What if teachers and students became steady allies rather than frequent adversaries in their daily classroom encounters? With support from MetLife Foundation, What Kids Can Do has explored this question for several years in an initiative called “Students as Allies.” In Chicago, Houston, Oakland, Philadelphia, and St. Louis, What Kids Can Do has collaborated with teams of students and teachers organized by a local non-profit intermediary. The efforts in each city include several parts: helping students conduct survey research about their own schools, then supporting dialogue and constructive action around the research results, while nurturing youth leadership all along the way. This report includes findings and recommendations.
Check out Building Support for Student-Centered Learning: A Toolkit for more communication tools to support student-centered approaches to learning and student action research.
Source Organization: What Kids Can Do & MetLife Foundation