Meaningful Student Involvement Stories

meaning ?Meaningful Student Involvement
is the processs of engaging
students in every facet of the
educational process for the
purpose of strengthening their
committement to education,
community and democracy.?
Adam Fletcher

Stories

of

Meaningful Student
Involvement

Adam Fletcher

Presented by
MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 2
Stories of Meaningful Student Involvement
Copyright ?2004 by Adam Fletcher

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in articles or reviews.

For more information on this publication or for additional copies, please contact:

SoundOut!
c/o The Freechild Project
PO Box 6185
Olympia, Washington 98507
(360)753.2686
info@soundout.org

The author wishes to acknowledge and thank the HumanLinks Foundation for their
generous support of this booklet.

The author also wishes to thank the following for their contributions: Sue Paro of the
HumanLinks Foundation; Beth Kelly and Jessica Vavrus of the Washington Reading
Corps; Andrea Felix of Youth Service America; Dr. Michael Vavrus of The Evergreen
State College; Nasue Nishida and Greg Williamson of the Washington State Office
of Superintendent of Public Instruction; Wendy Lesko of the Youth Activism Project,
and; Joel Tolman, of the Forum for Youth Investment.
STORI ES 3
Table of Contents

Introduction 4

Overview of Meaningful Student Involvement 6

Students as Education Planners 11

Students as Education Researchers 15

Students as Classroom Teachers 19

Students as Education Evaluators 22

Students as Education Decision-Makers 25

Students as Education Advocates 30

Conclusion 34

References 36

MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 4
Introduction

Any situation in which some individuals prevent others from
engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence. The means
used are not important; to alienate human beings from their own
decision-making is to change them into objects.
Paulo Freire (1970)
!
I
n light of the above words of the renowned Brazilian literacy teacher Paulo Freire,
violence permeates schools today. This violence becomes apparent in the reports
of growing percentages of students who have expressed feeling alienated from their
teachers and peers, as well as from their families and communities at large
(Gerwetz, 2001; Oerlemans & Jenkins, 1998). Many students report feeling
mistreated by teachers because of their racial or ethnic heritage, language barriers,
gender, as well as other prejudice (Cushman, 2003; REAL HARD, 2003; California
Tomorrow, 2001). The school violence and the resultant crackdown on students
civil liberties in the last decade stand as the sad manifestation of this violence.
I
ronically, students in all grade levels are increasingly being embraced as powerful
market segments by companies vying for their consumer spending power. Young
people of all ages are targeted in their homes, on the playground, in their
classrooms, and throughout schools (Schlosser, 2001). While budget constraints
and education reform are limiting the real choices students can make in their
schools, vis-?vis classes and after-school programs, corporate America directly
appeals to students by giving them one of the few actual choices they can make in
school: how to spend their money. As professor Henry Giroux has noted, the
commercial hijacking of schools glorifies the role of young people as customers in
the marketplace while simultaneously undermining their ability to be engaged,
critical learners (Giroux, 2003).

There is hope for schools, embodied in the growing buzz of classrooms and
boardrooms, brought to life by the assertion of student s ideas, opinions and
knowledge. There is hope for students, made real when students are engaged as
education planners, researchers, teachers, evaluators, decision-makers, and
advocates. This is the hope represented by Meaningful Student Involvement,
brought to life by students and educators who are building a truly progressive
pedagogy with democracy and social justice at its core.
STORI ES 5

Today, more than ever before, educators are empowering students with the critical
skills of reading, writing, language, and technological literacy, along with knowledge,
social experiences, and resources they need to build democracy. Today, more than
ever before, students seek to enhance their own abilities as well as future
generations capacities to understand, comprehend, engage, and, when necessary,
transform the world they live in. This teaching and learning is happening through
Meaningful Student Involvement by engaging students in every facet of schooling for
the purpose of strengthening their learning, their communities, and democracy.

This publication is not a guidebook or a toolkit, nor is it meant to gloss over the real
problems schools face. Instead, it provides a glimpse into a diverse set of practices
that offer hope for the future of schools. It provides a glimpse at Meaningful Student
Involvement for students and educators alike. The broad range of experiences
represented here are intended to serve as a testament to the purpose and
effectiveness of Meaningful Student Involvement. However, application is the best
test. Individually, the following stories illustrate the degrees of possibility for
broadening the roles of students in schools; collectively, these vignettes entrust
today s educator with the grand conspiracy of hope that Meaningful Student
Involvement embodies. This hope, when activated, incorporated and infused into
teaching and learning, is one that will change the very nature of schools, and
society, for a long time to come.

Adam Fletcher
Olympia, Washington
January 2004

!

MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 6
Overview

There s a radical and wonderful new idea here that all children could
and should be inventors of their own theories, critics of other people s ideas,
analyzers of evidence, and makers of their own personal marks on the world.
It s an idea with revolutionary implications. If we take it seriously.
- Deborah Meier (1995)
!

Whereas many educational programs offer seemingly positive goals for schools,
few outwardly state what their underlying assumptions or beliefs are. For instance, a
business teacher might be preoccupied with the belief that the students in her
classes are inevitably going to work in fast food restaurants or in telemarketing jobs.
Believing they would have no other avenues to learn the necessary occupational
habits of work in the customer service industry, the teacher focuses on training her
students with the skills she thinks they need, instead of discussing business theory
and economic cycles. What is the likelihood of that educator ever explaining this
belief to their students?

Meaningful Student Involvement challenges schools to transform learning activities
by fostering accountability, transparency and interdependence between students and
educators (Fletcher, 2003). The prospect of accountability between students and
educators shifts the burden of school change from sitting solely upon educators
shoulders, and shares the responsibility of school improvement with students.
Transparency is the deliberate attempt to move from a secretive or opaque
organization to one that encourages open access to information, participation, and
decision making, which ultimately creates a higher level of trust among stakeholders
(Meyer, 2003). Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. best summarized interdependence by
saying, All life is interrelated. We are all caught up in an inescapable network of
mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one affects all
indirectly (King, 1967).

Traditional student leadership has long been seen as a representative form of
school governance. This approach can be alienating to students by promoting
divisive perceptions of leadership and empowerment. Meaningful Student
Involvement takes form in sustainable, broad-based and purposeful roles for all
students in every school, compelling every young person to have voice. It is an
approach that creates inclusive roles for students as equal partners in school
STORI ES 7
change. By engaging students as education planners, researchers, teachers,
evaluators, decision-makers and advocates, schools can create those partnerships.
Writing about the necessity of hope in schools, Paulo Freire (1998) described these
roles,

Hope is something shared between teachers and students... [when] we can
learn together, teach together, be curiously impatient together, produce
something together, and resist together the obstacles that prevent the
flowering of our joy (p36).

Many researchers have suggested that if education reform is going to be successful,
a new course of action must guide the role of students in schools (Rubin and Silva,
2003; Ericson and Ellett, 2002; Cook-Sather, 2002; Wilson and Corbett, 2001).
Meaningful Student Involvement provides a deliberate process that every school can
use to engage students in every facet of the educational process for the purpose of
strengthening schools, as well as strengthening students commitment to their
education, community and democracy.

MEANINGFUL STUDENT INVOLVEMENT AIMS TO

" Engage students at all grade levels and in all subjects as contributing
stakeholders in teaching, learning, and leading in schools. There are no
across-the-board limitations, such as race, gender, socio-economic status,
school size, or subject matter, or developmental roadblocks, like age,
academic performance or physical disabilities that prohibit Meaningful Student
Involvement. Educators in all grade levels are equally charged with the
responsibility of infusing hope into learning. Meaningful Student Involvement
also extends across and integrates within all curricula, challenging the social
studies teacher equally with the physical education teacher.

" Expand the common expectation of every student to become an active
and equal partner in school improvement. Traditional roles for student
participation in schools can be perceived as limiting in many ways.
Meaningful Student Involvement acknowledges the central role students have
in educational reform by building the capacity of schools for meaningful
involvement.
" Instill a core commitment within all members of the school community
to meaningfully involve students as learners, teachers and leaders
throughout schools. This happens in collaborative, community-building
classrooms, kindergarten through twelfth grade, where student/teacher
MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 8
partnerships are valued as primary tools for teaching, learning and leading.
From the earliest grades all students are taught critical thinking and active
leadership, and are engaged as purposeful learners who embrace multiple,
diverse perspectives.

" Provide students and educators with sustainable, responsive, and
systemic approaches to engaging all students in school improvement.
As our society constantly changes, so must schools. Meaningful Student
Involvement transforms schools into places where students can make
significant contributions alongside educators and administrators. This activity
takes place within an educational context where adults and young people are
equal contributors to a continuous learning process focusing on school
change.

" Validate the experience, perspectives and knowledge of all students
through sustainable, powerful and purposeful school-oriented roles.
Instead of creating special, one-time opportunities where student voice can
misrepresent the multiple perspectives of diverse student populations,
Meaningful Student Involvement charges educators with the responsibility of
engaging all students in dynamic roles with the on-going task of creating and
fostering success in schools.

" Engage educators as allies and partners to students. School
improvement programs can treat students as passive recipients of education,
encouraging the perception of students as empty vessels that need to be filled
with teachers knowledge. The same efforts that engage teachers as
classroom experts and parents as community partners can also include
students as meaningful contributors.

" Avoid filtering student perspectives, experiences or knowledge with
adult interpretations. When considering students as allies to educators,
adults maybe tempted to act as translators for the often misunderstood
student voice. However, young people of all ages have the capacity, and, to
varying extents, the ability, to speak for themselves. Often this capacity may
be undermined by the disbelief of otherwise good-hearted adults who
honestly believe they know what students think. Meaningful Student
Involvement creates platforms for students experience, ideas and knowledge
of schools, without filtering those words through adult lenses. Students can
learn about the schools they attend, the topics they should learn, the methods
STORI ES 9
being tested on them, the roles of educators and administrators, and much
more.

BARRIERS TO SUCCESS

Meaningful Student Involvement does not happen everywhere. Opportunities that
are considered by many educators to be meaningful may actually tokenize
students. This takes form when students appear to be given a voice, but in fact
have little or no choice about the outcome. Multiple barriers may exist, including
those erected by systems, educators, and students themselves. Alfie Kohn (1993)
presented three main types of barriers that affect Meaningful Student Involvement
and are expanded on below.

1. Structural impediments, including administrative controls on individual
classroom teachers, policies disallowing student roles in activities, and the
lack of institutional support, which includes funding, training, and ongoing
evaluation.

2. Resistance by educators, including reliance on traditional instructional
methods and leadership models, personal satisfaction derived from
controlling students, dependence on control through punishment and
rewards.

3. Student resistance, including refusing to partake in activities with the
proclamation that it s the adult s job to decide, testing by offering outrageous
suggestions or responses to see if the teacher is really serious about the
invitation to participate, and parroting by repeating what adults have said or
probably want to hear (Kohn, 1993).

However, these barriers shouldn't be viewed as insurmountable; rather, they are
challenges that schools should address as they adopt practices of Meaningful
Student Involvement. Kohn quotes Selma Wassermann,

I have heard teachers give it up after a single attempt, saying, Children
cannot behave responsibly, then remove all further opportunity for students
to practice and grow in their responsible behavior. I have also heard
teachers say, Children cannot think for themselves, and proceed thereafter
to do children's thinking for them. But these same teachers would never say,
These children cannot read by themselves, and thereafter remove any
opportunity for them to learn to read (p18).
MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 10
FILLING A VOID

Without claiming to be a cure-all for every problem education faces, Meaningful
Student Involvement can serve as a cornerstone in the foundation of every school.
It is vital for students to understand the utter necessity of their involvement in school
change efforts, just as it is essential for educators to take steps towards building the
capacity of students to be involved.

This publication provides examples of several roles that uplift the aims of Meaningful
Student Involvement. They include students as education planners, students as
education researchers, students as classroom teachers, students as school
evaluators, students as education decision-makers, and students as education
advocates. Each example includes a description of the role, examples of students in
action, and resources for readers to learn more. In the final section, various
examples are explored. For more information on anything found in this booklet,
please visit the accompanying website, SoundOut! , located online at
www.soundout.org.

!

STORI ES 11
Students as Education Planners

Students should not only be trained to live in a democracy when
they grow up; they should have the chance to live in one today.
Alfie Kohn (1993)
!

Education planning happens in many different avenues, with several different
considerations. Whether selecting textbooks, determining classroom behavior
guidelines, or participating in the physical design process for a new building,
students can have a role in planning throughout education. There are two forms of
Meaningful Student Involvement in education planning. The first form is
individualized education planning, or planning that affects only the student who is
involved. The second form is institutionalized education planning, or planning that
affects large numbers of students or the entire student body.
I
NDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATION PLANNING
Imagine if you will, before the beginning of the school year, every educator receives
a file. The student, their previous teachers, and their parents all participated equally
in creating this file. In it is a description of the child, learning goals and objectives for
the year, particular learning needs and focus areas, and past evaluations of the
student s learning, completed by the student, their previous teacher, and their
parents. This Individual Education Plan (IEP) is developed with every student,
regardless of age, grade, ability, or achievement, focusing on the student as a
partner in his or her own education.

While there are currently few schools developing IEPs for every student, the
effectiveness of this approach to education planning has been echoed for many
years. Students with disabilities have been using these tools successfully in many
schools, with large increases in students focus and motivation, more support for
students in mainstream classrooms, and more (Wehmeyer, 1998). The
responsibility of a student s progress is not just on the shoulders of the adults, but
shared with the student. The student becomes eager to track his progress in
specific IEP objectives, such as reading speed and accuracy, sentence writing and
paragraph skills, math fact fluency, self-control behaviors and self-advocacy (Koegel
& Kern-Koegel, 1995).

MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 12
" Successes of Planning - (Potomac, Maryland) One student chronicled her
own story in a recent book on the subject. She recounted her elementary
education and being shut-out of the Individualized Education Program (IEP)
meetings. They discussed my program for the next year and then told me
what to do. I did not like it. I felt like I was not important. I also had no
interest in school. In middle school she attended IEP meetings for the first
time. After spending several months in boring meetings packed with
unfamiliar language, the adults in the room asked the student if she wanted to
go to a school with her peers. She remarked that, This was the first time I
had a say in what was going to happen to me in school. After this experience
she went on to have a highly successful high school career, including several
learning experiences from the IEP process. Her transition from high school to
college was marked by several independent decisions. However, in reflection
this student explains that this first breakthrough meeting where she decided
where to go to school was the point that, changed my whole life (Pauley,
1996).

A growing number of schools are providing regular students with the opportunity to
be involved in individualized education planning after recognizing the effectiveness
of the approach. In these situations, student-designed learning practices require
flexible goals students can take ownership in.

" Learning through Service (Spokane, Washington) Lewis and Clark High
School offers a course called Practicum in Community Involvement that
engages students in developing their own year-long learning project.
Students must incorporate certain elements into their project, including
research, action and reflection, and identify a community mentor to guide
them in their learning. Students responses to their experiences grow
increasingly sophisticated and powerful, with students regularly exclaiming,
This is the only reason I made it through my senior year (Fletcher, 2002).

INSTITUTIONALIZED EDUCATION PLANNING

Educators and students alike face a variety of barriers to student involvement in
institutionalized education planning. Educators often exclaim that students have the
wrong attitudes, are immature, and ill equipped for the responsibility of large-scale
school planning. Students say that educators act intimidated by students, or do not
value their experience. The following examples offer hopeful glimpses into
classrooms and schools where those barriers have been addressed and overcome.

STORI ES 13
" First Grade Planners (Cheney, Washington) First-grade students here
participated in the Learning-Centered Curriculum-Making Project . In this
program, students developed a curriculum that they could use as part of their
classroom assignments. The teachers assumed that if students helped to
create the curriculum, the classroom dialogue about this process would shed
light on how to make learning experiences more cohesive and purposeful. All
of the activities met state learning standards. The project progressed by
teaching students about a subject, and then having students reinvent the
lesson plan. They highlighted language and thinking skills related to various
subject disciplines. The students used dialog, coaching, modeling,
questioning, and reinforcing techniques. Students helped select target
themes, establish guiding questions, and design classroom instructional
activities (Nelson & Frederick, 1994).

" Working with Teachers (Orange, California) A program that engaged
middle school students as researchers in their school took the research to the
next step by inviting the students to participate in school planning meetings.
Students spent time with several teachers planning and constructing learning
units based on the research they conducted. They also met with the school
principal, pressing pressed her for changes in school rules and militaristic
physical education practices. A discipline committee made up of teachers,
student researchers and administrators re-examined and reconceptualized
the school merit system. The principal also formed a student-teacher task
force to visit other schools in the area to begin re-examining the physical
education program. As one student wrote, When I first joined the
[student/teacher planning group], I thought it was a waste of time. I thought a
bunch of kids wouldn t be able to make anything change; obviously I was
wrong (SooHoo, 1993).

" Involved from the Ground Up (Puyallup, Washington) High school
students here co-created the mission, guiding principles, and co-wrote the
school constitution for a new high school. The result is a student-inclusive
decision-making process beginning with every student participating in a
leadership class daily. Students also participated in the architectural design
process for the school, with much of their input being incorporated into the
building. Today, large open spaces and advanced technology courses stand
as a testament to the effectiveness of student participation in education
planning (Fletcher, 2002).

MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 14
" Education Planning as Activism (Bronx, New York) One student group is
taking Meaningful Student Involvement in education planning to the next level.
Sistas and Brothas United, or SBU, is working with school district officials to
create a small school focused on educating students for social justice. SBU
has worked to improve their own schools for several years. They ve rallied
and researched, and as one student said, [We] got a lot of stuff fixed that
gives me a sense of power. The students are flexing their power in another
direction now. They have begun working with the local school district and a
coalition of organizations to start a new high school called the Leadership
Institute for Social Justice. As the student-written mission statement says, A
focus on social justice will help students clarify their values, understand their
rights, and relate these to the broader world around them. According to
SBU, the school will center around democratic leadership practices and focus
on community impacts. There will be community space and place-based
learning, as well as student-adult partnerships throughout the curriculum
design and grading. The students do not foster illusions of achieving their
goals tomorrow. According to one student, In the work we do, you can t be
selfish It s about us standing up for what we believe in and making change
for [our sons and daughters] (What Kids Can Do, 2003b).

CHANGING SCHOOLS TOGETHER

As many schools grapple with the need for effective school reform practices, few are
actually asking their primary constituency: the students. Later, you ll read about the
closely related topic of Meaningful Student Involvement in education decision-
making, including students on school boards and school site councils. However, the
future of Meaningful Student Involvement in education planning includes student
participation on school improvement teams and in state, district, and local school
program planning processes. These opportunities will ensure the sustainable and
effective influence of students in schools into the future by creating important
avenues for students to impact the school classes, programs, and other activities
that affect them the most.

!

STORI ES 15
Students as Education Researchers

Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before
it can speak. But there is also another sense in which seeing
comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the
surrounding world; we explain that world within words, but words
can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation
between what we see and what we know is never settled.
John Berger (1972)
!

Meaningful Student Involvement in education research inherently turns the
microphone around, making the student the examiner as well as the examined, and
the feedback loop an engine for school change. This approach, called participatory
action research, or PAR, is a method of research where students collaborate with
educators to conduct research through critical examination of students and schools
by students. The PAR model enables students to take an active role in designing
and conducting their research as a group.

TOPICS FOR ACTION

The topics of student-led research have varied according to particular settings and
purposes for the studies. According to one publication (MacBeath, 2003), the
following are a variety of past subjects covered:

School-Wide Issues - Students have researched school-wide issues, including:
" Revising the school mission statement
" Exploring the system of rewards
" Revising the content and presentation of school rules
" Strategies for minimizing bullying
" Qualities needed in a new principal
" School uniforms
" Getting the student council to work well.

MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 16
Learning in Class - Students have researched the process of learning, including:
" Factors that encourage learning
" Barriers that prevent learning
" How to deal with noise in the classroom
" What they would like more and less of in lessons
" Different ways of grouping students
" Peer support in learning
" Best ways of starting and ending the lesson
" Ways of catching up if students do not understand or if they miss work.

As education researchers, students become critical thinkers and engaged
participants in learning. The following examples focus on students engaged in
research design, execution, analysis, and writing about schools, environments, the
teaching and learning process, and more. Their work represents a critical step
towards Meaningful Student Involvement. All of these examples underscore the
depth, perspective and purpose of increased student autonomy and student
engagement across education.
S
TUDENT-ADULT PARTNERSHIPS

One of the most important keys for Meaningful Student Involvement is the consistent
support and willingness of adults to integrate students in all aspects of schooling,
including teaching, learning, and decision-making. The role of student-teacher
partnerships is central to involving student as education researchers. The following
stories illustrate how supportive learning environments can foster deepened
academic understanding, and therefore achievement, for all students.

" Students Searching for Success (Bear Valley, California) A high school
principal here wanted to explore students views of learning, so she started a
student-research program. The group focused on the questions, Do our
school restructuring activities really make fundamental changes in the
learning process? Does all of our work have an impact in the classroom? As
part of the yearlong study, the student researchers participated in a twice-
weekly course that focused on their work, and consequently, the students
became the driving force in the data collection and analyses. Students
conceived the methods used and led the data collection work. In their study,
the student researchers collected data from 200 of the school s 1,600
students. They worked with 27 classes, and conducted focus group
discussions with 150 students. Ultimately, the students presented their
STORI ES 17
findings to professional researchers from across the country. The findings
showed that students define success in school many different ways, with a
strong theme focusing on students diligence and balance. Students
recognized the importance of motivation, good study habits, a balance
between school and work, involvement in school life, being organized, and
simply putting forth the effort to succeed. The student researchers also
explored learning outside of school, how students learn best, and the school s
impacts on students learning. The project coordinators state that the lessons
of this project occurred on two levels: what the students, staff, and parents
learned from the data, and what we all (adults) learned about engaging
students as researchers in a topic that is relevant to them (Shaunessey,
1998).

" Infusing Research into Class (Hartford, Connecticut) Four school districts
are participating in a student action research program as part of the Education
and Advocacy Project, coordinated by the Youth Action Research Institute.
This program is a model program that engages students in identifying and
researching issues that affect the quality of education in their schools and
elsewhere in the state. The program, for fifth and six graders, has nine
teachers participating who are integrating student driven action research into
their classrooms using cooperative learning methods into core curricular
activities. The project s methods and goals include assessing the effects of
PAR on students, educators, and the overall school communities involved
(Institute for Community Research, 2003).

" Financial Futures (Poughkeepsie, New York) In one particularly compelling
example, students conducted research on their district s budget crisis as part
of a government class. After designing a 57-question survey that solicited
opinions from fellow students on what should be included in next year s
school district budget, the students hand-tabulated and analyzed data from
596 completed surveys - over half the student body. When district board
members came to their regular budget meeting, a surprise was waiting:
student-created data from that survey highlighted exactly what students
thought should be included in next year s school district budget. Board
members gave their approval in one of the report s final comments: Student
input should be solicited and gathered periodically so that students can
always be a part of the process. Students want to be involved! In late May,
when the Poughkeepsie Board of Education passed its budget for the coming
school year, they introduced an unprecedented line item: $25,000 for student
initiatives (What Kids Can Do, 2003b).
MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 18
IDENTIFYING PURPOSE

With the recent national debate on scientific research in education, Participatory
Action Research can provide educators with a refreshing approach to classroom
research. PAR is designed to allow the perspective of students to constantly inform
and help navigate the goals of schools, and better inform educators practices
consequently. Perhaps this is better for schools than traditional forms of scientific
research. By listening to the experiences, opinions, ideas and knowledge of
students, PAR provides a responsive, urgent analysis of schools, as well as a
validating avenue for Meaningful Student Involvement. Meaningful Student
Involvement in education research can be the opportunity many students need to
speak on behalf of their own learning and education as a whole.

!

STORI ES 19
Students as Teachers
T
o teach is to learn twice.
Joseph Joubert (1782)
!

Several out-of-school youth-serving programs have engaged young people as
teachers for more than 100 years. Organizations including 4-H, the Girl Scouts and
the Boy Scouts have long relied on the merits of youth-led classes to teach young
women and men of all ages significant life lessons and invaluable skills. This
approach has been valued for generations, witnessed by the many indigenous
communities who have entrusted young people with teaching their peers for
thousands of years and been supplemented by the American colonists whose first
schools employed young teachers, who in turn gave the responsibility of teaching to
their younger charges. Famed pioneer teacher Laura Ingalls Wilder was 15 when
she began teaching. While young people teaching generally ceased in schools with
the advent of advanced teacher education in the early 1900s, pockets of activity
continued. The 1960s free school movement recognized the value of students
teaching students, and many instituted the practice as everyday experiences for
young people. Throughout the past 30 years the concept of students as teachers
has gained momentum as more professional educators are beginning to see its
effects.

AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME

Meaningful Student Involvement recognizes the importance of acknowledging the
knowledge of students, and charges them with the responsibility of educating their
peers, younger students or adults. Students teaching students is not meant to
undermine the influence or ability of adult educators: instead, it uplifts the role of
educators by making their knowledge and abilities accessible to more students. A
growing body of practice and research from the education arena reinforces the
seemingly radical belief that students can teach students effectively, given
appropriate support from their adult teachers. The following examples show
students serving as teaching assistants, partnering with teachers or peers to deliver
curriculum, teaching peers or students on their own, or teaching adults in a variety of
settings.

MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 20
" Pedagogy for Peers (Basking Ridge, New Jersey) After teaching her ninth
grade students the basics of composition, English teacher Kathleen Shaw had
the class teach each other about grammar devices, with the question in mind,
Can they explain grammar to someone else? She wrote, Best of all, the
students learned important lessons through the assignment. They clarified
some grammatical points their classmates might have been confused about,
they had the thrill of creating something new, they compromised with their
partners and they experienced speaking before a large group. Maybe they
even gained a little more respect for their teachers (Shaw, 1997).

" Technology in the Trenches (Olympia, Washington) Generation YES, an
international nonprofit organization promoting the role of technology in
education, engages students as expert trainers to teachers in elementary,
middle and senior high schools. The students learn complex computer skills,
as well as how to design lesson plans and deliver training. Educators, in turn,
learn about students capacities for technology and teaching. The Generation
YES model claims to be the only model of professional development that
involves students as equal partners in their own learning (Generation YES,
2003).

" Serving Up Learning (Vashon Island, Washington) Students from
StudentLink, an alternative learning program in the local high school,
conducted multiple teacher in-service trainings on service learning. The
student/teachers, ages 12-18, taught teachers, school administrators, city
officials and other community members about service learning for two three-
hour sessions. The student/teachers incorporated multiple teaching styles,
attempting to appeal to the diverse learning styles participants came with.
Lively dialogue, initiative activities, small group facilitation, brainstorming and
action planning were all included in the student-planned, student-led trainings
(Fletcher, 2001).

" Raising Educational Stars (San Francisco, California) The Breakthrough
Collaborative, a highly successful after-school program for students of color,
believes so strongly in students teaching that their tagline is Students
Teaching Students. The organization shares the following anecdote: During
one of the first summers, several high school students who were acting as
teaching assistants took over the classroom for a math teacher who had fallen
ill. When the teacher returned, she observed that her students were working
harder for the older students than they had for her. By coincidence, this
experimental teaching model sparked the interest of the younger students
STORI ES 21
who loved having the high school students as their teachers and mentors.
Suddenly, seventh and eighth grade students who never believed it was cool
to be smart were reciting Shakespeare, learning the Pythagorean Theorem
and studying the laws of physics. [Breakthrough] was a booming success
(Breakthrough Collaborative, 2003).

LEARNING THROUGH TEACHING

While a growing number of educators recognize the validity of students thoughts
about schools, few see students actually being players in addressing those
concerns. Engaging students in teaching fills a three-fold gap in student learning: it
develops empathy between students and teachers, making students more
understanding of teachers jobs while making teachers more aware of students
learning needs; it makes learning more tangible and relevant for students,
particularly for students without the ability to access other real-world learning
opportunities; and finally, it empowers students to approach the problems they
identify in their classrooms through critical analysis and applicable solutions.
Engaging students as teachers is more than simply teaching new tricks to an old
dog. It challenges the old dog to teach others, and to allow the younger pups to
teach themselves.

!

MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 22
Students as Evaluators

It is tempting to think that if you just pay attention to students
voices, you will hear what you already know. Secretly, adults
outside schools as well as in generally believe that they know
best.
Barbara Cervone & Kathleen Cushman (2002)
!

On one level, teachers are always listening to students opinions, checking for
comprehension, and whether they have accomplished a task. Another level is
reflected in the barrage of student surveys conducted, and the myriad education
books that tokenize students opinions with quotes from students on their covers.
Meaningful Student Involvement calls for something more, something that is
deliberate, empowering, far-reaching and sustainable. Engaging students as
evaluators calls for educators to develop practical, applicable feedback opportunities
where students are encouraged to be honest, open and solution-oriented. Students
find particular investment in evaluation when they can see tangible outcomes, and
have some measure of accountability from the systems, educators, or situations
they are evaluating. Over the course of a school year, teachers might want a variety
of evaluations from students, including:

" An occasional large-scale forum where the opinions of students in one or all
grade levels are canvassed;
" Creating a regular pattern of evaluative feedback in lessons;
" Facilitating a series of one-to-one or small group discussions, how members
of a particular sub-group of students (the disengaged, the high-achievers,
young women, young men, Hispanics, African Americans, for example) are
feeling about their learning experiences; or,
" Shaping a new initiative in the classroom or school.

By involving students as evaluators, schools can develop purposeful, impacting, and
authentic assessments of classes, schools, teachers, and enact accountability and
ownership for all participants in the learning process. Effective evaluations may
include student evaluations of classes and schools; student evaluations of teachers;
student evaluations of self, and; student-led parent-teacher conferences, where
students present their learning as partners with teachers and parents, instead of as
passive recipients of teaching done to them.
STORI ES 23
OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

When this kind of evaluation is new to a school, teachers may feel apprehensive
about talking with students in a way that changes traditional power relationships
within the school (MacBeath, 2003). Teachers may feel challenged by empowering
students for many reasons, including feeling disempowered to make decisions in
their own classrooms (Kohn, 1993). In response to what is perceived as some
schools inadequate understanding of the experiences and opinions of students,
community groups and education organizations across the nation are engaging
students as evaluators. Adults work with students in these programs to design
evaluations, conduct surveys, analyze data and create reports to share with fellow
students and educators.

" Real Reasons (Oakland, California) In 2003, students in REAL HARD
(Representing Educated Active Leaders - Having A Righteous Dream), a
community youth leadership organization, designed and collected 1,000
report card surveys evaluating teaching, counseling, school safety and
facilities at three Oakland high schools. The students compiled their findings,
analyzed the results, and made concrete recommendations to improve the
schools in this exciting, comprehensive report. The introduction to the report
states, There are 48,000 youth in Oakland s schools that are experts who
are in class every day and who have a lot to say about how the schools are
run and how to improve our education. Whenever something happens in the
schools, everyone wants to hear from the teachers and parents - but what
about the students? Who asks our opinion? Why do we feel shut out, like no
one cares what we think? (REAL HARD, 2003).

" Interviewing Friends, Analyzing Purpose (New York, New York) Seven
middle and high school students participated in a student evaluator program
for the Teens as School Volunteer Tutors Project. Together with an adult
evaluation facilitator, they decided to interview two groups of subjects: an
adult group made up of school professionals and the tutors own parents and
a student group made up of both tutors and their tutees. The student
evaluators devised interview forms, agreed on interview assignments, and
drew up a time line for completion. The students completed 57 interviews,
and analyzed them with the adult facilitator. During the analysis period the
students reflected on their experiences and what they learned, and assessed
their data. The student evaluators then made several recommendations that
have since been integrated into the program. In reflection, the adult facilitator
wrote that the use of student evaluators was ideal, resulting in usable data,
MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 24
stronger leadership skills, and greater school awareness of the tutoring
program itself (Campbell, et al, 1994).

" More than Listening (San Francisco, California) A range of students
participated in a recent Bay Area School Reform Collaborative project. One
school invited students to share their views on what needed to be changed,
and how to accomplish those changes. The students then joined teachers to
analyze the data gathered. They found that there were five main concerns
students raised, including better communication between staff and students,
higher quality teaching, and better counseling and support. The students then
presented these findings to their teachers during an after-school meeting.
The reform leadership at the school was amazed by the way the student
evaluators maneuvered the concerns of other students, carefully making sure
adults understood what each concern truly was. The students learned about
how to conduct research on an important issue in their school and how to
present that information to teachers. Many students reported that
participating in the evaluation process improved their self-opinions and
provided opportunities to develop meaningful interactions with adults at
school (Mitra, 2001).
S
QUEAKY WHEELS OR LOOSE CANONS?

Meaningful Student Involvement is tantamount to putting mutual respect and
communication in motion between students and educators in schools. Meaningful
Student Involvement also requires the investment from educators and students.
Many student voice programs have simply thrown the job of sounding out at
students, without showing students the degrees of possibility for the input and action
of young people. Some neglect the necessity of two-way dialogue, of collaborative
student/teacher problem solving, and of truly student inclusive, interdependent
school change. Meaningful Student Involvement in education evaluation gives
students and educators the impetus to establish constructive, critical dialogues that
place common purpose and interdependence at the center of the discussion. When
dissent is encountered, appropriate avenues for resolution are identified. When
inconsistencies and prejudice are revealed, intentional exposure and practical
understanding is sought. When educators strive to engage the hope students have
for schools, they can foster students growth as effective evaluators who actually
impact the processes of learning, teaching and leading. In turn, students will offer
vital lessons for educators and the education system as a whole.

!
STORI ES 25
Students as Decision-Makers

Schools are compulsory for about ten years of a person s life. They
are, perhaps, the only compulsory institutions for all citizens,
although those with full membership in schools are not yet treated
as full citizens of our society...
Marie Brennan (1996)
!

Perhaps the irony to the above quote is that students recognize the situation
immediately and consequently offer reluctance to Meaningful Student Involvement.
When presented with opportunities to make significant decisions in their schools,
students have been known to parrot educators, saying only what they think adults
want to hear; students test educators by offering the most outlandish possibilities;
and in the most dramatic cases, they simply refuse to make decisions that they have
been taught to believe should be made for them (Kohn, 1993).

The challenges students pose in decision-making are coupled with oft-cited barriers
in the form of systemic roadblocks in schools and the patronizing attitudes of adult
educators. However, research has proven that when young people are able to
make decisions about education and their experience, knowledge, ideas and
opinions are empowered, motivation, reasoning skills, and confidence flourish
(Zeldin, et al, 2000). Meaningful Student Involvement engages students as
decision-makers who partner with educators to make decisions throughout schools,
in areas that affect their individual learning as well as the entire school community.
It is the later of these areas that this section focuses on, including students as
decision-makers in curricula selection, calendar year planning, school building
design, and many broader school-focused issues. In addition to being involved on
boards of education at the local, district, and state levels, students are engaged in
education decision-making, such as grant-making, school assessment, and more.
Students are also learning by establishing and enforcing codes of conduct, and
making decisions about teacher and administrator hiring and firing.

HISTORY IN ACTION

John Dewey, the father of modern progressive education, delineated a course of
learning that is easily adaptable for student involvement in education decision-
making (1916). The following points are modified from Dewey s original course.
MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 26

Pathway for Meaningful Student Involvement in Decision-Making

1. All students should have validating, sustainable, opportunities that they are
interested in to make decisions about their own learning and education as a
whole.
2. Decision-making opportunities should engage students in solving genuine
problems and making substantial decisions that will promote critical thinking
skills.
3. Students should possess the knowledge and ability needed to make
informed decisions.
4. Students and educators should be responsible and accountable for
developing responsible, creative action plans to implement decisions.
5. Students should apply these plans, reflect on the decisions and outcomes,
and be charged with continually examining, applying, and challenging this
learning.

Rather than belaboring the necessity of engaging students in education decision-
making, the following vignettes start with exemplary models, and are followed by
research summaries from across the United States. These stories offer a glimpse
into the increasingly well-defined role of students as school decision-makers.

" Infusing Involvement (Anne Arundel County, Maryland) Students here
have participated as voting members of the district board of education for
more than 25 years. The student member, a high school senior, votes on all
issues, including all areas of the school budget, discipline, and fiscal issues.
In addition, every advisory, curriculum, and study committee, along with
special task forces in the district includes students, working on everything
from grading policies to alternative learning. Students are also members of
every local School Improvement Team in the district, with as many as five
students on a ten member team. In local schools throughout the district,
students conduct forums on school initiatives of all kinds with support from
teachers and administration (Fletcher, 2003).

" Developing Democracy (Stuart, Ohio) Federal Hocking High School,
located in rural Ohio, gives students an equal place at the table when faculty
hiring decisions are made, when curriculum is chosen, and when class
offerings are determined. Students are also given long periods of self-guided
learning time during the school day to explore issues important to them.
Innovative principal George Wood has said, Students often find themselves
STORI ES 27
preached to about values instead of practicing them. That s why our efforts
have been to focus on practice rather than exhortation. Everything we do,
including classroom teaching practices, school governance, students
experience both inside and out of school, assessment, even the organization
of the school day, is done with an eye toward developing democratic
community (Rural School and Community Trust, 1999).

" Positive Possibilities for Practice (Frankfort, Kentucky) A recent report for
the Kentucky Department of Education was subtitled Proficiency,
Achievement Gaps, and the Potential of Student Involvement . The
researcher conducted a national survey of student involvement in state-level
decision-making, and found that 20 states engage students in their boards of
education in some way. However, the truth is in the details. The study found
that only five states give students voting rights on the state Board of
Education, and only seven states include a group of more than two student
advisors. The rest of these positions are non-voting, and most of the
positions across the nation are appointed by adults without student
involvement. Recommendations to the Kentucky Department of Education
included establishing a statewide advisory board with diverse student
representation from middle and senior high schools, as well as college
students. The report closed with the line, Reaching proficiency and closing
the achievement gaps both require the participation of students, in leadership,
advisory, and decision-making roles. The Kentucky Department of Education
must follow the lead of numerous other states by including students in
statewide decision-making (Webb, 2002).

" International Attention (Nova Scotia, Canada) Results from a Canadian
study conducted at school, school district and departmental levels across
Canada indicate a growing interest in student involvement in education
decision-making. The study explores the provisions made for student
involvement in policy-making at each level in education, the nature of that
involvement, the mechanisms used for recruiting student involvement in
policy-making, the perceptions of stakeholders on student involvement, and
the constraints to be overcome in the Canadian school system (Critchley,
2003).

" Students Want Purposeful Learning (Murray, Kentucky) The attitude of
students is beginning to change, evidenced by the students who responded to
a Tennessee survey that detailed what kinds and how much responsibility
students wanted in school decision-making. The survey asked students
MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 28
about their desire to be involved in fourteen potential areas, including
selecting textbooks and instructional materials, selecting a new principal when
there is a vacancy, consulting with the principal when other vacancies are
filled, deciding what is to be taught, deciding which teaching methods will be
used, deciding how time will be used during the day, and determining how
available funds are to be spent. Survey results found that students want to be
included in several areas, including decisions about extracurricular activities,
which classes students are offered, the way time is used during the day and
what textbooks should be used (Patmor, 1999).

ADULTS AGITATING

There is a plethora of negative stereotypes preventing student involvement in school
decision-making, as well as structural, cultural, and attitudinal barriers. While the
structural and cultural barriers might be obvious, the attitudes might not be. The
following example details what attitudinal barriers to Meaningful Student Involvement
sound like.

" Current Board Members Question Necessity In a recent article in the
American School Board Journal, a wide survey of district boards of education
revealed a growing, but cautious, interest in student involvement in school
decision-making around the nation. The survey found that students had
varying amounts of power, ranging from full voting rights to students
participating in special advisory committees. Stories from Maryland, Vermont,
Tennessee, and Alaska offer rationale, outcomes, and more details about
student representation, as well as the specific challenges student school
board members face. The barriers of student involvement were identified in a
follow-up comment section from current adult school board members across
the nation. The responses ranged from constructive to derogatory, and
included the following:

"We can't serve in Congress or as president until we pass age requirements;
why should local government forgo the wisdom of this? Students need to
learn respect and have life experience before taking a community office."

"If students knew how to run the school system, we wouldn't need an
administration," wrote an Indiana board member. "Teachers and principals
don't sit on the board, and neither should students. Only those elected to
make school policy should do so (Joiner, 2003).

STORI ES 29
The evidence that education systems across the United States are devoid of student
involvement in decision-making is obvious to any young person or adult who
considers themselves an ally of youth. As displayed above, the belief that students
cannot make decisions for themselves is as much a hindrance as the belief that
students cannot make decisions for schools at large.

ADULTS ADVOCATING

There is evidence that the historic tide of adultism in schools may be receding. One
of the respondents in the above series validated Meaningful Student Involvement,
saying, "The student board member should be elected by the whole student body,
with no interference from administrators, teachers, or others. This is the only way
the board can really find out what is really happening in the schools and what
students really want" (Joiner, 2003). Coupled with the following recent quote from
Wisconsin State Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster, there may be new interest for
Meaningful Student Involvement in education decision-making.

"Including students as representatives on boards and committees takes
classroom learning into the community and opens the door for many more
students to become involved in the policies and practices that shape their
schools Student board representatives play a valuable role in helping
locally elected school boards understand how their decisions affect the
[students] they serve and provide our young people with an opportunity to
learn about the important debate and compromise that shape school policy"
(Wisconsin State Office of Superintendent, 2003).

Given the necessity of Meaningful Student Involvement in creating a positive future
for schools, as well as the growing call from both students and educators for
students to be included as decision-makers, schools must change. This change
should begin in the earliest grades with the youngest students, evolving and
changing as students grow in their ability, and as educators grow in their capacity to
engage young people.

!

MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 30
Students as Education Advocates

T
he evidence increasingly points to an innate disposition [in
students] to be responsive to the plight of other people Creating
people who are socially responsive does not totally depend on
parents and teachers. Such socializing agents have an ally within
the child.
Martin Hoffman (1967)
!

The failure of many traditional attempts by schools to engage students in leadership
or democratic education lies in the mixed messages of many communities agenda
for public education. When educators have asked students to represent their peers,
they often seek out the most academically gifted or popular, thereby narrowing the
validity and ability of students to be valid democratic representatives. When schools
offer courses to teach leadership, they can be steeped in traditional leadership
models and teaching styles that alienates many students and limits important
connections. Ironically, these classes are often offered at the expense of creating
courses that could teach students about their own culture and heritage, which
effectively negates the potential influence student leaders can have on everyday
community life. Meaningful Student Involvement embraces every student as their
own self, but also as the son or daughter of a family; as a member of a larger
community; and as a partner in transforming schools. Understanding power, an
essential component of Meaningful Student Involvement, begins in discovering and
acknowledging who students are, and what education stand for (Institute for
Community Leadership, 2001).
B
ROADER CONCERNS

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once presented us with the challenge of advocacy by
saying, An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow
confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
Meaningful Student Involvement in education advocacy happens when students are
engaged as advocates for the schools they learn in; for the education system the
next generation will inherit; and for the needs of the larger community surrounding
the school. Students can be engaged in many ways: as members of committees,
demonstrators in protests, on special panels, and in functions that help raise
awareness or interest in education issues. All of the roles delineated in previous
STORI ES 31
sections of this document are essentially different forms of students advocating for
education. However, the following examples stand apart as uniquely specific models
of students as education advocates.

" Funding the Future of Schools (San Francisco, California) The Student
Action Fund, or SAF, was developed by the Youth Leadership Institute in San
Francisco, California to amplify the voices of students in schools. SAF
provides cash grants to teams of students and teachers to take on challenges
including increasing attendance rates, building better relationships between
teachers and students, and improving the ways students are taught, as well
as the kinds of things they are learning. Students, working with adults in their
school, can apply for up to $5000 to help jump-start their own project ideas.
Applications that students complete are reviewed by a group of young people
and adults. The SAF does not just give students the lead in planning and
carrying out their project ideas, but also in deciding which ideas get funded.
For those groups of students and adults that receive funding there are
structured opportunities to come together with peers to share successes and
challenges of their projects, and identify ways to improve their work (Youth
Leadership Institute, 2003).

" No Age Limits (Salt Lake City, Utah) Fifth grade students at Jackson
Elementary have been credited with a variety of successes in their advocacy.
They helped repopulate a neglected area with native vegetation, lobbied the
US Congress for neighborhood improvement funds, and were directly
responsible for an amendment to a national law, the America the Beautiful Act
of 1990. However, a highlight came in 1994 when they helped their
elementary school reconstruct its library. By the time the students were
finished researching, brainstorming, fundraising, giving speeches, lobbying,
writing proposals and receiving local, state and federal support, their school
had brand-new research classes, flexible scheduling for increased library use,
and a comprehensive technology system including a computer center and
computers in every classroom (Lewis & Woolley, 1994).

" Transportation for Education (Portland, Oregon) With the ongoing
absence of public school buses, the student activist organization Sisters in
Action for Power developed a three-year campaign advocating for free
student bus rides to and from schools for students around the city. The
campaign is the driving force behind the city s public transit company's recent
decision to allow free rides to high school students who qualify for free or
reduced school lunches. The group, whose campaign has been covered in
MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 32
numerous Portland newspapers, shows how advocating for one issue can
create positive social change for a large group of people. The Sisters' hard
work is paying off in a big way for low-income high school students. But even
though they have achieved some success, the Sisters aren't stopping there -
they plan to keep battling for the option of free service for all Portland high
school students (Haley, 2003).

" Nationwide Movement Created (National) A new kind of youth
organization is springing up across the nation, in which issue-based
organizing combines with youth leadership development, cultural enrichment,
and academic and personal support. It often starts with a campaign to
change school-related problems. But as participants learn the ropes, they go
on to tackle community issues, create new partnerships with adults, and
profoundly change how they view the political process. Two student
organizing initiatives, Youth Organizing Communities in Los Angeles and
Sistas and Brothas United in the Bronx, NY, are profiled as powerful models
of student-led advocacy for education (What Kids Can Do, 2003c).

ROADBLOCKS TO PROGRESS

However, these student advocates are not without challenges. While this
publication has documented various barriers to many forms of Meaningful Student
Involvement, none has stood in such stark contrast to the principals of democracy
and empowerment that the following story emanates.

" Working For or Against Schools? (Washington, DC) High school students
here planned for months to stage a noon walkout as part of a protest for
increased school funding in October 2003. They planned to join teachers,
parents, residents, workers, and activists to protest the on-going deep funding
cuts that are lowering the level of education and to demand increased funding
for schools. The Washington Times reported, "Based on accounts by several
organizers and students, principals at several high schools took extraordinary
steps to prevent students from leaving the buildings by barring and locking
doors, placing security officers around the perimeters and making
announcements threatening students with 25-day suspensions, detentions
and even incarceration." Several students reported that they were suspended,
and students at Wilson used their cell phones to report that they could not get
out of the building. A teacher active with the Washington Teachers Union
mobilization committee rejected the prison-like atmosphere created, saying
students should not be subjected to "lockdowns." The students and teachers
STORI ES 33
are continuing their efforts to defend the right to education and oppose the
criminalization of dissent (Washington, 2003).
IF NOT STUDENTS, THEN WHO?

A recent report on student activism for education equity stated, Whatever the risks,
there is no shortage of reasons for teachers and others to support young peoples
[education advocacy] work It may be uncomfortable when young people begin to
speak when not spoken to but their voices are too powerful, and their words too
true, to be silenced for long (Tolman, 2003).

This report underlines the necessity of not only listening to students, not only
engaging students, but actually giving students the platform to create, inform, and
advocate for positive school transformation. Meaningful Student Involvement is not
a complete process without this important focus on advocacy.

!

MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 34
Conclusion
F
rom my experience of hundreds of children, I know that they have
perhaps a finer sense of honour than you or I have. The greatest
lessons in life, if we would but stoop and humble ourselves, we
would learn not from grown-up learned men, but from the so-called
ignorant children.
Mahatma Gandhi (1931)
!

There are countless instrumental and practical reasons for Meaningful Student
Involvement; reasons that provide concrete current and future benefits for students,
educators, and education systems (Fletcher, 2003b). Alfie Kohn (1995) believes
that students should have a classroom of their choosing, where educators recognize
that children are not just adults-in-the-making. They are people whose current
needs and rights and experiences must be taken seriously. Students should be
able to make choices because people of any age should be able to make choices
(Chanoff, 1981). However, the purpose for education is not just for students to have
choices, but also for students to act on their knowledge, to create solutions and to
change and transform existing structures so that the world is a better place for
everybody (Westheimer & Kahne, 1998). Meaningful Student Involvement
proposes that students focus their energy on the most immediate of their
surroundings: schools.

This publication features stories that detail how students work with educators to
infuse depth, perspective, and power into the everyday experiences of all students.
These are not exceptional students, revered as gifted or seen as traditional
leaders. They are the students who occupy the borderlands of student
engagement: they are socially, physically and academically in between the highly
significant and the particularly ignored populations in schools, attending schools
because they have to. Henry Giroux observes that these students are, an entire
generation forced to sell themselves in a world with no hope [living] in a world in
which chance and randomness, rather than struggle, community and solidarity, drive
their fate (2000). Meaningful Student Involvement provides students with the
possibility of hope, shared purpose and a social investment that will be
inherited by each succeeding generation.

STORI ES 35
Meaningful Student Involvement is very different than encouraging participation in
traditional student leadership programs, precisely because it focuses on involving all
students. Where before, educators set the agenda and expected students to follow,
now, students are partners and facilitators. Where student leadership once
represented student bodies with fixed, homogenized, and uncomplicated terms
(Silva & Rubin, 2003), Meaningful Student Involvement now offers a dynamic,
complex, and interdependent strategy that is essential to school transformation.
When students are equal partners in schools, a new relationship emerges. Respect
is given and power is shared from students to educators, and from educators to
students. Meaningful Student Involvement is intended to prevent the
oversimplification of student voice for students today, as well as future
generations.

The stories in this document are real. They began in various education settings
across the nation, and will serve as longstanding portraits of schools where students
and educators challenge, explore, validate and empower their collective ideals about
education and democracy. Meaningful Student Involvement encompasses the
ideals those stories represent, as well as their main theme: students and educators
working together to create an education system that will have equal opportunities for
all students and recognize each person in schools for their unique characteristics
and contributions. By taking the next step and applying these ideals through
classroom practice, educators can create a sense of purpose and hope long missing
from schools. Likewise, students can identify and explore their own hope for
education. This is Meaningful Student Involvement.
!

MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 36
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STORI ES 37
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MEANINGFUL STUDENT I NVOLVEMENT 40
Notes

Supporting Organizations
The Freechild Project partnered with the
HumanLinks Foundation to create this publication
and its accompanying website, www.SoundOut.org -
promoting meaningful student involvement in
school change.
The Freechild Project
PO Box 6185
Olympia, WA 98507
Phone: 360.753.2686
Web: www.freechild.org
Freechild was founded in 2000 as a youth-driven
training ground, think tank, resource agency,
and advocacy group for young people seeking to
play a larger role in their schools and communities.
Freechild offers training and consultation in many
areas, including school improvement, program
development, and community building. Our
website is a worldwide resource center for social
change by and with young people that includes
a diverse listing of information around youth
empowerment, including everything from activist
learning to youth suffrage, and several free
publications on youth leadership, cooperative
games and more.
HumanLinks Foundation
6016 N.E. Bothell Way # 160
Kenmore, Washington 98028
Phone: 425-882-5177
Web: www.humanlinksfoundation.org
The HumanLinks Foundation was established in
1999 to help communities in Washington State
make systemic improvements in Education, Health
Care and Sustainable Agriculture. HumanLinks
strives to strengthen voices and connections to
make these essential systems more effective and
responsible. HumanLinks develops partnerships
that leverage resources in new ways to blend
values, ideas, information and best practices.
About the Author
Adam Fletcher is the founder and director
of The Freechild Project, a youth-driven
think tank that offers training, research and
consultation to schools and communitybased
organizations across the United States
and Canada. Mr. Fletcher?s work has
included several years in community-based
youth organizing and development, as well
as working for the Washington State Office
of Superintendent of Public Instruction to
promote meaningful student involvement
throughout the education system.
www.SoundOut.org encourages students and
adults to work together to transform education
and to validate student voice throughout
education, from the classroom to the boardroom.
The website is a national online resource center
that posts success stories of student-led efforts
to improve schools, including those where
students participate in researching, planning,
evaluating, and advocating for schools.
Hundreds of online publications also make
available bibliographies, articles, and research
reports about meaningful student involvement.
www.SoundOut.org also provides online
discussion forums, links to other resources,
and a monthly newsletter.
Supported by