Conversations 2024
High School students who participated in the 2024 Students Speak Program talk about their identities, relationships with teachers and how they feel their school makes them feel valued
What identities are important to you and do you feel your school supports these identities or not?
High School students who participated in the 2024 Student Speak Program talk about what identities are important to them and how they feel their school supports those identities.
Are there things teachers do that are helpful or unhelpful in building relationships with you?
Students talk about relationships with their teachers.
What is important for your teachers to understand about your experiences and responsibilities as a student?
High School students who participated in the 2024 Student Speak Program talk about what they feel is important for their teachers to understand about them.
What does your school do to help you feel valued? Is there anything you wish your school would do?
High School students who participated in the 2024 Student Speak Program talk about how their schools make them feel valued and what they wish they would do.
Conversations 2023
High School students who participated in the 2023 Students Speak Program talk about what gives them hope and inspires them about their peers and their generation.
What gives you hope and inspires you about your generation?
High School students who participated in the 2023 Student Speak Program talk about what gives them hope and inspires them about their peers and their generation.
What advice do you have for students who want to continue the work you’re doing now?
High School students across the nation have been engaging in student activism and even walkouts to raise their voices on matters ranging from education reform to racism. In this video students who participated in the Students Speak program offer advice for future students who want to continue the activist work they have been involved in.
Why did you chose to be a part of the Students Speak program?
High School students who participated in the 2023 Student Speak program talk about the reasons they joined the program and their feelings about it.
Are there any lingering COVID related difficulties this second year back at school?
As schools move on the second year after Covid-19 lingering issues remain. From teacher shortages to problems with communication. Students talk about the effects Covid continues to have on their education and their lives.
Do safety measures at your school take into account your need for privacy?
The need for school safety sometimes overlooks the need for student privacy. Students talk about how bathroom security measures at their schools have angered them and violated their rights.
How do you feel about the way teachers enforce school rules and guidelines?
Students talk about the ways different teachers enforce rules and guidelines. Teachers who are most effective go out of their way involve students in creating rules that affect them.
Conversations 2022
In a series of Zoom interviews during winter 2022, Massachusetts high school students shared their perspectives on returning to school after the pandemic, gave advice to students seeking change in their school communities, and spoke about the importance of the Students Speak program and student voice.
What was it like coming back to school after the pandemic?
In the spring of 2022 students talk about the issues and challenges they faced on returning to school after over a year of remote learning.
Advice for students trying to make change in their school communities
After giving testimony to the Massachusetts legislature in the spring of 2022 students share their thoughts and advice for other student activists trying to make change.
Why is the Students Speak program important to you?
After working with Harvard Law School students preparing testimony and then presenting that testimony to the Massachusetts Legislature in the Spring of 2022, students reflect on the importance of the Students Speak program and how it could help other students.
Conversations 2020
In a series of Zoom interviews during summer 2020, Massachusetts high school students shared their perspectives on remote learning during the pandemic, the urgent need for racial justice, and the many uncertainties surrounding school reopening in the fall.
Racial Justice
In Summer 2020, as the movement for racial justice intensified, students shared their thoughts and feelings in brief Zoom conversations. They explore how racist behavior can be present in education and how they have been impacted by it.
Remote Learning
In this Zoom interview created during the pandemic of 2020-2021 high school students talk about the difficulties they face with remote learning. Online learning is so different from classroom learning. The students discuss the tools they need and the interactions with teachers they need in order to succeed. Its not easy for them to reach out to other student or teachers. Its not always possible to have the connections with teachers that makes learning successful.
Student Voice
Decisions about education and schooling are often made without listening deeply to students themselves. But students are in the best position to understand what they need in order to do well in school. This video features Zoom interviews with a group of Massachussetts secondary school students from a diverse set of schools, communities and backgrounds. They all want to make their schools better—for themselves, for their classmates, and for students who come after them.
This website is dedicated to the valuable lessons we can learn from students’ own experiences about how to create better schools. Decisions about schooling are often made without listening deeply to students themselves. But students are in the best position to understand what they need in order to do well in school.
A collaboration of the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative (TLPI), Harvard Law School and Massachusetts Advocates for Children (MAC). LEARN MORE