The Growing Impact of Youth Organizing for Education Reform

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In 2008, high school students ran 100 miles from Tucson to the state capitol Phoenix in 110-degree heat to protest the elimination of ethnic studies programs. In 2010, Philadelphia students organized and launched the Campaign for Non-Violent Schools to promote non-violence in the city’s schools. In New York City, the Urban Youth Collaborative has successfully mobilized thousands of students to protest school closings, budget cuts, and the elimination of free student subway passes.

In communities around the country, youth are becoming outspoken, effective, and powerful partners in school reform. As Annenberg Institute researchers Mediratta, Shah, and McAlister (2009) noted in a national study of education organizing, youth-led organizations are winning changes that lead to an improved learning environment and more equitable policies and practices in schools and districts around the nation. Mediratta, Cohen, and Shah (2007) found that in addition to creating policy and school changes, the process of youth organizing resulted in empowered, educated, and engaged students.

While much of the recent national attention about improving our schools has concentrated on administrators, teachers, unions, and national efforts at reform, the notable story of youth organizers has gone largely untold. The Annenberg Institute for School Reform has witnessed firsthand the growing efficacy and impact of youth organizing, specifically in our work supporting New York City’s Urban Youth Collaborative (UYC), a coalition of youth organizing groups working to effect changes in the city’s underserved schools. This work is motivated by our belief that school reform cannot happen in a vacuum, that the voices of those directly impacted by reform — students and parents — must be taken into consideration in order for any policy change to be effectively enacted and sustained. These are, after all, the people who have the highest stake in their schools.

In partnership with the Alliance for Education Justice, we recently dedicated an issue of our quarterly journal Voices in Urban Education (VUE) to the topic of youth organizing. Within its pages are the stories of numerous successful campaigns as well as personal reflections on these campaigns’ transformative power. “In the youth organizing work I do I feel powerful,” writes Jorel Moore, a youth organizer with UYC who authored one of the issue’s articles. “The youth are in charge: we are deciding what our strategy is, planning campaigns, and making our voices heard. It's a great feeling, and something I wouldn't trade.”

We hope that this VUE issue will serve as an inspiration and resource to young people interested in organizing for educational justice in their communities. And we encourage adults readers committed to high-quality public education to read these powerful stories of talented, motivated young people and think of your own communities. Spend a little time investigating what the young people are thinking about in your school, district, or state. Are there any emerging education organizing groups? Which of the ideas and issues the youth are addressing are present in your schools? What would it take to truly support the emerging generation in learning about and engaging in the great experiment called American democracy? What would our nation, our schools, and our classrooms look like if a youth-led education organizing movement took hold?

REFERENCES

Mediratta, K., A. Cohen, and S. Shah. 2007. “Leveraging Reform: Youth Power in a Smart Education System.” In City Schools: How Districts and Communities Can Create Smart Education Systems, edited by R. Rothman, pp. 99-115. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
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Mediratta, K., S. Shah, and S. McAlister. 2009.Community Organizing for Stronger Schools: Strategies and Successes.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Pres
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PREPARED BY 
O'rya Hyde-Keller
Assistant Editor
Annenberg Institute for School Reform
Orya_Hyde-keller@brown.edu