Student-led school change
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Student-led school change
Student-led school change is a growing movement taking root in communities across the United States. Through this effort, young people are using activism, research, community organizing, and critical reflection to make student voice heard in schools by affecting education systems that have traditionally ignored the potential of students to be meaningful contributors to school reform.
Student-led school change is about more than simply listening to students or forcing them to participate in school reform. Students are working to create their own agendas for action, consideration popular issues in education reform, and considering new issues that are student-identified. These students are leading community organizing efforts, guiding ongoing systemic processes, and building networks and coalitions nationwide to promote the inclusion of the experiences, knowledge, ideas and opinions of students in school reform.
Then and now
The traditional education structure has negated the role of students as creators of knowledge since its inception. Current trends in popular school reform continue to neglect students, while reinforcing the active, adultist perception of students as passive recipients of learning. There have been menial attempts to actually involve students in the process of school change, with very few quantifible outcomes. Through this historical dismissal and ongoing denial of the ability of students to cause effective, sustainable, and meaningful change in their schools comes an emerging trend that has roots in historical student activism efforts (http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/huron.html). Current efforts (http://www.whatkidscando.org/takingdemocracy.pdf) in many communities across the US engage a much more diverse audience, particularly students of color and low-income youth.
Issues
The issues in school that students are working to affect include:
- Student rights
- Teacher quality
- Social justice
- Instructional methods
- School size (small schools)
- Students as education decision-makers
- Opportunities after high school
- Student voice
Student-led school change groups
- Philadelphia Students Union (http://www.phillystudentunion.org)
- Seattle Young Peoples Project (http://www.sypp.org)
- YouthAction (http://www.youthaction.net)
- Students 4 Justice (http://www.progressivecoalition.org/body.htm)
- Youth Working for Postive Change (http://www.iowacci.org/ywpc/ywpc.htm)
- Youth Together (http://www.youthtogether.net/)
- Youth Making a Change (http://www.colemanadvocates.org/)
- Oakland Kids First - REAL HARD (http://www.kidsfirstoakland.org/)
Organizations that support student-led school change
- SoundOut (http://www.soundout.org)
- The Freechild Project (http://freechild.org)
- Funders Collaborative on Youth Organizing (http://www.fcyo.org)
- What Kids Can Do (http://www.whatkidscando.org)
- Students Against Testing (http://nomoretests.com)