Speak Out, Listen Up! Listening to Student Voice

Date: December 4, 2014
Location: Webinar

Listening closely to what students say about their school experiences can be beneficial to educators for understanding and addressing school-related topics and problems and rethinking policies and practices.

REL West recently published a toolkit to provide educators with a purposeful and systematic way to elicit and listen to student voice to inform school improvement efforts. The toolkit offers three tools.

• ASK (Analyzing Surveys with Kids) involves students in analyzing and interpreting survey results associated with a school-related topic or problem and then producing suggestions for school improvement.
• Inside-Outside Fishbowl organizes a special kind of focus group in which students and educators trade roles as speakers and listeners during a facilitated discussion of a school-related topic or problem, and jointly develop an action plan.
• S4 (Students Studying Students’ Stories) guides a digital storytelling process in which students produce and analyze videotaped interviews of other students about a school-related topic or problem and then host forums with educators to suggest improvements.

The webinar provided an opportunity for educators to:

• Understand the concept of student voice and the benefits of including student input in school improvement efforts;
• Learn about three tools that have been found effective in eliciting student ideas; and
• Hear from educators and students who have used the tools about how the process has impacted school improvement efforts in the Washoe County (NV) School District and elsewhere.

Presenters:

• BethAnn Berliner, Senior Research Associate, REL West at WestEd
• Noelle Caskey, Senior Research Associate, REL West at WestEd
• Jennifer Harris, High School Graduation Initiative Program Evaluator, Washoe County (NV) School District

For more information, please contact BethAnn Berliner, bberlin@wested.org.