Partnering with Youth to Reimagine Math Engagement: How a Research-Practice Team Co-Designed Solutions to Improve Equity

• In Event: Expanding Research Practice Partnerships: Integrating Youth Voices for Equitable and Impactful Collaboration

Abstract

Objectives
This paper illustrates how a research-practice partnership (RPP) meaningfully engaged youth to co-design a solution to a longstanding problem of practice: the lack of valid, culturally sustaining ways to assess and support math engagement, particularly for Black and Latino students (Adiredja, 2019; McGee, 2020). We present how youth were involved, the outcomes their involvement made possible, and the tensions we navigated throughout the process. In doing so, we highlight practical strategies for embedding youth as partners in education change efforts.

Theoretical Framework
The work is grounded in critical participatory action research (cPAR) and youth-adult partnership theory (Kemmis, 2008; Fine & Torre, 2021), which emphasize shared power, relationship-based collaboration, and systemic disruption of adult-centered decision-making. We also draw from culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris & Alim, 2017) and ecological systems theory (Vélez-Agosto et al., 2017) to frame youth engagement as embedded in cultural, racial, and institutional contexts.

Methods
Through a three-year cPAR process, youth were engaged as full partners in co-developing the Adapted Measure of Math Engagement (AM-ME). The research team included five researchers, five math teachers, and six middle and high school students who collaborated across 20 meetings. Together, the group co-designed research questions, adapted existing measures, interpreted data, and produced classroom-facing tools. Specific strategies included youth-designed interview protocols, co-led data analysis sessions, reflective learning routines, and shared leadership structures supported by scaffolding and stipends.
Data Sources
Data were drawn from transcripts of student and teacher interviews and focus groups (n>100), survey responses from more than 2,700 students, materials from team convenings, and youth researcher reflections. Analyses included thematic coding, Rasch modeling, and factor analysis. Youth played an active role in shaping interpretations and elevating culturally grounded engagement constructs often absent from existing frameworks.
Results
Youth co-leadership strengthened the work at every stage. Youth challenged adult assumptions, contributed new constructs, such as “racial identity safety” and “math authenticity,” and ensured that resulting tools reflected students’ lived experiences. Their involvement reshaped the research product, a validated measure that resonates with students, and the professional practice of educators in the partnership. School leaders and instructional coaches began using youth-informed findings to adjust classroom norms, instructional planning, and professional learning community agendas.
Ongoing tensions included navigating decision-making across unequal power dynamics, sustaining youth engagement over time, and negotiating institutional constraints, such as payments to minors and IRB requirements. However, these challenges prompted design adaptations that reinforced mutual accountability and opened space for more equitable collaboration.

Significance
This project exemplifies the affordances of partnering with youth to co-create actionable solutions to persistent educational challenges. Rather than treating youth as subjects or beneficiaries of research, our team positioned youth as designers of tools that can transform practice. This session contributes to scholarship on RPPs and youth engagement by offering a detailed account of how, why, and to what end youth voice was integrated into a systemic improvement effort.

Authors

• Samantha E. Holquist, Child Trends

• Ta-yang Hsieh, Search Institute

• Alyssa Scott, Child Trends

• Marisa K. Crowder, The ElevatEd Initiative

• Mark Vincent B. Yu, NA

• Claire Kelley, Child Trends

• Olivia Reyes, Child Trends