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Educators know that getting students engaged is a real challenge. Engagement is down across America, with less than half of high school students feeling engaged. So what is the key to fixing this? The answer is student voice.

During the edLeader Panel “Creating a School Culture That Values Student Voice,” school and district leaders discussed why student voice matters and how to foster a school climate and culture that values it.

Student voice refers to practices that provide students with intentional opportunities to express their wants, needs, and perspectives in the classroom. These practices consist of programs such as surveys, journalism, conferences, and student government bodies.

They give educators data on the students’ perspectives and let them respond to students’ needs. This leads to greater equity and inclusiveness in the classrooms, the development of social and emotional learning skills, greater student investment, and a more positive and productive school climate and culture.

When students believe they have a voice, they’re more likely to care about school and what comes after. They’ll work towards goals, become more academically motivated, and feel invested in their future. Furthermore, listening to student perspectives can be eye-opening because often what educators and students consider meaningful work can greatly differ. Listening to student voices can help bridge that gap and ensure that students get what they need to succeed and achieve their goals.

Educators cannot assume that, just because they’re older and have their own experiences, they are experts in what their students are experiencing. Consulting students and hearing what they have to say is the best way to understand their needs and how to meet them.

Programs such as Elevate, a student voice program from PERTS that uses student feedback to improve engagement, can also be used to create school cultures that emphasize student voice. Elevate has a free plan for individual teachers and small groups of less than ten teachers. The use of programs like these can help improve student engagement, increase GPAs, increase teacher participation and retention, boost collaboration between teachers and students, and create a more positive, successful learning environment.

Implementation can take time and isn’t always linear, but the results can be worth it. Making students feel heard gives them a positive view of school. They feel like their teachers care, like what they say matters, and become more invested in the classroom. Remember, the opposite is also true, students will absolutely notice if they are not being heard, contributing to a negative view of school.

It’s not necessarily an easy task to build a school culture that values student voice. Doing so requires educators to change their own thought processes and recognize that students are experts in their own experiences. It also means that educators need to act on student feedback and make it a regular part of the decision-making process.

Meetings between educators, such as monthly principal meetings and discussions with other districts, can be used to share data and ideas to help with the implementation of programs, give educators support, and get them invested in initiatives.

Programs like Elevate and others allow educators to gather feedback from ALL students, not just the vocal ones. With actionable data on students’ first-hand experiences, educators can respond effectively to improve students’ experiences in the future.

While building a school culture that values student voice is hard work, data shows that it’s worthwhile. When schools really listen to what students have to say, students become engaged and invested, and everyone wins.

Learn more about this edWeb broadcast, Creating a School Culture That Values Student Voice, sponsored by PERTS.

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Creating a Positive School Climate is a free professional learning community that provides all education stake-holders with a place to collaborate on improving the learning environments of our schools to make them safe places for all students to reach their full potential.

The Project for Education Research That Scales (PERTS) is an edtech nonprofit founded in 2010 at Stanford University. PERTS equips educators to create excellent and equitable learning conditions—conditions that foster engagement and accelerate learning. To do so, PERTS develops, tests, and scales the impact of evidence-based solutions in collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations.

Article by Jon Scanlon, based on this edLeader Panel