can still incorporate the Youth Takeover curriculum into your classroom by participating in the KQED Youth Media Challenge.

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Teens have a lot to say about the issues facing them and their peers. For one week in the spring, KQED opens its airwaves to student-produced content from classrooms around the Bay Area. This year, you can hear student stories on KQED News, The California Report, Forum, Science, The Bay, KQED Newsroom, Bay Curious, and more.

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Student activist groups Student Voice, March For Our Lives, Kentucky Student Voice Team (KSVT) and Houston Independent School District Student Congress (HISD StuCon) are hosting #SaveStudentSpeech: A Teach-In and Conversation With Mary Beth Tinker on the student free speech Supreme Court case Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. In the teach-in event, student activists will share their stories regarding why the right to free speech in schools is important to them and participate in an intergenerational dialogue with Mary Beth Tinker, discussing the evolution of student speech over the decades.

The event accompanies an amicus brief Student Voice, March for Our Lives, Kentucky Student Voice Team and Houston Independent School District Student Congress have filed to raise awareness about the Mahanoy's potential impact on student activism. If the Supreme Court decides to roll back students' First Amendment rights to off-campus or social media speech, schools could prevent students from participating in activism on any potentially "disruptive" issues they care about, even outside the school building. Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. is likely to be the biggest student free speech case since Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, of which Mary Beth Tinker was famously the plaintiff.

What: #SaveStudentSpeech: A Teach-In and Conversation With Mary Beth Tinker

Who:
Ana Despa, she/her, Kentucky Student Voice Team school governance lead & sophomore at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Lexington, Kentucky
Michel Leon, she/her, member of leadership team of HISD student congress and freshman at Bellaire high school

Travis Harper he/they, Judicial Advocacy Associate at March for Our Lives & sophomore at Harvard College
Gabriella Staykova, she/her, Student Voice team member & high school senior at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Lexington, Kentucky
Connor Flick, he/him, researcher and member of the Kentucky Student Voice Team & high school junior at the Gatton Academy in Kentucky
Athena Haq, she/her, member of the HISD Student Congress leadership team & high school sophomore at the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas
Tabitha Escalante (moderator), she/her, Judicial Advocacy Associate at March for Our Lives & sophomore at Harvard College

When: Monday, April 26th at 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT

Where: The event will be streamed live on March for Our Lives' Facebook and Twitter. A recording will be available after the event and can be distributed directly upon request.

Questions: Journalists are invited to submit questions ahead of time or ask questions in the live chat during the event.

Please RSVP and direct additional inquiries to Jenna Yuan, Student Voice's Director of Communications, at jenna@stuvoice.org or (425) 260-8146.

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ADVISORY: Student Activists, Mary Beth Tinker Host Digital Teach-In on Landmark Student Free Speech Case | Student Voice

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Student activist groups Student Voice, March For Our Lives, Kentucky Student Voice Team (KSVT) and Houston Independent School District Student Congress (HISD StuCon) are hosting #SaveStudentSpeech: A Teach-In and Conversation With Mary Beth Tinker on the student free speech Supreme Court case Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L.

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Students use Book Creator to author a book about their learning styles and hopes for the learning environment. They share their stories and receive feedback (+ the teacher adjusts the environment accordingly) 

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Students use Book Creator to author a book about their learning styles and hopes for the learning environment. They share their stories and receive feedback (+ the teacher adjusts the environment accordingly) 

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Analyze and Evaluate Media. Create and Share Media With Authentic Audiences.

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Analyze and Evaluate Media. Create and Share Media With Authentic Audiences.

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Youth Media Challenges ask students to explore how they see themselves, share their view of the world, or envision a better future. Choose from a range of standards-aligned, media-making projects across content areas that help reach your learning objectives and engage students at the same time.

All challenges come with ready-to-use curriculum and every student submission is published on the KQED Youth Media Showcase. Select submissions will be aired on KQED broadcasts and shared with PBS and NPR member stations around the country.

Explore the 7 current challenges or browse all published student submissions.

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Youth Media Challenges ask students to explore how they see themselves, share their view of the world, or envision a better future. Choose from a range of standards-aligned, media-making projects across content areas that help reach your learning objectives and engage students at the same time.

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Students use the Design Thinking process with the UN Sustainable Goals

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Students use the Design Thinking process with the UN Sustainable Goals

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Sisters Read Bedtime Stories to Kids on Facebook Live

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Dalton Sherman- addressing Dallas ISD Teachers

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Dalton Sherman- addressing Dallas ISD Teachers

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Using their interests as a guide, elementary students can simultaneously acquire knowledge and serve the school community.

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Using their interests as a guide, elementary students can simultaneously acquire knowledge and serve the school community.

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Classrooms Without Walls: Using Digital Media to Connect Inside and Outside of the Classroom - EdSurge News

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EdSurge has a collection of resources and templates to help schools and districts increase their success in assessing the edtech needs they should…

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Students use infographic tools to represent data on a cause/ element they want changed in the world.. they present their requests to the related stakeholders i.e. School Board, Town Hall meeting, etc. 

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Students use infographic tools to represent data on a cause/ element they want changed in the world.. they present their requests to the related stakeholders i.e. School Board, Town Hall meeting, etc. 

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Professional infographic designers rely primarily on a core vector graphics software program to create their infographics designs. The main advantage is that all the icons, charts, images, illustrations, and data visualizations are treated as separate objects that can be easily moved, resized, overlapped, and rotated. No matter where you create the individual design elements, the final infographic design is usually put together in a vector graphics program.

Creating infographics using online tools has never been easier. In the last few years a number of online tools have emerged that allow anyone to create great visual content. Whether you are working on a project for work, personal use, or social media, each new project starts with a template. With the dimensions laid out for you, you can focus your attention on quickly creating effective designs. Search, drag, and publish - it can be that simple.

These new tools are vector graphics applications that run in your browser as a replacement for using an expensive professional desktop application like Adobe Illustrator to put your infographic design together. Each one offers different tools, image libraries, charts, fonts and templates as a starting point. None of these have the full capabilities of a professional desktop application, but you probably don't need that much power to create a simple infographic.

In this article, we take a quick look at 5 of the best online tools for creating infographics: Visme, Canva, Easel.ly, Piktochart, and Infogr.am. All of these tools are evolving quickly, and this is just a snapshot of their current capabilities.

Visme allows you to create interactive presentations, infographics and other engaging content. With tons of templates, and huge library of free shapes & icons to choose from, Visme has you creating awesome visual content right away.

The templates are set up simply and beautifully. If you wanted, you could just edit the placeholder text, insert your own, and publish your infographic.

One of the greatest aspects of this service is changing percentages within the charts. All you have to do is click on the graphic you would like to change, enter a new number, and the chart changes to reflect the new information automatically. Saving you hours of frustration trying to do it on your own.
Pros:

Creates infographics, presentation, animations, ad banners, and custom layouts.

Insert and edit chart objects directly by changing the data values.

Large library of icons and images.

Embed YouTube videos directly into designs.

Special pricing for students & teachers.

Cons:
Price: Basic version is free with pricing plans available

Canva just celebrated their 1-year anniversary last month, and has made a big splash in the online design space. Your experience kicks off with a great "23 Second Guide to Beautiful Design," where they walk you through a brief introduction to their design program.

After finishing the brief tutorial, you can start a new design. Canva is filled with options, whether you are working on a project for work, personal, or social media. Each new project comes with a template for the project you choose to work on. With the dimensions done for you, you can focus your attention on creating beautiful designs in seconds.
Pros

Excellent (and short) intro tutorial to get you started, and many more on advanced concepts.

Templates for social media, blogs, presentations, posters, business cards, invitations, and more.

Easy and intuitive to use.

Large library of images to choose from.

Cons
Price: Free, but you have to pay for Pro quality design assets individually

Easel.ly is a great program, but lacks some of the guidance, and features, that come standard in other programs.

Easel.ly lacks a "How-To" introduction section to their program, and just kind of throws you into the design process right away. Their focus seems to be primarily based on infographic design. Whereas other programs offer a plethora of design project options.

If you're just looking to design an infographic, this program will work well. If you want more variety, you'll have to utilize one of the other programs in this list.
Pros:

Very basic design layouts and assets.

New charts feature allows some basic editable charts in your design.

Easy downloads for JPG and PDF versions.

Cons:
Price: Free

4) Piktochart ( piktochart.com)

Piktochart is one of the best looking programs on this list. All the information you need to get started is provided in their tour.

Their program is easy to use, and offers tons of freedom in building and editing your infographic using their simple graphic tools. They have categorized icons, resizable canvas, design-driven charts, and interactive maps to utilize.

Their intuitive user interface is where Piktochart truly excels. All the tools you need to create are laid out intelligently, making your new job as a "designer" so much easier.

One of the coolest aspects of this program is that they show how versatile infographics are for different projects. Whether you're creating for a classroom, office, website, or social media setting - Piktochart gives you the heads up on how to use infographics effectively.
Pros:

Themes and templates are of high design quality.

Intuitive. Allows you to edit anything and everything with ease.

Create infographics, reports, banners and presentations.

Embed videos from Youtube and Vimeo in your design.

Cons:
Price: Start for free with pricing packages available

Infogr.am has got the best charts. For illustrating data, there are more than 30 different types of charts to choose from. Anything from bubble charts and tree maps to simple pie charts.

Editing data can be easily done in Infogr.am's built-in spreadsheet, or you can import your own XLS, XLXS and CSV files. Once your infographic has been edited and beautifully designed, you can save it to your computer as a PNG or PDF file with a paid subscription.
Pros:

Ability to create and edit great charts by changing data

Built-in Spreadsheet. Can also import your XLS, XLXS and CSV files

Widest variety of available chart types

Educational and Non-profit pricing plans available

Embed videos from Youtube and Vimeo in your design.

Cons:

Only creates infographics and charts

Small selection of infographic templates

No image library, you must upload your own image assets

Download options require paid subscription

The White Label subscription service is the most expensive options of the group

Price: Basic version is free with pricing plans available

Which design sites have you tried? Which tools are your favorites? Post in the comments.

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5 Great Online Tools for Creating Infographics - Cool Infographics

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Professional infographic designers rely primarily on a core vector graphics software program to create their infographics designs. The main advantage is that all the icons, charts, images, illustrations, and data visualizations are treated as separate objects that can be easily moved, resized, overl

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Student proposals on how to Rethink School

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Student proposals on how to Rethink School

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Student proposals on how to Rethink School

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Student proposals on how to Rethink School - MindShift

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MindShift partnered with KQED Education to create the “Rethink Schools” youth media challenge. Here are a few of the student proposals.

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First grade student doesn't like the coop structure they use in class ... has a conversation with the teacher and they ask for other suggestions. The class ends up trying something new! :) 

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First grade student doesn't like the coop structure they use in class ... has a conversation with the teacher and they ask for other suggestions. The class ends up trying something new! :) 

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students start a Student Voice chapter (and/ or propose a project) 

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students start a Student Voice chapter (and/ or propose a project) 

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Student Voice: Equipping Students to Take Action

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A nationwide student-led nonprofit organization that works to equip students to advocate for solutions to educational inequity.

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Class share out of ideas about how they would like to change their school for the future.

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Class share out of ideas about how they would like to change their school for the future.

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Teachers connect to determine how to set an environment to encourage student activists 

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Teachers connect to determine how to set an environment to encourage student activists 

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Resources, Inspiration And Expert Advice For Making A Difference On And Off Campus
Student activism has surged in the last decade, with young campaigners calling on leaders both on and off campus to right wrongs, erase inequalities and secure the future of our planet. But this is nothing new: Student activists led the charge during the Civil Rights Movement and were early adopters of environmentalism. While peaceful protests and petitions are still important parts of their toolbox, today's student activists are expanding by bringing activism to the web and social media. The following guide explains what it means to be a student activist and where to find support for certain causes. It also provides tools and guidance on how to create goal-oriented, effective rallies for change.
How to Become a Student Activist

While you may already have causes you're passionate about, gathering supporters and developing a thoughtful plan to enact change are just as important as the initial idea. The timeline below can help budding activists develop a measured approach to achieving their goals.

Take Action: Common Methods of Student Activism

Iconic scenes of protestors taking over a square or marching down a busy road pop into most people's minds when they think of activists, but there are several other methods of taking action to make a change.

Campus Activism by Cause: Examples & Resources

Student activists are on the forefront of championing many issues. Whether opting to tackle sexual health and safety, gender discrimination, religious freedom, or another issue, they can draw inspiration and clarify their purpose by using the resources outlined in this section.

Diversity & Racism

Although the Civil Rights Movement began more than half a century ago, racism and lack of diversity continue to be issues both on college campuses and across the country. In the context of higher education, poor race relations can fester, eventually manifesting in learning distractions or threats to student safety. Although these issues have greatly improved in recent decades, there is still much work to be done.

Resources

Black Lives Matter - Created in 2012, BLM has hundreds of chapters throughout the U.S., including on college campuses.

Dismantling Racism Works - dRworks is a group of organizers and trainers who help activists reverse racial inequities.

History of Diversity, The - This timeline of racial equality at Sarah Lawrence College is an example of something student activists can ask their college to create. It highlights strides as well as work still to be done.

Race, Equity & Diversity - The University of Washington Tacoma provides this resource page and stance on supporting diversity on campus - an excellent example of something student activists can push for on their campus.

Rada Films Group - The mission of Rada is to celebrate diversity by telling compelling stories about multiculturalism.

Real-life examples

Reclaim Harvard Law School. - Reclaim Harvard Law is an ongoing call for racial equality in education. The group has used demonstrations, social media campaigns and speaker series to raise awareness.

Woolworth's Sit-in - In 1960, college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, staged the first lunch counter sit-ins at a Woolworth's to protest the restaurant's "whites only" policy. By doing so, they spurred the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a major player within the Civil Rights Movement.

Environmentalism & Sustainability

The concept of "going green" - or enacting environmentally friendly and sustainable policies - has been discussed on hundreds of college campuses in recent years. Whether pushing for more recycling receptacles, encouraging faculty to shift from paper essays to online ones, or installing water stations for refillable bottles, there are many ways to promote the preservation of natural resources in higher education settings.

Resources

350.org - Don't know how to facilitate a training, structure a workshop or start a petition campaign? 350.org has a database of activities activists can use, plus primers on fossil fuel divestment, offshore drilling and other environmental flashpoints.

EcoLeaders - The National Wildlife Federation has developed step-by-step student guides to designing environmental projects on campus. Just as importantly, its web portal encourages students to connect and implement projects on their own campus.

Environmentalism at the Crossroads: Green Activism in America - This piece by the Foundation for Economic Education discusses how to move the conversation on sustainability forward.

UIC Office of Sustainability - Lots of campuses now have sustainability departments that student activists can partner with to affect change. The University of Illinois' efforts are particularly expansive. Look to the Campus Resources section for ideas that can be implemented on campus, or connect with the Office of Sustainability at your school.

Real-life examples

Brown University Environmental Justice Track - In 2014, Brown University students began gathering signatures for the Environmental Studies and Sciences Department to add an academic track exploring how different groups of people are unequally affected by environmental changes and policies. The university responded by creating the environmental justice track.

Fossil Free Stanford - In 2013, Stanford University activists created this group to protest the university's investments in 200 fossil-fuel extraction businesses. It used demonstrations, petitions and pledges to make its point. One year later, the institution divested from all coal companies.

LGBTQ & Gender Equality

The first widespread LGBTQ activism efforts began in the late 1960s and stemmed from wider issues surrounding second-wave feminism and the Civil Rights Movement. Student activists were on the frontlines of this movement, and many campuses' LGBTQ groups started during that time. Some of the issues directly affecting students include equal access to housing and transgender bathrooms.

Resources

Campus Pride - Campus Pride offers an array of resources and helpful information for students who want to address inequalities on their campus.

Gay-Straight Alliance - GSA represents a network of student-run clubs that provide safe places for discussions and push back against homophobia and transphobia.

LGBTQ Student Groups at University of Michigan - The University of Michigan lists the LGBTQ student groups that fight against campus-based discrimination. It's a good starting point to see what national organizations are out there looking for local chapters.

Out for Work - This nonprofit works with LGBTQ students and their allies as they prepare to join the workforce.

Top 10 Factors LGBTQ Youth Look for in Choosing a College Campus - In addition to helping prospective students find a welcoming campus, this article also helps student activists identify areas where their campus may need work.

Real-life examples

Anti-HB2 protests - In 2016, North Carolina passed a law mandating that people must use the bathroom of the biological sex they were born with, regardless of the gender they identify with. The University of North Carolina system announced it would adhere to the state law in April, resulting in waves of protests at appearances by the university president as well as sit-ins at campus bathrooms and administration buildings. By May, the university said it would not enforce the law.

University of Georgia lawsuit - In 1972, a group of LBGTQ students sued the University of Georgia after it refused to let gay and lesbian students fully participate in social functions. The courts ruled in their favor, and later that year the plaintiffs held a dance for LGBTQ students on campus.

Politics & Government

Decisions made within the political arena by government officials have long been scrutinized by student activists, with examples ranging from local government intervention in education to national issues like the Vietnam War. Many student-led political groups originated from other student clubs focused on conservative and liberal platforms.

Resources

Activism & Politics - Organized through the Swarthmore College's Peace & Conflict Studies program, this is an excellent resource for student activists passionate about political issues.

Democracy Matters - Democracy Matters works with college students on initiatives that ensure democracy for generations to come.

Mobilize - This nonpartisan organization encourages students to participate in politics and civic engagement to change political systems.

The Project on Student Debt - Student activists looking for research and talking points on the student debt crisis can find ample resources via this project from the Institute for College Access & Success.

Real-life examples

Pay It Forward Tuition Plan - In 2012, students at Portland State University called for legislators to create a plan for students to graduate from public institutions without massive debt. In response, the Oregon legislature passed a bill allowing students to finish their degrees without paying in exchange for a 24-year payment plan tied to their income. Other states are now considering this option.

Student Strike of 1970 - As part of the largest student strike in American history, more than four million students protested the military's invasion of Cambodia and the killing of student protestors at Kent State University. Students at more than 450 secondary and postsecondary campuses held protests over two months.

Sexual Health & Safety

Student activists run the gamut on issues surrounding sexual health, with some working to expand abstinence programs in high school and others seeking to increase access to birth control. Sexual harassment is an area where most people come together to lessen the number of incidents by providing greater campus security and educating men and women about anti-harassment policies.

Resources

Amplify Your Voice - Amplify focuses on empowering students to advocate for positive and realistic approaches to sexual health. Its toolkits for youth activists and condom campaigns are particularly useful.

National Partnership for Women and Families - NPWF champions sexual health and safety and helps student groups push for comprehensive sex education in their schools.

No More - With a focus on ending domestic violence and sexual assault, No More provides a range of campus resources for student activists, including a free toolkit with branded advocacy materials.

Our Bodies, Ourselves - This nonprofit offers evidence-based research on reproductive health and sexuality for girls and women.

SAFER - This organization works with student-led groups who are fighting against interpersonal and sexual violence on college campuses.

Real-life examples

Boston College's Students for Sexual Health - Students at BC gained national coverage when, after petitioning the school for a sexual health referendum to provide greater access to birth control and sex education, the school threatened to discipline the students.

Carry that Weight - After Columbia University found a male student not responsible for the sexual assault of a female student, she began carrying a mattress around campus to protest the school's handling of the case and draw attention to the emotional burden survivors of rape bear.

Social Justice Movements

A wide ranging concept, social justice is concerned with any mistreatment of an individual by society. In the case of student activism, this may relate to student mistreatment by the school administration. Issues span from racism and sexism to access to healthcare or education, and students often join with larger activism groups to amplify their collective voice.

Resources

5 Approaches to Social Justice Activism - EdChange offers five ideas on how to create meaningful social justice campaigns.

5 TED Activists that Are Fighting for Social Justice - Students looking to be inspired by the work of other social justice activists can tune into these five motivating TED Talks.

9 Ways to Make Social Justice Movements Less Elitist and More Accessible - This is a great read for student activists looking to appeal to the masses.

Social Justice Activism Is Forming a More Just (and Enduring) Union - The National Education Association wrote this op-ed on the importance of working for social justice.

Responsible Endowments Foundation - Focused on getting universities to use their money ethically, REF has basic guides on what endowments are and how to lead a divestment campaign, as well as tools to push administrators toward alternative investments.

Real-life examples

Rethink - Rethink is youth activist organization formed in 2007 to raise awareness via multimedia about issues important to young people, such as bullying. One of its biggest projects is Rethink Violence, a call for restorative justice for young people.

Seattle Pacific University activists push for social equality - After forming the SPU Justice Coalition in 2015, student activists created a website, engaged social media and protested on campus to address what they perceived to be racist and sexist hiring policies.

Tips for Safe & Effective Student Activism

As they saying goes, "Learn to walk before you run." The same holds true for student activism. Students can fall into some common pitfalls if they rush to deploy their plans. Use these tips and tricks to increase your chances of success:

Before taking up the fight for any cause, it's important for students to understand their rights. While all Americans are entitled to free speech under the First Amendment, some colleges dictate where free speech - be it handing out leaflets, gathering signatures for a petition or picketing - can be done on campus. Some schools may even threaten students with suspension or expulsion for engaging in certain types of activism. Students must know their rights. The American Civil Liberties Union provides a comprehensive guide on First Amendment rights and what students should do if they feel their rights have been violated.

Ideas & Inspiration: Small Acts of Activism

Although securing a change to the law or getting the President to create a new anti-discriminatory task force may make the news, smaller acts of civic engagement can make an incremental difference in your school community and the world. Here are some examples of what students of all ages are doing:

For Educators & Parents: Benefits of Student Activism

Student activists have been at the heart of social progress for decades, serving as instrumental participants in movements against sexism and racism and for more civil rights and freedoms. College campuses often serve as incubators of these movements, providing a setting where students discover their passions and develop skills to combat prejudice and inequality. While parents and educators may worry about these activities, there are several benefits of student activism for students, schools, communities and the nation.

Advice from the Expert: Activism on Campus and Online

Eddie Thompson is no stranger to activism. His parents started attending rallies when Eddie was young, and he's worked on numerous grassroots initiatives in Florida. He has mobilized voters to elect like-minded candidates while also promoting specific public policy changes. He plans on raising his children to be vocal and passionate activists.

Additional Resources for Student Activists

Campus Activism - Students looking to address issues and fight for change can find a one-stop-shop for tools and resources at Campus Activism.

Do Something -This resource allows users to explore recent campaigns to find ideas and inspiration - and even join.

Student Nation - The Nation magazine features a section highlighting activism efforts on college campuses throughout America.

Youth Activist's Toolkit - Advocates for Youth publishes a holistic manual covering how activism works and how to get the best results.

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Student Activism In School Getting Your Voice Heard | Accredited Schools Online

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Resources, Inspiration And Expert Advice For Making A Difference On And Off Campus Student activism has surged in the last decade, with young campaigners calling on leaders both on and off campus to right wrongs, erase inequalities and secure the future of our planet.

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First Grade students vote on mentimeter if they would like to have gone to school in the past. They then participate in a think-pair-share/square to share what made them say that.

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Students use a podcasting platform to create PSAs about a cause they care about 

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Students use a podcasting platform to create PSAs about a cause they care about 

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This fall, Synth was shut down

Thank you for believing in the power of audio, from podcasting in the classroom to building relationships asynchronously.

We've turned our attention to Focusable, a new tool for students, teachers, and those seeking to improve their ability to focus.

If you need help getting access to your content please reach out at support@gosynth.com

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This fall, Synth was shut down Thank you for believing in the power of audio, from podcasting in the classroom to building relationships asynchronously. We've turned our attention to Focusable, a new tool for students, teachers, and those seeking to improve their ability to focus.

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Students connect with classrooms around the world via Grid Pals. Groups determine a cause to study and promote with their collaborative partner. (scenerio open to interpretation)

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Students connect with classrooms around the world via Grid Pals. Groups determine a cause to study and promote with their collaborative partner. (scenerio open to interpretation)

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How the GridPals Movement Started | Flipgrid

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Students make connections of the past and present of school so they can activate their thinking and review what they have read about. 

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Students make connections of the past and present of school so they can activate their thinking and review what they have read about. 

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First grade students share their feelings about the past, present, and future of school on Flipgrid. The Flipgrid was then shared with another 1st class at their school and with a school 350 miles away for a chance listen and respond.

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First grade students share their feelings about the past, present, and future of school on Flipgrid. The Flipgrid was then shared with another 1st class at their school and with a school 350 miles away for a chance listen and respond.

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Password to Flipgrid: School22

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Flip is where social and emotional learning happens! The leading video discussion platform for millions of PreK to PhD educators, students, and families.

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Students connect with industry professionals via Nepris.com ... they get questions answered that they created as part of a Genius hour project. 

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Students connect with industry professionals via Nepris.com ... they get questions answered that they created as part of a Genius hour project. 

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Students write a letter to the principal about what changes they would like for their school in the future. Principal responds on a Padlet.

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Students write a letter to the principal about what changes they would like for their school in the future. Principal responds on a Padlet.

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Students use Flipgrid to record their conversations with community members.. asking questions and getting answers

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Students use Flipgrid to record their conversations with community members.. asking questions and getting answers

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https://pressofatlanticcity.com/news/local/11-year-old-girl-saves-baby-turtles-from-storm-drains/article_647b18ba-be60-11eb-bbd7-5f0ff2e72ed2.html?fbclid=IwAR0PB6Y-FYjqmLT_rKwS3Z8AbZRnovBpToJvE5kHQNJar5PLEEV7fc-GiFk

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Students are taught and supported to give effective peer feedback

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Students are taught and supported to give effective peer feedback

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https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/49243/developing-students-ability-to-give-and-take-effective-feedback

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Giving their classmates feedback on writing is a complex skill for students to master, but it can be taught with scaffolded modeling.

Bob Daemmrich / Alamy Stock Photo

When I first share with my ninth graders that peer review will be part of our writing process, the response is almost universally negative. Unfortunately, many of my writers have not had the best experience with this activity.

My stronger writers say that they almost never receive feedback that goes beyond basic conventions, while my emerging writers say they feel a lack of confidence in providing feedback beyond basic conventions. This frustration should be no surprise: As educators, we recognize that effective teaching is a complex skill that requires deliberate practice. Likewise, when we ask students to give each other feedback, this too is more complex than simply exchanging papers and locating errors.

To make peer feedback more focused and meaningful, I've found it helpful to define quality feedback, provide structured routines, and teach feedback as I would any other core skill.

Defining Effective Feedback

In my experience, few high school freshmen have mastered the conventions of writing well enough to function as reliable editors. For this reason, I direct my students to reflect upon each other's work-not correct it.

This is confusing because I cannot follow your topic.

I am confused about who "they" are in this sentence.

Explain a little more about why you chose this example from the text.

I like how you repeated key words from your hook here in your conclusion.

My students focus on idea development, clarity, and arrangement to make sense of the writer's text. Of course, scrambled grammar can impact a reader's experience, but rather than have them try to correct a peer's confounding syntax with editing marks, I ask students to write full sentences to one another:

Specific: Comments are linked to a discrete word, phrase, or sentence.

Prescriptive: Like a medical prescription that aims to solve an ailment, prescriptive feedback offers a solution or strategy to improve the work, including possible revisions or links to helpful resources or examples.

Actionable: When the feedback is read, it leaves the peer knowing what steps to take for improvement.

Referenced: The feedback directly references the task criteria, requirements, or target skills.

Kind: It's mandatory that all comments be framed in a kind, supportive way.

I also offer kids a specific acronym to remember what constitutes quality feedback: SPARK. For feedback to be useful to a writer, it should meet as many of these criteria as possible:

Some groups I've taught took to SPARK quickly, while others have needed more practice. For these groups, I create student-friendly versions of a consultancy protocol or tuning protocol to ensure focused discourse, allowing room for all voices.

I also set a guideline for a minimum number of quality comments, but I tell students that less is often more.

Modeling SPARK Feedback

As with any other skill I teach, I begin by modeling SPARK feedback on sample student writing. I interact with students, explaining my thought process as they help pinpoint what about a text is effective or ineffective, as well as how to offer quality SPARK-based comments. From there, as a class we examine other example feedback statements before evaluating their potential usefulness to a writer.

To also give students the chance to practice giving feedback independently, I distribute the same example paragraph. We use group and class discussions to share the variety of feedback offered.

When it's time for live peer review, I assess performance by giving students feedback on their feedback. After that, students share particularly useful examples. Before students leave class, they share on exit tickets what they feel was the best feedback they offered, as well as the best feedback they received.

In the end, good peer review should provide the writer with meaningful information for improvement, while developing the reviewer's ability to analyze a text's effectiveness.

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Giving their classmates feedback on writing is a complex skill for students to master, but it can be taught with scaffolded modeling.

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"Student Voice leads 50+ organizations in calling on Congress to make historic investments in young people's futures by addressing climate change and providing educational opportunity in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework."

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"Student Voice leads 50+ organizations in calling on Congress to make historic investments in young people's futures by addressing climate change and providing educational opportunity in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework."

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Students post their stories (they created on BookCreator) to a padlet & read each other's work and offer feedback. 

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Students post their stories (they created on BookCreator) to a padlet & read each other's work and offer feedback. 

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Students have options on choice boards i.e. which way to taking info in or express their learning

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Students have options on choice boards i.e. which way to taking info in or express their learning

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Using Choice Boards to Boost Student Engagement

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Giving students options for how they demonstrate their learning is a good way to ignite their curiosity.

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Teacher uses an app i.e. Along to "exchange quick, one-on-one reflections with each student so they can respond without peer pressure."

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Teacher uses an app i.e. Along to "exchange quick, one-on-one reflections with each student so they can respond without peer pressure."

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Strengthen teacher-student connections to uplift and integrate student voice for thriving classrooms. Along can help transform your school into a community.

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How are you check-in PLUS teacher connection/ response to students' state

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How are you check-in PLUS teacher connection/ response to students' state

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"Get to know our students as individuals. I do this through several surveys at the beginning of the year. One of them asks students to tell me about their participation style...". 

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"Get to know our students as individuals. I do this through several surveys at the beginning of the year. One of them asks students to tell me about their participation style...". 

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With some guidance, all students-whether outgoing or reserved-can effectively take part in class discussions.

I once heard someone say, "The person doing the talking is the one doing the learning." This statement carries even more weight as we seek to dismantle systems of inequity in middle and high school classrooms, since it translates to: "The person doing the talking is the person with the power."

Who has the power in our classrooms? How do we ensure equity in access to that power? We do it by ensuring equity to air space.

Changing Ourselves as Questioners

One way we can ensure equity to air space is by minimizing the generic questions that we throw around to anyone who will take us up on answering. These generic and nontargeted questions ensure that students who are confident in their answers and who are outspoken are the only ones with the voice. This convenient default mode is dangerous because it subliminally communicates to students that answering questions is about getting the right answer rather than actively learning. It also undermines the best practice of ensuring wait time so that all students can formulate their thinking.

When I operate from this default mode, it also means that some students feel invisible; I can watch students leave my class after a period realizing I only "noticed" about half of them... the dominant voices. I hate those days. Ultimately, questions that are intentional in their design and target are the questions that ensure all voices are honored.

Changing Our Students as Conversationalists

Our classroom is full of students who have inherent conversational tendencies. Some dominate the conversation. Some are active listeners. Some sprinkle in their thoughts here and there. Some are distracted. Being intentional in creating equitable air space benefits all of these types-and more.

In any healthy working environment that is built on quality collaboration, those who are dominant need to build self-monitoring skills to transition from vocal participation to strategic facilitation. The same is true for students who do not like to participate. Students who are shy need a safe space to build the confidence and courage to share their thoughts and ask their questions. When we create a classroom dedicated to equity of verbal space, we model healthy collaborative practices that build sensitivity and awareness of one another.

Before I continue, I want to be clear about the difference between equity and equality in air space. Equality would mean all students are talking the same exact amount. But, far richer yet more difficult to achieve, equity protects all students' right to be heard. It is not about frequency; it is about presence. This allows for people's natural conversational styles to be honored but still sends the message that every single person's voice in the class matters and is worthy of being heard. Here are some ways to do just that.

Setting Up an Equitable Air Space

In the beginning of the year, focus on building connections through community builders and establishing healthy participation norms. Be redundant and explicit with the messages that verbal processing is a necessary part of learning, that all voices matter and deserve to be heard, that mistakes and questions are welcome and honored, that struggle is messy but collaborative and rewarding.

Even more important than these messages is the tone that they are delivered in. When participating in class becomes a punitive grade opportunity ("You'll lose points if you don't contribute"), a healthy verbal space is undermined. Rather, the invitation should be just that: a warm welcome to truly be here, in this community. Another easy action to build equitable air space is to reduce teacher talk; our classrooms should be dominated by the voices of students and only facilitated by ours.

Another essential way to ensure equity in air space early on is to get to know our students as individuals. I do this through several surveys at the beginning of the year. One of them asks students to tell me about their participation style. For those who self-indicate they are dominant, I conference with them about the importance of developing their listening and leadership skills in conversations. For those who are reserved, I conference with them about the importance of verbal engagement and how I can support them in their growth.

Strategy and Design

It's not enough to establish the foundation for equity in air space; it must be nurtured intentionally throughout the year. For this, I rely on protocols. Yes, they can come with baggage, but I have come to see through my own experience and through the experience of my students that protocols protect participation.

More often than not, I build in think time. This means students have quiet time to mentally process and/or write in preparation for our discussion. This encourages students who speak too quickly to add depth and complexity to their thoughts, while also giving the reserved students confidence and courage.

I find that a modified think-pair-share protocol is a great extension of this. Students have time to gather their thoughts, then they share with a partner, and then I ask students to share out not what they said, but what their partners said.

It's important here to point out the difference between a discussion and a share out. Whereas a discussion offers students the chance to spontaneously volley their thoughts among one another, a share out offers more space for students who are reserved to have the chance to offer their voice. Another boost to those students is to give them a heads-up that I will ask them to speak.

Lastly, I always make sure as much as possible that I offer choice and variety. For example, I offer eight to 10 questions that require a variety of thinking strategies but allow students to pick the three that most interest them.

Through intentional design and follow-through, even the shyest of students can feel verbal success. In these classes, everyone speaks. Every voice matters. Everyone has the power.

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Maximizing Student Voice to Achieve Equity in Classroom Participation

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With some guidance, all students-whether outgoing or reserved-can effectively take part in class discussions. I once heard someone say, "The person doing the talking is the one doing the learning." This statement carries even more weight as we seek to dismantle systems of inequity in middle and high school classrooms, since it translates to: "The person doing the talking is the person with the power."

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We conduct exit interviews with every student... 

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We conduct exit interviews with every student... 

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Each day at the end of class, 2-3 students complete a form to give feedback to the teacher on the day's lesson/ learning

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Each day at the end of class, 2-3 students complete a form to give feedback to the teacher on the day's lesson/ learning

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The new question-of-the-week is:
Should teachers encourage student evaluations of their classes and their teaching? If not, why not? If so, what are the best ways to do it?
In Part One, we heard from Roxanna Elden, Adeyemi Stembridge, Kathy Dyer, Sheila M. Wilson, and Madeline Whitaker Good. You can listen to a 10-minute conversationI had with Roxanna, Adeyemi, and Kathy on my BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

Today's contributors are Dr. PJ Caposey, Kate Wolfe Maxlow, Karen Sanzo, Rachael Williams, Andrea Clark, and Donna L. Shrum.
Response From Dr. PJ Caposey
Dr. PJ Caposey is an award-winning educator, speaker, and author of six books who currently serves as the superintendent of schools for Meridian 223 in Northwest Illinois. You can find PJ on most social-media platforms as MCUSDSupe. This concept is explored in detail including some of the text of this blog in his book Student Voice: From Invisible to Invaluable with Nick Polyak and Mike Lubelfeld:
Have you stayed at a hotel lately? Have you gone to the doctor's office? The amount of emails asking for feedback is overwhelming. It is amazing how much seemingly every other industry cares about securing the feedback of their primary customer. It is even more amazing when juxtaposed to education. There is simply no reason why student feedback on teacher performance is not a part of more classrooms. Instead of pointing out the amazing benefits of receiving authentic feedback from the people who actually experience the teacher firsthand for over 170 days per year, I thought it may be prudent to attack some of the excuses that typically pop up as to why this should not happen. On a very personal level, we assess student engagement annually in our district. Our findings last year, holistically, were that we did not incorporate enough student voice and choice within our instruction. This feedback, coming from students, has fueled greater improvement discussions (in my opinion) than any feedback of this sort ever levied by administration. Perhaps, if education, like every other industry sought to engage and gain the confidence of their primary customers, truly necessary transformational shifts would occur much more frequently and with a greater sense of urgency. Response From Kate Wolfe Maxlow & Karen Sanzo
Kate Wolfe Maxlow is the professional learning coordinator at the Hampton City schools in Virgina and Karen Sanzo is a professor of educational foundations and leadership at Old Dominion University. They are co-authors of 20 Formative Assessment Strategies that Work: A Guide Across Content and Grade Levels:
Students know when they have high-quality teachers teaching them. In his meta-analysis of multiple studies on students' ratings of teachers, John Hattie (2017) reports that overall, student rating of teaching quality has a 0.50 effect size, which means that students' evaluations of their teachers are significantly correlated with their academic achievement. Those familiar with Hattie's work know that he generally considers an effect size of 0.40 the "hinge point," and anything higher than that he considers to be a high-impact influence on student achievement (Hattie, 2009). Hattie's team has also found that teacher-student relationships have an effect size of 0.52, and furthermore, teacher credibility has an effect size of 0.90. How, then, can teachers create these positive teacher-student relationships in a way that favorably impacts teacher credibility? The answer lies in the form of two-way feedback. According to Hattie and his team (2017), feedback has an effect size of 0.70 when done well. What does that mean? It means that not only is the teacher giving feedback to students on student progress toward achieving learning goals-but also that the teacher is collecting feedback from students on what is and is not working instructionally and then using that all that information to inform instruction. Teachers will therefore want to collect feedback early and often from students. Even if a school district uses a formal student-evaluation process, teachers can increase the trust between themselves and students by informally collecting feedback throughout the year and using that information to make positive changes in the classroom. After all, the role of the teacher is not just to teach but also to help students learn, and who knows better about whether students are learning than the students themselves? Teachers can collect feedback on their instruction throughout the year in multiple ways. Formal surveys for students are an option, and there is ample evidence to suggest that students as young as kindergarten can rate teacher quality reliably (Stronge & Ostrander, 2006; Wilkerson, Mannatt, Rogers, & Maughan, 2000). Teachers can also collect feedback informally throughout the year by seamlessly integrating this type of student reflection into classroom activities such as exit tickets. For instance, a teacher might ask older students, "What from today's lesson worked especially well in helping you achieve the objective? What remains unclear for you?" Teachers might ask younger students (either orally or in writing), "What was your favorite part of the lesson? What did you find most helpful? What confused you?" Another great informal tool for collecting feedback is the 3-2-1, which can be used either as an exit ticket or anytime during a lesson. Questions such as "What are three new things you learned today? What are two questions you still have about the topic? What is one thing you would recommend changing about this lesson?" can help the teacher not only understand what students know but also provide feedback on students' perceptions of the quality of the instruction outright. A teacher who wants to incorporate more movement into this type of informal evaluation could also do a Four Corners with students, labeling different corners of the room with: "I loved everything about this lesson," "I liked it but would prefer some tweaks next time we do something like this," and "This lesson was not for me," then have students provide specific information for their choice. Having open dialogues like this helps students feel ownership of their learning and can help create positive teacher-student relationships.
References

Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. New York: Routledge

Hattie, J. (2017). Hattie's 2017 updated list of factors influencing student achievement. Retrieved from https://www.visiblelearningplus.com/sites/default/files/250%20Influences.pdf

Stronge, J. H., & Ostrander, L. (2006). Client surveys in teacher evaluation. In J. H. Stronge (Ed.), Evaluating teaching: A guide for current thinking and best practice, pp. 125-151. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Wilkerson, D.J., Manatt, R.P., Rogers, M., Maughan, R. (2000). "Validation of student, principal, and self-ratings in 360° Feedback Ⓡ for Teacher Evaluation. Journal of Peronnel Evaluation in Education, 14(2), 179-192.
Response From Rachael Williams
Rachael Williams is a teacher and Year 9 learning leader at Ballarat Grammar School in Australia. She enjoys learning and teaching and writing about learning and teaching. You can follow her on Twitter @teachermojo:
When it comes to an evaluation of what is and is not working in a classroom, it is difficult to argue against the expertise of the young people with firsthand experience of the learning environment. How can we know how they are experiencing our classrooms unless we ask them? If teachers are to make genuine improvements to their teaching practice as a result of student-evaluation data, then they must be encouraged to initiate and manage the evaluation process themselves. Feedback from students to teachers about teaching performance is most powerful when the teacher is supported but autonomous. Teacher as Learner Positioning themselves as learners is a critical early step in seeking feedback from students. Teachers should set a clear goal for what they would like to improve about their teaching performance and share it with students. Post the goal in the classroom and refer to it throughout the day, week, or term. When seeking student feedback about progress, students should be asked specifically about their experience in relation to the practice the teacher is aiming to improve. A simple way to invite anonymous feedback is to set up a Google form and give students the link. This works best if the link is provided in the classroom, after an explanation that the teacher is seeking constructive, honest, anonymous feedback. Simple statements with which students can agree or disagree are useful, but the richest data comes from student responses to open-ended questions. Teacher as Warrior Be brave. There is almost always something in student feedback that causes discomfort or disappointment. A teacher's perception of their teaching may not match the perception of the students in the class, and that is the point. Finding out what is working for students is affirming, but if the real purpose of the feedback from student to teacher is improvement, then discomfort or disappointment offers an obvious and essential starting point. Teacher as Change-Maker If a teacher asks students to offer feedback on their teaching, they must act on that feedback in visible ways that demonstrate a commitment to improving teaching and learning. Data collected recently in my classroom included the following student response to the question, What should this teacher do more often? In various ways, a number of students in my class asked for more time to think and process what they are learning. As I spend time preparing for the new term, I can use this feedback to set a new goal for improving my teaching. I will share a summary of the survey feedback with students and let them know that I am committed to using their input to improve. It is not the act of asking for feedback from students that makes a difference in classrooms. When teachers act on that feedback, the real magic happens. Students feel heard, and teacher-student relationships improve. Students begin to understand that setting learning goals and working hard to get better is a worthwhile, lifelong process. Response From Andrea Clark
Andrea Clark is a 5th grade teacher at a small, independent school in Austin, Texas. She has taught grades 2-5 at both private and public schools for seven years. She blogs about technology and teaching life at Teaching with Mrs. Clark, and she posts about ed-tech and books on Twitter @andrea_m_clark:
Student evaluations are an important aspect of my professional development as a teacher. I am here to teach my students; I need to know, in their own words, how I am doing. It is important for me to improve as a teacher, and I enjoy reading what they really think of me. This is how I do it in my 5th grade classroom: Sometimes I ask them to write me a letter, sometimes I ask them to fill out a form. I have used forms created by other teachers and forms created by me. I ask students to fill in their evaluations as close to the end of the year as possible. This is what students work on while they are breaking down the classroom. It is independent and engaging because they love getting to "be the teacher" and give me feedback. I don't require students to write their names, but most of them do. My students are always very honest with me (sometimes brutally so, but those are the comments that I remember the most). I read their comments at the beginning of the next school year. Then their feedback is fresh in my mind as I am building my new classroom community. It also lets me enjoy the end of the year with my current students without worrying about what they didn't like about me as their teacher. This is the hardest part for me: Don't dwell on the negative feedback. It is really beneficial to know what I need to improve upon while working with my students. It is also really beneficial to know what is already working. Teaching is hard; remember what your students recognize as the great things you are doing in the classroom. Response From Donna L. Shrum
Donna L. Shrum is a writer, researcher, and educator in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Her specialty areas are history, language arts, and technology:
Student evaluations of your class and teaching will lead to student reflection on how much they own their learning and give you insight into the learning that is-or is not-occurring. We use formative assessment to monitor for understanding, and evaluations serve the same purpose. Don't wait until the end of your course. Create a culture from the start that you appreciate their input. Express that they are valued partners in their own learning, and you are their coach. How you frame your philosophy for using evaluations can take your students from passive to active participants. Determine your purpose for the evaluation and take the time to craft meaningful questions. Being asked for their input fosters respect between the instructor and class when both are clear that the evaluation is meant to improve student learning and will be used for change. Let them know that you will share findings and that you want their opinion about any resulting changes before you implement them. Questions should focus on how activities foster their learning and less, "What do you like?" Create a mix of Likert scale responses for those students who won't write much and open-ended questions for those who want to go beyond the solicited information. Choose the right time during class to give the evaluation but be sure to introduce it and explain your purpose ahead of time. I use Google Forms to collect responses. Handwritten responses identify the student, but you can opt not to collect emails in Forms for anonymity or make one of the questions student name if the student would like a personal follow-up. Ideally, you can go beyond evaluations and institute regular conferences with individual students to discuss their learning and needs. Those conversations will be some of the most fruitful and enjoyable of your year.
Thanks to PJ, Kate, Karen, Rachael, Andrea, and Donna for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog, along with new material, in an e-book form. It's titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. And if you missed any of the highlights from the first seven years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. The list doesn't include ones from this current year, but you can find those by clicking on the "answers" category found in the sidebar. Look for Part Three in a few days.

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Response: Student Feedback on Teachers Should Be a 'Part of More Classrooms' (Opinion)

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The new question-of-the-week is: Should teachers encourage student evaluations of their classes and their teaching? If not, why not? If so, what are the best ways to do it? In Part One, we heard from Roxanna Elden, Adeyemi Stembridge, Kathy Dyer, Sheila M. Wilson, and Madeline Whitaker Good.

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The new question-of-the-week is:
What is agency and how can teachers encourage its growth among students?
"Student agency" is a term that is tossed around in education circles. This series will explore what it means and what it looks like-practically speaking-in the classroom.

Today's contributors are Keisha Rembert, Sarah Ottow, Laurie Manville, Dr. Alva Lefevre, Dr. Lynell Powell, Dr. Felicia Darling, Paula Mellom, Rebecca Hixon, and Jodi Weber. You can listen to a 10-minute conversation I had with Laurie, Sarah, and Keisha on my BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.
Response From Keisha Rembert
Keisha Rembert is an 8th grade English and U.S. history teacher at Clifford Crone Middle School in Naperville, Ill. Keisha feeds her love of learning by continually refining her craft and has been the recipient of several grants affording her the opportunity to take courses at some of the world's most renowned universities. She has recently been named Illinois' History Teacher of the Year for 2019:
Student agency is ownership. It is command. An active process of engagement and authority over your learning. Teachers must deprivatize education for students to own it. Teachers must be coaches and facilitators and open the classroom floor up to the students. It can never be about covering a subject. I often ask my students questions and let them lead. They run groups and discussions. They tell me how we should assess ourselves. They tell me what is going good and bad in the classroom and how we can fix it. I started a feedback form I had been introduced to at a PD session. It was a biweekly form that gave students agency over content and more in the classroom. It is powerful. I do think I could and need to take that a step further and somehow turn it over completely to students.

Response From Sarah Ottow Agency for students means moving from more traditional, teacher-centered ways of teaching to more innovative, student-centered ways of teaching. It means making sure that students get to make decisions about their learning, becoming actively engaged in the learning and assessment process. In a classroom that builds student agency, students know what they are learning, how they are learning, if they have learned it, and what to do with this learning. To encourage agency among students, teachers can go beyond "covering" curriculum to engaging students in the process through connecting to students' backgrounds on a topic, through evaluating their own learning styles, and even giving students ownership over what they are interested in within the given curriculum framework. A KWL (What do you Know, What do you Want to know, and What did you Learn) model can be a useful framework to work through to encourage student agency when teaching a unit. Start a unit by asking students what they know about the topic and generate a discussion about students' experiences of this topic and what they are interested about learning. Post student ideas and the language they use or have students draw or write what they know to share. Then offer students an opportunity to predict what they will learn and share what they are interested in knowing. Spending time with students in a "What do you know?" and "What do you want to know?" can pay off in the long run because students can get hooked on the topic and generate their own knowledge versus just being receptacles of what knowledge the teacher dispenses. Throughout the unit, students can keep track of answering the question, "What did you learn?" as well as what skills and strategies they have been using to make progress. I like to remember what Jim Cummins says, "No learner is a blank slate" and I always have tried my best to connect to something students bring to the classroom even if a topic is unfamiliar to them or it seems irrelevant to their lives. One way you can honor different levels of familiarity with a topic or a concept is having students rate their "level of knowing" with a scale: 0 = I've never heard of this; 1 = I think I've heard of this but I can't tell you what it means; 2 = I've heard of this and I can explain what it means; 3 = I can teach someone else what this means. Furthermore, language-learners really need to practice language through discussions, reading, and writing, and what better way to do that than by having students consistently refer back to what they have learned to monitor their own growth. Beyond the KWL, teachers can use student-generated goals for language and/or for social skills throughout any lesson. Some examples of language goals that student generate themselves is explained in this article Response From Laurie Manville & Dr. Alva Lefevre .
Laurie Manville is an ELD teacher and instructional coach at Brookhurst Junior High in the Anaheim Union High School district in California. She enjoys helping her students figure out what they are meant to do in life and guiding teachers in lesson-design creation. In her free time, you will find her backstage (or near a stage) assisting with line memorization, costumes or concessions, analyzing a screenplay, or at home journaling or mastering PiYo.
Student agency boils down to students having a voice in the classroom, choices about how they learn, and how they show what they know. Most important is giving students a voice- meaning giving them the language and the opportunity to express their needs, as well as a mechanism to influence how the class is conducted. Classroom activities should be meaningful and relevant to learners, driven by their own interests, and, where possible, self-initiated with support from their teachers. To encourage agency, teachers need to build in options for learning and assessments and students must understand that they can demonstrate their understanding in more than one way.
One simple, but powerful mechanism that gives students voice in how class is conducted is the consistent use of the Exit Ticket. I am a techie teacher, so I have used Google forms, digital polls, and Kahoot as exit tickets. Here's a Google Form that focuses on the lesson's importance and relevance, as well as student readiness: Exit Ticket This year, I found that establishing a regular "sticky note" exit-ticket routine in my middle school class became a low tech but dynamic way to provide a platform for student voice.
How I make the sticky note work is by having students write a response to a question: personal, academic, organization-related, socio-emotional, community-building-oriented. (e.g., Were they OK in their other classes? How were things going with family and friends? Was their GPA something they could be proud of?) They record their thoughts, comments, or questions on a Post-it note and stick it onto a designated class space. Here's one of my sticky-note questions and student responses: Our space was located next to the classroom door and was entitled "What We Learned Today." The space became much more than just "what we learned" so I'm thinking I'll change the title next year to reflect student voice-maybe something like "Your Ideas are the Road to Change-#Inspired." Sometimes student ideas drove the direction in a unit of study. For example, when the class and I discussed possible action civics projects, homelessness and school uniforms were the unanimous choices.
When I first started this routine with my students, I was surprised how completely engaged they were when we discussed the sticky-note contributions at the beginning of class the next day. I think the primary reason it was so engaging was that students truly felt heard. Sometimes I grouped like sticky notes together, showed the class, and commented on the answers. Sometimes I would address specific questions and feedback. I think that physically holding the student responses, reading from them, and grouping them added more significance to the contributions.
The Single Point Rubric is one of the more complex ways student voice and choice is integrated into my classes. The Single Point Rubric is a powerful tool and anchor for learning goals, feedback, and reflection. The tool has a place for criteria and for written feedback. It's an excellent place to start when creating a space for teacher-student conferences. Reflecting on the feedback, referring back to a product-written, oral presentation-allows for a deeper type of student agency based on revision. Single Point Rubric What makes the conferencing and revision a deeper kind of student agency is that students ultimately have a choice in whether or not they actually make any of the teacher's suggested changes. Hopefully, the teacher's guidance will help the student through questioning and through giving options to make a piece stronger or more refined. If a good teacher-student relationship is built, and students see the value in making whatever change is suggested, it is more likely that a student will make commitments to change and will follow through on those commitments. Response From Dr. Lynell Powell created for an ELD 1 and 2 class combo creating ePortfolios. Single Point Rubric One of the most profound descriptions of student agency that I have come across is from Sean Michael Morris (2017) who shares, "Agency does not give us power over another, but it gives us mastery over ourselves, and an education that does not encourage or facilitate this agency is not an education. An education that convinces us of what needs to be known, what is important versus what is frivolous, is not an education. It's training at best, conscription at worst. And all it prepares us to do is to believe what we're told." Our educational system is not designed for students to experience true agency, that is, the freedom to choose what to learn and how to learn it. However, there is a more common understanding as it relates to a classroom setting which is that agency involves a continuous shift in the role of the learner. This shift is often illustrated on a continuum whereby students gradually move toward taking greater responsibility for their learning through the lens of components outlined by Bray and Mclaskey (2017) including voice, choice, engagement, motivation, ownership, purpose, and self-efficacy. On one end of the continuum, these elements are framed from a teacher-centered perspective and on the other end a learner-driven approach. Let's look for example at the idea of choice. In a classroom setting, a teacher might begin developing student agency by providing options for demonstrating knowledge of the content and gradually help students build the skills to not only choose those options but co-create them. Another example is the idea of motivation through the structure of goal setting. Teachers can assist students in creating academic goals, establishing a process that includes choosing resources to reach those goals, and incorporating structures to reflect on their progress toward those goals. It is most important to note that in any area the emphasis is on building students' capacity over time by finding ways to shift the responsibility to them. created with AUHSD ELD collaborative team with a focus on oral presentations for the Expanding (intermediate) proficiency level. Shift 1: From being skilled students to skilled lifelong learners Shift 2: From having minimal impact on their educational path to co-creating the path they will take. Shift 3: From being compliant learners to committed learners Shift 4:From experiencing delivered instruction to experiencing instruction as a shared responsibility between learner and educator Shift 5: From summative assessments designed to determine if learning has occurred to summative assessments that are a demonstration of mastery. Developing student agency requires teachers to believe that their students are capable of independent thought. It takes a willingness to gradually release control and honor students as individuals. References: Bray, B., & McClaskey, K. (2017). Richardson, W. (2019). Sparking Student Agency with Technology: Why should kids have to wait until after school to do amazing things with technology? Educational Leadership, 76(5) Response From Dr. Felicia Darling How to personalize learning: A practical guide for getting started and going deeper. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Students have agency when they have the freedom to explore their own voices and unique pathways to mastering the content. To foster student agency, educators can create inclusive, engaging learning environments where students feel safe to take risks, experiment, make mistakes, negotiate meaning, express their unique perspectives, and develop identities as powerful lifelong learners. This involves: (1) facilitating inquiry-based group learning; (2) delivering inclusive, equitable instruction; and (3) fostering a growth-mindset classroom. Below are 5 tips to support the first: facilitating inquiry-based group learning.

Include Group-worthy Tasks: Launching the first class of the year with a group-worthy task invites student agency early. Instead of lecturing on volume and then giving a worksheet, a teacher can introduce a group task, like "How many rectangular prisms can your group draw with a volume of 24cm³?" This task has multiple entry points, so students exercise choices around where to begin. Every time students make choices in the process of learning, they are developing agency. This task is open-ended and has multiple solutions, as well. Therefore, students have opportunities both to negotiate disagreement about solutions and to challenge their group's assumptions-and really flex those agency wings. This task is low-floor, high-ceiling, too. This means that students with lower procedural fluency about volume can draw three figures and deepen their conceptual understanding of volume. At the same time, students with higher computational skills around volume will be motivated to think about volume in a more conceptual way and can challenge their assumptions by coming up with an infinite number of solutions.

Response From Paula Mellom, Rebecca Hixon, & Jodi Weber . Agency is about choice and autonomy, but teachers often equate student choice with lack of structure that can lead to chaos. We often worry that the more involved our students are and the more they participate, the more risk there is that we will lose control! But there are ways to increase student agency and autonomy, while still meeting our instructional goals. Choice need not lack structure and can in fact benefit from limits. We frequently say that structured limits open spaces for creative freedom-that is to say, too much choice can be paralyzing, while limited, structured choices can promote agency-but only when we know how to engage. Even when we provide students with opportunities to choose what to study and how to be assessed on instructional tasks that require critical and creative thinking, they often lack the tools to autonomously engage in them. It is therefore imperative that we give them tools for autonomous interaction so that they might take more agency in their learning process. For example, we might create routines in the form of regular centers with familiar task structures that students have had modeled for them and have had the chance to practice. When task expectations are clear and explicit, and given to the students in a format that is familiar and routinized, students will gain confidence and become more autonomous in their interactions and agentive in their learning process. Even kindergartners can engage autonomously in tasks if given scaffolded directions for authentic, relevant tasks as well as tools for productive collaboration (such as sentence stems) and the chance to practice them. It's incredible to see 6-year-olds working through, for example, a "which one doesn't belong" task, listening to each other and asserting their own ideas, using such phrases as "I agree with you because...," "I respectfully disagree with you because...," and "I hear what you are saying, but let me tell you what I'm thinking!" But building agency isn't just a matter of being presented with authentic opportunities and choice in their tasks. Students need to be guided through a regular, recursive process of intentional goal-setting and self-reflection in order to create self-regulatory habits. These habits provide the foundation for autonomously engaging in individual and collaborative group work and the means by which to tackle learning objectives, so students can begin to take ownership of their own learning. . (You might want to use this particular exit ticket after a more difficult concept has been presented.)
Dr. Alva Lefevre has been a language teacher, administrator, university professor, and teacher trainer for almost 40 years. She is passionate about working with English-learners and finding ways to apply educational research to the classroom. In her spare time, Alva enjoys traveling, gardening, and art.

Dr. Lynell Powell had been an educator for 20 years. During this time, she has served as an elementary teacher, professional learning specialist, school administrator, and educational consultant. Currently, Dr. Powell works at a teacher's college in the area of curriculum & instruction. She is passionate about the topic of joy in schools. You can connect with her on Twitter @drjoy77:
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. And if you missed any of the highlights from the first seven years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. The list doesn't include ones from this current year, but you can find those by clicking on the "answers" category found in the sidebar. Look for Part Two in a few days.
While there is no one exact guide that will address the needs of every learning environment, there are resources that support an understanding of how agency can be exemplified in the classroom. Bray and Mclaskey's How to Personalize Learning offers concrete examples of how to move students along the learning continuum. Additionally, James Rickabaugh (2015) outlines five overall shifts to learner roles including:

Dr. Felicia Darling is a first-generation college student who has taught math in grades 7-14 for 30 years. She leads workshops for K-14 educators and is author of Teachin' It Breakout Moves that Break Down Barriers for Community College Students:

Paula J. Mellom is the associate director of the Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education (CLASE). Rebecca K. Hixon is a postdoctoral research and teaching associate for CLASE. Jodi P. Weber is the assistant director of professional development for CLASE. CLASE is a research and development center housed within the University of Georgia's College of Education. Together, they are the authors of With a Little Help from My Friends: Conversation-Based Instruction for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Classrooms:

Thanks to Laurie, Alva, Sarah, Keisha, Lynell, Felicia, Paula, Rebecca, and Jodi for their contributions.

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog, along with new material, in an e-book form. It's titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching.

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Keisha Rembert, Sarah Ottow, Laurie Manville, Dr. Alva Lefevre, Dr. Lynell Powell, Dr. Felicia Darling, Paula Mellom, Rebecca Hixon, and Jodi Weber define student agency and how to promote it in the classroom.

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Students actively raise hands in class & share their ideas

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Students actively raise hands in class & share their ideas

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Personal Identity > https://t.co/srJmrvgxDb
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#personalidentity #personality #psychology #SEL #studentvoice #stuvoice #studentdiscourse #teacherresources #teachertwitter #edchat

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✨Universe discussion ✨

Personal Identity > https://t.co/srJmrvgxDb
Created by Sarah Coulthart
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#personalidentity #personality #psychology #SEL #studentvoice #stuvoice #studentdiscourse #teacherresources #teachertwitter #edchat https://t.co/0ZRPwb1CgP

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✨Universe discussion ✨

Personal Identity > https://t.co/srJmrvgxDb
Created by Sarah Coulthart
.#personalidentity #personality #psychology #SEL #studentvoice #stuvoice #studentdiscourse #teacherresources #teachertwitter #edchat pic.twitter.com/0ZRPwb1CgP
— Parlay Ideas (@parlayideas) March 10, 2022

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✨Universe discussion ✨

Personal Identity > https://t.co/srJmrvgxDb
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✨Universe discussion ✨

Personal Identity > https://t.co/srJmrvgxDb
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#personalidentity #personality #psychology #SEL #studentvoice #stuvoice #studentdiscourse #teacherresources #teachertwitter #edchat https://t.co/0ZRPwb1CgP

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A fourth grade class posts their project online i.e. on padlet. Another class replies with their feedback and suggestions.

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A fourth grade class posts their project online i.e. on padlet. Another class replies with their feedback and suggestions.

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Excerpted from "Teaching for a Living Democracy: Project-Based Learning in the English and History Classroom" by Joshua Block. Published by Teachers College Press. Prioritizing Student Voices, Decentralizing the Classroom
In our society, it is widely believed that because young people lack experience, they aren't smart, capable, or insightful. These beliefs are often referred to as young people's oppression or adultism. In reality, young people see the world differently and are able to recognize injustice and question dominant paradigms, make intellectual connections, and take action in ways that adults often will not. Paolo Freire explained that learning to read the world and discovering the power of one's own voice are transformative experiences ( Freire, 1983). Designing learning that prioritizes student voices also benefits the teacher, who can leave the position of authority in the front of the room and be side by side with students as they transform themselves through their work.

School matters to students when they are given opportunities to engage with the world around them and ask questions about issues that are often ignored or overlooked. As students engage by reflecting on their experiences, learning about our society, and both envisioning and working for social change, they learn that there is substance to their ideas and that they can inhabit multiple roles in the world. When learning is designed in ways that prioritize student voices and thought, there is a clear pathway for students to invest themselves fully and genuinely in quality work that matters. Another way to think of this is to allow students to make meaning of content on their own terms.

In addition to regularly sharing both rough work and finished products out loud, students can generate questions and facilitate. When I prepare students well and successfully set them up to develop their own ideas, my students facilitate their own discussions by quoting sources, calling on each other, and questioning each other deeply. During these times I remind students to speak to each other and not solely to me. I position myself off to the side or behind other students, in order to make sure students speak to each other and shift away from a model where the teacher is always the center of the action.

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Designing Learning to Prioritize Student Voices - MindShift

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Excerpted from "Teaching for a Living Democracy: Project-Based Learning in the English and History Classroom" by Joshua Block. Published by Teachers College Press. Prioritizing Student Voices, Decentralizing the Classroom In our society, it is widely believed that because young people lack experience, they aren't smart, capable, or insightful.

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Students are invited to school and district committees i.e. architect team for new building... 

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Students are invited to school and district committees i.e. architect team for new building... 

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Youth Voice Tip Sheet

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Genius Hour projects result in community change

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Genius Hour projects result in community change

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Classrooms Without Walls: Using Digital Media to Connect Inside and Outside of the Classroom - EdSurge News

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EdSurge has a collection of resources and templates to help schools and districts increase their success in assessing the edtech needs they should…

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Students attend a Board meeting to share their concerns and ideas

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Students attend a Board meeting to share their concerns and ideas

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‘My perspective matters’: Students say activism helped them find their voice

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‘My perspective matters’: Students say activism helped them find their voice

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It took a lot for Justin Chan and his friends at Quincy High School to speak up. But when they saw a racist video circulating among students for a second time, Chan said they hit a breaking point. He felt the response from school administrators was disappointing.

So, on Nov. 12, Chan and his friends organized a walkout. They convinced more than 100 students to participate in a call for school leaders to work harder to get to the root of the issue. Their demands included a formal investigation and anti-bias training for students and staff.

"We need change," the students shouted as they left the school building that Friday morning, along with, "No justice, no peace."

"The school had pushed this under the carpet for too long," Chan said. "And we needed to say something. We needed to let the school know that we didn't like the way they were handling these situations."

The walkout in Quincy is just one example of how students are increasingly calling for adults to do more to address issues like racism and violence in schools. Similar demonstrations have taken place this year in other communities, including Medford and Lawrence.

While student activism isn't new, experts say social media has been a game changer for organizing.

"I think one of the things that makes this moment unique is that social media allows young people to connect with each other in really effective, really fast ways," said Danika Manso-Brown, education director at the Anti-Defamation League of New England. She added that there's a larger cultural shift happening right now, too.

"Schools are recognizing more and more that conversations about equity and inclusion have to be a part of the school philosophy and part of the school lens," Manso-Brown said. "I would say that existed five years ago, but it didn't necessarily exist 10 years ago."

While the work to improve school culture shouldn't fall solely on students, Manso-Brown said, they do play an important role: They're on the ground every day and have an intimate knowledge of the student culture. And, she adds, it's important for students to feel their voices matter.

That's something Meggie Noel and Kylie Webster-Cazeau said they had to fight for as high school students at Boston Latin School in 2016. After trying for months to get leadership to meaningfully address incidents of racism at the school, the pair created a video highlighting their experiences and those of some of their peers. It quickly went viral.

"At the end of the day, we were really trying to work with the administration," said Noel, who is now 23. "We didn't want to be seen as the troublesome Black people because we were already viewed as that."

Since they raised their voices, the school has undergone tremendous changes, from new leadership to anti-bias training, and an overhaul to the way the prestigious institution admits students.

"We underestimated how powerful what we were saying really was," said Webster-Cazeau, now 23 and an ethnic studies teacher at the Sarah Greenwood K-8 school in Boston, adding the whole experience taught her an important lesson. "If I have something to say, I say it now. ... I realized how much my voice and my perspective matters."

At the time, the social repercussions of speaking out were sometimes difficult, Noel and Webster-Cazeau said. The pair lost friends and faced public scrutiny, but said they don't regret taking action.

"I came out of this learning that I can be me, unapologetically," Noel said. "After all we had gone through, there was no one else I could be ... My identity, my blackness, my womanhood, all of it."

The fear of repercussions is something a lot of student activists experience before speaking up.

"I remember thinking, 'Are all of our friends going to turn our backs on us?' " said Averi Kaplowitch, one of two students who spoke out about an anti-Semitic incident at Marblehead High School in 2017. "That courage can be really tough."

Kaplowitch said working through that and seeing how powerful her voice could be was ultimately empowering. It's a sentiment all of these student activists said they can relate to, including Justin Chan in Quincy.

"I feel like this year I've realized that things don't happen if you are scared, and things don't happen if you don't have a voice," Chan said.

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'My perspective matters': Students say activism helped them find their voice

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It took a lot for Justin Chan and his friends at Quincy High School to speak up. But when they saw a racist video circulating among students for a second time, Chan said they hit a breaking point. He felt the response from school administrators was disappointing. So, on Nov.