Giving Students a Voice
Everyone has an opinion on how to “fix” 
education, ranging from the erudite proffers of national experts to the local, hands-on solutions from educators and community members. Education reform is a year-round hot topic that has no shortage of ideas and commentary.
Among the many people weighing in on the future of our educational system, the one missing voice seems to be that of our students. Oh, there is an occasional good news student success story that is shared or an educational-focused editorial authored by a student. Rarely though are there intentional programs to give students a voice in changing their experience.
One shining example of a national research effort to give students a voice is Project Tomorrow’s Speak Up survey. The Speak Up 2012 survey just closed on December 21, and the final counts of participants were impressive. 364,240 students took the time to participate, sharing their ideas on topics ranging from how they use technology for learning to how they would design a school or textbook. The data from the survey will be available in February 2013. (www.tomorrow.org)
Why not turn to our real experts—the students—on an ongoing basis to help shape the educational experience? As seen from the Speak Up participation, students welcome the opportunity to identify problems, provide input, and brainstorm solutions. BUT, and this is a big one, it has to be real. It cannot be the occasional task force or student panel, followed by a “thank you for your participation” and a pat on the head. Today’s busy students want to know that their opinions are sought and valued; they want to see the results of their input in action. They thrive on the immediacy of texting and posting. There is no surer way to lose credibility with students than to seek their help and then stash the findings in a file somewhere.
So, what could an ongoing student voice program include?
Students have a voice in leading the change.
Students can provide valuable ongoing feedback about course materials and instruction, offering suggestions as to what is working and what isn’t in current learning environments, classroom activities, and course assignments. Students can participate in creating their learning environment: they can help search for engaging resources, create meaningful activities, and lead collaborative sessions, often showcasing new ways of learning as they participate.
Students have a voice in teacher quality.
Students can be a part of the staffing process: they can offer thoughts on the qualities of the best teachers as well as the characteristics of the average to poor ones. They can share what methods of engagement and instructional delivery they find most effective, providing clues for future professional development efforts. Students can even participate in interviews for new teachers—now that makes a statement about valuing our students’ perspectives!
Students have a voice in solving problems.
On the formal side, students can participate in student advisory panels that tackle the tough school issues and work with teacher-leaders and administrators to effect change. On a more informal basis, students can quickly offer input through daily or weekly polls and questions that can help shape the conversations of educators.
Perhaps the best way to create an intentional program that involves students in both the local and the national conversations on educational innovation is just to ask them how they would like to be involved. We may be surprised at the answers. There will be many differences in responses, depending on the students’ ages, participation levels, prior learning experiences, and backgrounds, but they will all be authentic.
Here, at FLVS, we do ask our students. We consistently involve our students in every aspect of course development, instructional review, leadership meetings, and, yes, even hiring panels. We are always impressed by the quality of their participation and often surprised by their input. And, most importantly, we use this data to inform decisions, make changes, and create new resources. Our students are at the center of every decision we make.
Students are almost always willing to engage in real conversation—as long as we are really listening and acting. It’s time to give them a voice.
Post by: Cassie Nielsen, Former FLVS Chief Marketing & Communications Officer
I agree so much with giving students a voice in teacher quality and education in general. The students know who the good teachers are – in fact, that’s how we find out who to request as teachers for our own children. We just ask the older kids whose opinion we trust.
If you go to ratemyteachers.com you will see idiotic postings and rants about teachers as well as useful, thoughtful observations left by previous students. You can see definite trends with particular teachers. Pay close attention to the characteristics that come up over and over again. It’s very useful insight.
I hope this trend of involving students catches on. It seems like a critical component in effecting real change in education.
Thank you for posting this! Looks like people are finally getting it! The only snag I see is that you would have to find students who are mature, insightful, and serious about their education.
Very good points Cassie! There are a lot of opinions with regard to how to “fix” education and it is time for some of the stakeholders to put up or shut up. The transformation of education is a very complex topic and though there isn’t a silver bullet, no grand answer, we have to push innovation in education. It must evolve like the rest of the world and we can’t be afraid to take on new challenges, to be wrong, and perhaps most importantly, trust the students.
The only truism with regard to our system of education here in the United States is that most people think it is broken and most of those same people point the finger at everyone else. It isn’t the policy makers, administrators, teachers, parents or industry and it isn’t the students – it is all of us. Shame on us for accepting a system which achieves less than it can with the resources it is given. A system which is less than innovative than it can be, where we expect teachers to be parents instead of teachers. A system in which we spend more on the business of education than we do in the classroom. A system in in which students have more technology in their phone than they do in the classroom. A system which is disconnected from its communities economic development mission and does not prepare students for the next phase in their lives.
It is time to take back this system and it is gratifying to see the innovation at FLVS. It is gratifying to see FLVS is giving students a voice and taking their input seriously. They are fully capable if we just trust them. While we are not seeing system wide transformation and innovation, we see it every day through FLVS. Keep up the good work, now if we could just get everyone besides the teachers and students engaged!
Really liked what you had to say in your post, Giving Students a Voice | The Virtual Voice, thanks for the good read!
— Consuelo
http://www.terrazoa.com