Voices in Urban Education
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Engaging Communities
VUE Number 13, Fall 2006
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EXCERPT:
Placing Students at the Center of Education Reform
By Jeremiah Newell
Jeremiah Newell is a junior at the University of South Alabama and director of student engagement for the Mobile Area Education Foundation.
> Complete bio
In Mobile, Alabama, school and district leaders seeking answers about the quality of schools turn first to those most affected: the students themselves.
Margaret Mead, the eminent American anthropologist and intellectual, once wrote, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." In public education, there is a growing realization that "changing the world" is not only needed, but essential to the continued success of our nation as a whole. Yet, as Mead noted, in order for successful reform to be sustained, it must be brought about by a "thoughtful" and "committed" public. One of the most effective ways of "bringing the public back into public education" is through deep and authentic public engagement.
In Mobile, this form of public engagement became the catalyst for an aggressive, innovative, and (as test scores are indicating) effective public education reform. The effort began with a public mobilization in support of the first property-tax increase in over forty years. Building on that success, the Mobile County Public School System (MCPSS) and the Mobile Area Education Foundation (MAEF) created the Yes We Can initiative to engage and connect our community to its public schools. Through this engagement initiative, some 1,500 members of the community convened in some sixty discussions around living rooms, kitchen tables, churches, and community centers about what type of community they wanted and what type of public schools they needed to fulfill those goals. From this information came the PASSport to Excellence, a strategic plan for the district and the community that outlines five priority goals for the system, followed by nineteen performance targets. The five goals are: student achievement, quality district and school leadership, communications and engagement, governance, and equity.
The Mobile strategic plan, unlike those of many urban school districts, is community driven. Thus, the community stays at the nucleus of the reform work. Public engagement has created the will for sustained education reform in our community. But the reform is more likely to be sustained because Mobile has seen the need to engage the most important stakeholders in the conversation: students themselves.
Student engagement is a relatively new piece of the puzzle for education reformers. But, when students are asked their viewpoint, powerful answers follow. There are many different approaches to student engagement; some involve engaging youth in their own learning or in the learning of their peers (FYI 2005).
In Mobile, the effort focused on engaging students around improving educational opportunities (FYI 2005). This is, perhaps, the most difficult of all forms of youth engagement, for students must be placed in an adult atmosphere. Students may be unfamiliar with how to work with adults or, even more commonly, adults are not comfortable working shoulder to shoulder with students.
To engage students successfully, then, certain conditions must exist: there should be a recognized vehicle for students to work through; the work should be authentically led by students; and the work should be aligned with the overall plan for strategic reform in an area. Mobile's experience illustrates how those conditions yield successful student engagement.
Archives
Engaging Communities
VUE Number 13, Fall 2006
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
EXCERPT:
Placing Students at the Center of Education Reform
By Jeremiah Newell
Jeremiah Newell is a junior at the University of South Alabama and director of student engagement for the Mobile Area Education Foundation.
> Complete bio
In Mobile, Alabama, school and district leaders seeking answers about the quality of schools turn first to those most affected: the students themselves.
Margaret Mead, the eminent American anthropologist and intellectual, once wrote, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." In public education, there is a growing realization that "changing the world" is not only needed, but essential to the continued success of our nation as a whole. Yet, as Mead noted, in order for successful reform to be sustained, it must be brought about by a "thoughtful" and "committed" public. One of the most effective ways of "bringing the public back into public education" is through deep and authentic public engagement.
In Mobile, this form of public engagement became the catalyst for an aggressive, innovative, and (as test scores are indicating) effective public education reform. The effort began with a public mobilization in support of the first property-tax increase in over forty years. Building on that success, the Mobile County Public School System (MCPSS) and the Mobile Area Education Foundation (MAEF) created the Yes We Can initiative to engage and connect our community to its public schools. Through this engagement initiative, some 1,500 members of the community convened in some sixty discussions around living rooms, kitchen tables, churches, and community centers about what type of community they wanted and what type of public schools they needed to fulfill those goals. From this information came the PASSport to Excellence, a strategic plan for the district and the community that outlines five priority goals for the system, followed by nineteen performance targets. The five goals are: student achievement, quality district and school leadership, communications and engagement, governance, and equity.
The Mobile strategic plan, unlike those of many urban school districts, is community driven. Thus, the community stays at the nucleus of the reform work. Public engagement has created the will for sustained education reform in our community. But the reform is more likely to be sustained because Mobile has seen the need to engage the most important stakeholders in the conversation: students themselves.
Student engagement is a relatively new piece of the puzzle for education reformers. But, when students are asked their viewpoint, powerful answers follow. There are many different approaches to student engagement; some involve engaging youth in their own learning or in the learning of their peers (FYI 2005).
In Mobile, the effort focused on engaging students around improving educational opportunities (FYI 2005). This is, perhaps, the most difficult of all forms of youth engagement, for students must be placed in an adult atmosphere. Students may be unfamiliar with how to work with adults or, even more commonly, adults are not comfortable working shoulder to shoulder with students.
To engage students successfully, then, certain conditions must exist: there should be a recognized vehicle for students to work through; the work should be authentically led by students; and the work should be aligned with the overall plan for strategic reform in an area. Mobile's experience illustrates how those conditions yield successful student engagement.
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