District Level Student Voice Initiatives

• In Event: Empowering Student Voice in Educational Practice: Student Voice to Student Outcomes

Abstract

Objectives and Data
The Washoe County School District (WCSD) engaged in a decade-long march to expand capacity for student voice (SV) across all levels of the district. Utilizing participant observations of those leading the SV program, this paper describes three aspects of WCSD’s approach to SV.

Perspective: WCSD’s guiding principles for SV
Grounded in research (Toshalis & Nakkula, 2012), SV is utilized as an equity promoting strategy. SV stresses ways to effectively partner with students not typically included in leadership opportunities, particularly traditionally underserved students (e.g., students at-risk for dropout). SV is also utilized as a vehicle to develop social and emotional competencies among students (Celio et al. 2011; Mitra, 2004), and adults, and improve academic outcomes (Janosz et al., 2000) and student engagement.

Findings: Implementation achievements and challenges
In 2017, the school board adopted two policies that outline the district’s rationale for emphasizing SV, goals for SV, and formal commitment to establishing a Student Advisory Council. The enactment of these policies fortified support for SV initiatives, which increased program stability during changes in administration, district priorities, and pedagogical approaches. WCSD also leveraged Stanford Design Thinking to support students in root cause analyses of student-identified post-pandemic school challenges. Students, randomly selected or otherwise equitably identified, learned data literacy skills as they engaged in empathy-building and data exploration exercises to understand school issues, and worked collaboratively to build, test, and scale-up solutions they designed. This approach supported more thoughtful, data-based approaches to SV. Challenges to capacity-building for SV are numerous, including competition for bandwidth among busy educators tasked with multiple initiatives, dearth of evidence-based approaches to SV, and lack of stable funding sources to support student voice work. Other challenges include overcoming long-held inequitable beliefs about which students “deserve” SV opportunities and deeply embedded power dynamics between adults and students.

Significance: The future direction of SV in WCSD
The inclusion of SV in the district’s 2023-24 Strategic Plan allows for stronger advocacy for structures necessary to meet SV goals and objectives (e.g., setting time in school schedule for partnering with students on school improvement efforts). Strategies to meet SV Strategic Plan goals and overcome challenges are detailed in the SV program’s 3-year plan.

Examples of recent SV projects illustrate the value of SV in driving positive, equity-driven school change. Two examples include:
1. A half-day Design Camp was held with staff and students from five middle schools to unpack climate survey data that indicate a decline in school engagement among middle school students.
2. Student advocates led improved school support for students who identify as LGBTQIA+. This ongoing project aims to help youth and staff co-develop strategies to support the mental health needs of LGBTQIA+ students across WCSD schools.
This paper is intended to be a resource for other school districts to learn and draw inspiration from as they move through their own SV implementation journeys.

Authors

• Jennifer Harris, Washoe County School District

• Laura Anne Davidson, Washoe County School District