The Future of Education Is Cultivated by Students

• In Event: Transforming Students' Daily Experience of School: Using Student Experience Data to Improve Educators' Classroom Practice

Abstract

Early teacher development is a critical stage for all educators, as they are not only adjusting to the daily demands of the job, but also methods for improving their pedagogical style. In the case of the latter, one of the many considerations they must sort through are the multiple streams of feedback and many extant tools that can guide their methods for instructional practice and improvement. Teach For America (TFA) has found that focusing on student perspective data can cut through the noise that bombards novice educators and best guide new teachers: not only in making their classroom environments culturally responsive, but also in fostering a deep-seated investment in responding to student needs and cultivating new lines of cooperation and collaboration amongst teachers towards this end. This session will provide a window into what TFA learned about early teacher development as a result of a pilot program that utilized Cultivate, a student experience survey, to help teachers understand the importance of elevating and responding to student voice. This pilot asked: in what ways can student experience data and responsive teacher practices reveal new pathways to educating and growing culturally relevant teachers?
The need for tools for measuring and implementing systematic integration of student perspective and voice has never been more pressing. Collecting and acting on student experience survey data is one step towards a school environment that is co-constructed by educators and students. This pedagogical tactic has existed in “exceptional” circumstances (i.e. creative veteran teachers, culturally responsive practitioners, AP and IB programs, student body councils, etc), but what the Cultivate pilot demonstrated was that students are ready to share their thoughts and teachers are craving that sense of direction and partnership. Co-constructed environments which have usually existed in exceptional instances can become normalized, and this begins with providing teachers with specific and actionable feedback from surveys like Cultivate. The TFA pilot program that utilized Cultivate with novice teachers underscores that the future of public education is dependent on how well we know our students and how much we are willing to uplift their voice. Elevating–and adapting to–student perspective is now essential to educational progress.

Author

• Jason Dones, Beyond100K
  Presenting Author