Many students have expressed the importance to them of having school staff who share, or at least understand, their backgrounds. This allows for learning opportunities to be aligned to their own experiences and for staff to be more relatable to them.
Many students have expressed the importance to them of having school staff who share, or at least understand, their backgrounds. This allows for learning opportunities to be aligned to their own experiences and for staff to be more relatable to them.
Students want their schools to teach inclusively about gender and sexuality so they truly educate all students and make sure queer students feel more safe and supported at school.
“As a trans youth, I have had hard experiences in school. One day during remote learning, I had my preferred name and pronouns listed on my Zoom screen. During class, my teacher told me in the chat to change my preferred name and pronouns, saying that what I listed on the zoom screen was not appropriate and that I was being disruptive. In that moment, I felt really disrespected and became so frustrated that I had to leave the Zoom session to calm down.” — Theresa
“Being able to come out at school has changed my experience for the better. It allows me to be more like myself in the classroom and I know that I will be accepted and supported.” — Adam
“Basically, I was not comfortable because the teachers and staff didn’t appear to be open minded to those of us who are LGBT+ as well as those who think differently than others.” — Drew
“The F slur was thrown around quite a lot by some. Because of this, students who were part of the LGBTQ+ community would separate themselves and actively stay away from all the rest. They would kind of huddle around together in the back of the cafeteria. … Some of the teachers even contributed to this.” — Ethan
“I believe a safe space means LGBTQ+ students won’t be judged and will be provided with equal opportunity.” — Lonelypilot
“Most of the discrimination I’ve experienced was because people didn’t understand what it means to be transgender and why the things they were saying were so damaging.” — Kellin
Students have noted the need for a balanced and tempered approach to discipline policies and procedures and have also observed harsher punishments for students of color compared to White students.
“We need more accessible mental health support – especially in the return from a highly stressful global pandemic. In student council, we reviewed evidence showing that mental health resources (improve school environment). But instead of investing in mental health supports, my school invested in additional security guards.” — Alexis
“I want to talk about school support systems and the importance of teachers that recognize not only the negatives, but the positive things teenagers are doing. It’s important to make teenagers feel confident in the positive things that they are doing, and give them attention for it, so that they don’t seek that attention by doing bad things.” — Jaydah
“A lot of the time when you meet with adults at school, they only focus on what you’ve done badly and why you’re wrong. I was used to feeling like no one was on my side.” — Anonymous
“Students often put their guard up because teachers can’t relate to the students. If teachers understood our backgrounds, they might know how to de-escalate situations better and make it easier for students.” — Chris
“The unequal treatment I see every day between different groups of students doesn’t make for a safe and supportive learning environment.” — Chinyere
Students also expressed a strong desire for a curriculum that is more representative of their backgrounds and experiences and that is more relevant to the skills and knowledge they will need to be successful in adult life.
“Structures for ensuring students feel listened to can help in these situations. Instead of putting business on social media that has to do with their schools, students should have a chance to share their concerns in person and adults should hear what students have to say and find helpful ways to act on things that matter to students. When these systems are in place, this is the beginning of bringing trust and relationships to create safe and supportive schools.” — Oreoluwa
“A sex education curriculum that’s more inclusive of gender and sexuality topics will educate all students, and make sure queer kids feel more safe. It’s also important that teachers and staff at schools are trained and know how to help LGBTQ kids.” — Kellin
“If kids were taught about LGBTQ topics it wouldn’t feel so taboo and uncomfortable to talk about, and people would be better informed about the issues that the LGBTQ community faces.” — Kellin
“I want my teachers to encourage me and other students of color to succeed academically and to challenge ourselves. I want them to encourage me to take advanced classes because I know that I can do it and I know that I can succeed. I want them to believe that as well.” — Anonymous-2
“I was going to say Black ownership…. Black people don’t really own anything. When they get out of school they don’t really get to know how to run things, how to do things ourselves. Classes about that is where we missed it.” — Focus Group Report
“One other thing I feel like the school systems could add, especially with the [Black] communities, is an Afro studies class.” — Focus Group Report
“We really don’t have too many classes that teach to our lives. I think last year at the beginning of ninth grade, we did like two days of learning about taxes and interest and then we haven’t learned about anything like that since. One of the things that I feel like they can change doing things more that we can connect to and that we’re going through. It’s like in 10th grade we’re 10th graders looking to get a job, looking for their permit and do other things like that.” — Focus Group Report
In school and districts where academic tracking is prominent, students have expressed frustration with this practice. On one hand, students in higher tracks have shared that it can be difficult to get additional support to meet their teachers’ high academic expectations. On the other hand, students in lower tracks have shared they feel as if they have been held back by low expectations.
“It’s true that we don’t all learn in the same way…. But the situation we have right now … fosters an attitude that it is entirely your own fault if you’re in a lower level, or if you’re not learning as much. That’s not true. Those things are actually related to the culture of the school–when adults claim that students can’t achieve, this discourages them from even trying.” — Chinyere
“They give you easy work.… I don’t really feel like it’s a school school. I’m not learning to my potential.” — Focus Group Report
“It’s not really the students. It’s teachers. They look at you like you are dumb. They just expect less of you. They don’t push you up. They don’t communicate with the kids…” — Focus Group Report
“I feel for the [lowest track] classes with the teachers, it’s like they see what they want to see. You want to see something bad, then you see something bad. That reflects on the students, in the students’ grades and in the classes. Of course they’re going to fail because the teacher wants to see them fail.”
— Focus Group Report
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
Alexis: I know my teachers are well intentioned
“I know my teachers are well intentioned when listening to my concerns, but when they don’t understand or know my experiences, student voice – my voice – becomes endangered. The effects of this failure to genuinely understand students falls particularly hard onto marginalized students–Black, Indigenous, and people of color (or BIPOC) and LGBTQ students—at my school.” — Alexis
Chris: It would help if teachers understood the needs of students of color
“It would go a long way to help if there were teachers from the community who could understand the needs of students of color.… I feel like if more teachers understood our backgrounds, things would go better because teachers would know how to talk to students and have relationships with them.” — Chris
Chelsea: Supportive adults share our experiences, treat us as equals
“They [supportive adults] often share our experiences, treat us as equals, prioritize our well-being, and know how to gain our trust so that we can access the learning we so badly want. Those who can connect with us understand the unique challenges of our diverse and often disadvantaged student body.”
— Chelsea
Focus Group: Racial makeup of staff should be representative of student body
“I think that issue of [relatability] and the area that people come from, the areas they grew up in, the demographics or the racial makeup of the [staff] should in some ways be representative of the student body.”
— Focus Group Report