The final report on this eighteen-month project includes details about the five sites; the collaborative process through which we designed surveys that included a common core of questions along with school-specific questions developed by student-teacher research teams; how students became involved in the project, gathered and analyzed their data, presented their findings at public “summits” and then turned them into topics for discussion and action. Over 6350 students and 466 teachers filled out SAA surveys. Download PDF (20pp.)

Reports from individual SAA sites
“We hope this report sparks important conversations among students, teachers, and administrators across our city. We must all talk if our schools are to improve.” — Introduction to Students as Allies Chicago Report, April 2004

In each of these three cities, teachers and students worked with WKCD to create a final report about their site’s activities. Common to all are summaries of their survey results, but each report also highlights special aspects of that site’s work—for example, a discussion by teachers in Houston about weaving survey design into their writing classes, student analyses of individual survey findings in Chicago, the action plans developed by students in St. Louis. Download PDF’s: Chicago (34pp.) Houston (38pp.) St. Louis (26pp.)

Sample surveys from SAA research teams
“Remember that you only get answers to the questions you ask. Also, be sure to ask the same question in different ways. Be careful how you word your questions. Poor questions get poor answers.” — Students as Allies student researchers

Working with students and teachers, we began the survey design process by identifying areas where more knowledge about perceptions would help students become actors in improving their schools. The areas we chose included school climate, student-teacher relationships, teaching styles, academic expectations, safety and discipline, student voice, and improving student learning. We drafted a core of questions around these issues that appeared in the surveys in all five sites. To these, each of the 21 student research teams added questions that were specific to their own school and circumstances, typically developed after engaging classmates in focused discussions about what needed investigating. Download PDF (35pp.)

Guides for supporting student action research
“Adult researchers have written all these reports about which students are failing and why. It’s time students became the studiers and not just the studied.” — Student, Houston, TX

Several years ago the John W. Gardner Center at Stanford University, as part of its Youth Engaged in Leadership & Learning (Y.E.L.L.) program, created a step-by-step handbook of lesson plans, activities, and worksheets that introduce youth to different research methods, analytical tools, and presentation skills involved in action research. The lessons can be adapted to meet the needs and interests of different communities and can be facilitated by teachers and educators in school and out-of-school contexts. The publication is called Handbook for Supporting Community Youth Researchers. Download PDF (114pp.)

More recently, Matthew Goldwasser, Ph.D., at Research for Action in Philadelphia, has written a useful, short publication called A Guide to Facilitating Action Research for Youth. It covers three major stages in the process of action research projects: “WHAT?”—choosing a research topic and collecting data; “SO WHAT?”—analyzing and interpreting the findings; and “NOW WHAT?”—making sense of a study’s findings. Within each of these sections are subsections related to steps in the action research process. Each subsection includes descriptions of one or more group activities that facilitators can use with students to help them develop needed skills. Download PDF (48pp.)

Strategies for listening to students
“What really truly counts is when we can talk about these issues in class, with the teachers and students we mix with daily, where the conversation can make an immediate difference.” – Student, St. Louis, MO

Perhaps more than anything else, the results from the Students as Allies surveys beseech teachers and students to communicate more openly, substantively, and regularly—about what helps and gets in the way of teaching and learning, what interests them, what concerns them, what they value. Drawing upon the same questions that prompted the discussions that created Fires in the Bathroom, WKCD has created a teacher’s guide called, First Ask, Then Listen: How to Get Your Students to Help You Teach Them Better. It begins with tips for structuring dialogues with students and reminders for respectful discussions, then offers detailed questions sets and exercises for prompting classroom conversations with students in four areas: personal connections to the teacher, expectations and motivation, learning inside the classroom and out, classroom climate and management. Download PDF (13pp.)

Considerations for taking action
“For once, I hope my students believe this is going to bring about real changes in our school. Otherwise, they could care less. The real work starts where the data leaves off.” – Teacher, Houston, TX

One of the challenges of action research is deciding which issues flagged by the research should be targets for focused efforts at change and how to effect the changes desired. A lot has been written about subject, especially within the field of community organizing. Youth on Board, which prepares youth to be leaders and decision makers in their communities, has pulled from this literature to create an informal student-centered manual, Steps to Organize and Advocate for Change. Included, too, are ground rules for making sure advocacy does not become confrontational, and for giving appreciation. Download PDF (11pp.)

Nurturing nontraditional student leaders
"...I hope my students will try and change the system, but it's their decision. We're an empowerment program-not a fraternity or some type of special club where you have to be popular to be in it. We're about trying to give students the proper information, enough of a theoretical foundation where they can grow to be better decision makers. Then, if they decide they want to make change, they'll be better prepared on how to do it, and most importantly, they'll have the courage that oppression tries to strip from people, they'll have the courage to go out and give it a shot." — Darrick Smith, TryUMF program at Oakland Tech High School, Oakland, CA

In Oakland, California embracing and nurturing student leadership is becoming a district-wide effort. The seeds are planted in the schools where elective leadership classes—open to all students—have become part of the course schedule in several of the city's middle and high schools. An All-City Council made up of 40 high school students meets regularly and advises the school board and district administration. A new, pilot leadership curriculum, developed by the district's youth leadership coordinator, aims to give teachers a framework and a wealth of ideas and tools to try.

The TryUMF program at Oakland Tech is the most longstanding of these efforts. Recently WKCD interviewed TryUMF's director and students about what it takes to defy the low expectations of classmates, teachers, and the "system" in a community where poverty and violence have a hard grip. Here we provide excerpts from these interviews and a speech by director Darrick Smith to the All-City Council. Download PDF (8pp.)

To learn more about Oakland's commitment to student leadership and voice, the All-City Council, and the pilot leadership curriculum, contact Michele Levine at michele.levine@ousd.k12.ca.us.

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