NEWSLETTER
As Educational leaders continue to engage in conversations about transforming assessment and accountability. For our nation, they must prioritize elevating voices excluded from past educational change efforts, including the voices of young students, especially those from communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities.
Too many young people have school experiences that leave them disengaged and ill-prepared for the future. In the current system, there are limited opportunities for students' interests, experiences, hopes, cultures, and perspectives to be part of their education. The current K-12 education system often minimizes identities and creates a homogeneous group of students with identical needs and wants. Therefore, the standards by which school quality and student achievement are defined serve as a significant barrier to more equitable and inclusive student-centered models and systems.
In June 2023, KnowledgeWorks and a team of learner-focused partners across the country hosted a call to reimagine current assessment and accountability systems. Young people played an integral role in this call, serving as participants, activists, and leaders of change. While there were a variety of mindset shifts, strategies, and roles required for youth-adult partnerships, the results were invaluable. Recommendations outlined in the resulting report, Beyond the horizon: paving the way toward student-centered school quality systems, were co-created with students, caregivers, and educators, as well as district, state, and national leaders. The students not only took a seat at the table, but also helped lead the discussion.
Three outcomes of raising youth voice in assessment and accountability
Including youth voices in efforts to change assessment and accountability systems allows educational leaders to align school quality measures with student and community needs, while fostering youth agency and participation. youth and community empowerment.
- Host agency: Elevating youth voices in conversations about assessment and accountability creates opportunities for youth to demonstrate agency by applying their expertise in a high-impact environment. These opportunities are especially important for Black and Brown students so they can serve as advocates, leaders, and change agents for their communities.
- Support Network Commitment: Authentically engaging youth in educational policy creates opportunities for students of color to establish a support structure of peers and young leaders. Creating a network of young changemakers within communities of color fosters a positive sense of self, community, culture, and purpose.
- Empower communities: An assessment and accountability system that includes youth voices helps ensure that communities minoritized by the education system have the opportunity to challenge false narratives and assumptions. Young people are often the face of powerful movements, as they have the potential to break down systemic barriers embedded in the traditional education system by distributing leadership to the community.
Roles and responsibilities of young people
Today, the traditional school experience is largely dictated by an assessment and accountability system that fails to meet the needs of historically marginalized but resilient students. However, when those closest to the classroom are in positions of power, decisions are more likely to reflect their needs. Creating roles for students in educational policy discussions can help ensure that the system serves the best interest of the community. These roles may include:
- Consultants: Youth can serve as consultants to educational leaders. School, district, or state leaders should consider creating spaces for youth to share perspectives and make contributions to the system.
- Co-Creators and Collaborators: When Youth support and co-design with adults., curricula and assessments become more relevant and impactful. The current assessment and accountability system limits what can and cannot be learned in school. Instructional approaches and content reflect standardized tests and rarely consider the needs or interests of young people. This can limit learning opportunities for racially and culturally marginalized students.
- Community Experts: Students can serve as a bridge between schools and families or the broader community. Youth can help educate families and their communities to understand school priorities and quality measures. Additionally, youth can help educate school, district, and state leaders about the needs and wants of the community.
- Leaders: Without decision-making authority, youth engagement strategies can become superficial and performative. Youth leadership groups, such as student councils and student governments, can exercise decision-making capacity beyond the core domains of school culture. It is crucial to decisively integrate young people in these roles into broader education policy debates.
Young people have a deep understanding of the 21st century school experience, their communities and the future they want. Educational leaders are starting to take notice. Empowering young leaders, especially those from racially and economically marginalized backgrounds, is imperative to achieving meaningful and lasting transformations in the education system.
