10 Policymakers and educators should also incorporate principles of universal design to ensure that these efforts are accessible to all students and recognize the voices of all students, including students with disabilities and students whose first language is not English. Efforts to incorporate student voice are stronger when they include the following elements: intentional efforts to incorporate multiple student voices, especially those that have been historically marginalized a strong vision from educational leaders clarity of purpose and areas of influence time and structures for student-adult communication and, most importantly, trust between students and educators. Implementation of these strategies matters greatly. This report provides an overview of eight approaches that teachers, school leaders, and district and state policymakers can use to incorporate student voice: student surveys student perspectives on governing bodies such as school, local, state decision-makers student government student journalism student-led conferences democratic classroom practices personalized learning and youth participatory action research (YPAR). Some of these strategies fundamentally change the way that schools and systems operate, and others are more marginal. States, districts, schools, and teachers can solicit and incorporate student voice in many ways. Surveyed students and focus groups emphasized the need for student voice in curricula development, improved instruction practices, and increased graduation rates. 8 Interestingly, the percentage of students who did not feel inspired to work hard increased among students with lower GPAs among high-, medium-, and low-GPA students, 56 percent, 74 percent, and 79 percent reported not feeling inspired to work hard, respectively. 7 Sixty-nine percent of participants said that they were not motivated to work hard. 6 For example, a 2006 Civic Enterprises report, which surveyed a diverse group of 16- to 24-year-old adults who did not graduate high school, found that 47 percent of respondents indicated that “classes were not interesting” as the main reason they dropped out.
Given the assumption that student voice can increase student engagement, such efforts to give students more ownership of their education may be linked to improvements in student outcomes. Increasing student voice is particularly important for historically marginalized populations, including students from Black, Latinx, Native American, and low-income communities as well as students with disabilities. The authors of this report define “student voice” as student input in their education ranging from input into the instructional topics, the way students learn, the way schools are designed, and more. Many advocates and researchers encourage schools to create opportunities for students to participate in decisions about their education as a means of increasing student engagement and investing students in their education. There are limited studies that show a direct connection between student engagement and students valuing their education and opportunities to make their voices heard. 3 Similar to the drop in engagement, a recent poll from The New Teacher Project (TNTP) found that students see less value in their work and assignments with each subsequent year of school. 2 In high school, however, there is a precipitous drop in engagement, with just about one-third of students reporting being engaged. 1 By middle school, slightly more than one-half of students report being engaged.
According to a 2016 Gallup poll that measured student engagement, about three-quarters of fifth graders-an age at which students are full of joy and enthusiasm for school-report high engagement in school. When it comes to student engagement, there is a predictable and well-documented downward trajectory as students get older.