Description
An equity-driven high school principal has a responsibility to promote student leadership as part of a school’s culture, curriculum, governance, and vision. Research shows that increasing opportunities for student voice in schools has a positive impact on school culture and climate. Additionally, previous research highlights the need for teaching leadership as a 21st century skill is necessary and that leadership skills are a necessary outcome of education. Schools can empower students to lead through utilizing student voice as a means of leadership development. This program evaluation was designed to gather quantitative and qualitative formative evidence and provide feedback on the initial design and implementation of one school’s efforts to incorporate student voice into their school culture. The My Voice Survey was administered to the entire student body and data were utilized to drive discussions. Twelve student voice leaders and the entire certificated staff analyzed data from the survey and selected focus areas based on that data. Three student focus groups were formed to discuss the areas of focus and five critical friends provided feedback to the principal. Evaluation findings showed some trends in focus areas but no statistically significant change in the second administration of the My Voice Survey. Qualitative responses indicated that the staff and students embraced the opportunity to analyze and discuss the data. Future evaluation is needed to determine the effectiveness of the feedback model.
