Student voice has had a significant impact on diversifying the curriculum and altering the dress code in Maryland's Howard County Public School System.
Students on the Superintendent's 8th Grade Council in the Pendergast Elementary School District have a voice in planning budgets and organizing big events.
While some districts have been steeped in student voice for several years, the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing Black Lives Matters movement has given more urgency to these efforts.
In Chicago, students as young as elementary age learn to organize and build civic leadership skills within the district's 200 student voice committees.
Asking students for feedback but not taking any action is worse than not asking them at all, says Principal Arria Coburn of the Springfield Renaissance School principal.
Social-emotional learning has taken on heightened importance as educators prepare to support students coping with a COVID-era blend in-person and online learning.
Administrators in Naperville School District 203, where SEL has been entrenched in the curriculum for years, have focused first on professional development for teachers in the post-COVID world.
