How School Leaders Can Support Student Voice and Agency

Many educators say, “Students are at the heart of everything we do.” As a school leader, I want to make sure this is a lived truth. We make so many decisions each day, all of which impact students: programming teacher schedules, planning professional development offerings, staffing extracurricular activities, organizing enrichment trips. 

These tasks require many hands to ensure that students’ experiences are fruitful and authentic and shape their growth. However, traditional education often places students as passive recipients of these experiences. 

My leadership team works to ensure that students have a more hands-on approach to learning. Shouldn’t students have a voice, platform, and presence in decisions that impact them? Empowering students to take ownership has elevated my school culture and created the next generation of leaders. Here’s what student-led systems might look like in your school. 

Student-led conferences

In recent years, we’ve seen a shift from traditional parent-teacher conferences to student-led conferences (SLCs). As educators, regardless of where we come from, we value empowering young people to become autonomous, take ownership, and develop leadership skills. 

I’ve seen a variety of SLCs across school settings; the commonality is that students have a platform to share their growth with parents and guardians. For insight on how to get started, I recommend Paul Emerich France’s Edutopia article titled “Getting Started With Learner-Led Conferences.” 

As administrators, it’s our role to ensure that teachers understand how best to support students and create effective systems. SLCs not only empower young people and allow them to engage in reflection; they also help families to garner a sense of how their child is doing and to hear it from their child—with the support of a teacher, adviser, or administrator.

Student Tribunals

Many schools have adopted more restorative approaches to discipline. In 2019, reports showed that schools across the U.S. experienced significant decreases in suspensions and in disorderly conduct. Another student-led system, the student tribunal, gives students an opportunity to evaluate their peers’ infractions.  

This system doesn’t work for serious, high-stakes incidents, but I’ve found tribunals, or peer courts, wonderful for lower-level infractions—such as when students repeatedly call out in class. 

Giving students a platform allows them to take a vested interest in the development of their peers and helps peers learn how to self-regulate. I’ve found Sean Sauro’s writing about the benefits of a student-led youth court process particularly helpful when thinking about this model.

Just as students value working in groups in the classroom, they similarly value learning from their mistakes by hearing from their peers. One student in my school articulated the following after being “tried” by her peers: “It was a little scary because you have kids you know with their eyes on you. I do feel like the punishment they gave me was fair. It’s different when you have kids your age speaking to you about [something you did wrong]. It makes me reflect more, like I really don’t want to [do that] again.”   

Getting started requires careful planning: 

• First, it’s important to establish the “what.” For which infractions will students go before their peers? Which are not on the table for peer review? 
• Next, have a group of students who are trained to weigh in on the tribunal system. You may pull from your student government club or another space where students are interested in this work.  
• Have a few practice runs with faux infractions, and revise your system as necessary. 

We run a student tribunal twice a month, which gives students time to review the discipline issues at hand, confer with peers on potential repercussions, and elicit feedback from teachers who supervise the system. 

When school leaders support teachers and staff who are interested in supervising this work, they can build capacity, shift school culture, and empower students’ voices.  For more information on what this system might look like, check out these resources: the Teaching Channel Video on Youth Court and this class-designed school justice system in Massachusetts.

Student-led Projects

I’ve seen student-led projects change school culture. For example, a student-led newspaper empowers students to make their voices heard, surface issues of importance to them, and share their perspectives with their school—all while reinforcing literacy skills.  

Students choose what they want to write about, interview school and local community members, and provide valuable data points. I’ve seen newspaper clubs lend tremendous insight about school issues, highlighting areas for growth that may otherwise have gone unheard. 

Community service projects also amplify, not only students’ voices, but their actions. Giving students opportunities to give back, demonstrate leadership, exhibit compassion, and invoke change in their world is powerful. 

I saw students organize over the summer to determine a high-stakes, schoolwide community service project they wanted to initiate the following year. Each grade had a role, a timeline, and benchmarks designed by the community service team. That year, students raised funds and improved access and resources for a school 2,000 miles away. 

Projects can be as low-stakes as sending cards to veterans, raising money, or organizing a campaign to raise awareness for a cause. As a school leader supporting this work, consider which teachers/staff members you might empower to lead these initiatives. You may provide coaching to build capacity around community service, professional development opportunities, or surveys for students (from which to glean what initiatives are of interest to your community). So long as students have voice and choice, it’s a win. 

Whether you’re adopting SLCs, student tribunals, a service project, or a new club, make sure students are at the forefront. Ask them what they want and need, and provide opportunities for them to share their lived experiences and perspectives. Consider: How can you ensure that your school culture reflects the diverse backgrounds of its students?  It’s our responsibility to ensure that our schools are spaces where students learn not only from teachers, but from, and alongside, their peers.