Monday Oct. 23, 2017 PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island Kids Count asked students from seven public high schools what their schools were like and what would make their education more meaningful and more connected to the real world.
Kids Count, part of a national child advocacy group, partnered with Young Voices, a local youth empowerment organization, to ask students the following questions: Do they have a voice in their schools? Does anyone ask them about their academic and career goals? Do they have the opportunity to learn outside of the classroom? Do their teachers try to create an individual learning plan for each student?
Rhode Island’s school regulations state that every middle and high school student must have an adult, in addition to a school counselor, who is knowledgeable about that student’s academic, career and social goals. But many students said that only those youth who took the initiative got the help they needed to develop a plan to meet their goals.
In the Kids Count report, “Rhode Island Youth Perspectives: Engaging Students in their own Learning,” students, who were not identified, shared their experiences. More than 50 students from Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls participated in six workshops with Kids Count.
“The focus groups provide a snap shot of what students are thinking about ways that their schools can connect them to important learning opportunities that go beyond the classroom,” said Elizabeth Burke Bryant.
Students want practical skills that will serve them well in college and the workplace, she said.
“We students are the only ones who know what it’s like to actually be in the classrooms every day,” said Jorge Soto, an 11th-grade student and member of Young Voices. “How can policymakers know if the policies they create are being implemented the way they intended if they don’t hear from the people who are impacted by those policies on a daily basis? Our perspective needs to be included if policies are to be effective at improving our lives.”
“I’ve never had a teacher actually ask me what I want to do,” said one student. “The counselor has only been concerned about what colleges I’m going to.”
Another student said a lot of the positive student-teacher relationships “happened by chance, like survival of the fittest. If you meet a teacher who can be your friend, you’re good. If you go to an organization … like Young Voices, you’re good.”
State regulations require that all students, starting in sixth grade, have an individual learning plan that outlines their goals. But a number of students said that their learning plans are largely ignored.
“There’s nothing we really do to help achieve these goals,” one student said. “It’s basically just writing them down.”
When the plans were well-implemented, however, students said they really felt encouraged to get more involved in their schools.
“It helped me push more for my goals,” one student said. “Like I wanted to be in the Honor Society this year and I’m really proud of myself because I really used [the plan] to become an Honor Society member.”
Students in schools that offered career tracks, formerly known as vocational education, talked passionately about the value of these experiences.
One student described getting an internship at the University of Rhode Island in marine biology: “Every time I went there, I learned something new about marine biology. There were also people from URI working there, so I got information from biologists working there. It was a good experience.”
— lborg@providencejournal.com
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