Action Team Goal:

Schools should ensure that students and teachers have a voice in issues that matter to them to support better relationships and engagement.
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Other APEX Action Teams:

Community Engagement and Empowerment

Funding and Budgeting

Racial/Socioeconomic Desegregation

Supporting the Whole Child

2019 meeting schedule coming soon!

​Meeting 6 Recap

• Lookout Valley Middle High student, Kadijah, gave an update on how the student voice program was developing and progressing at her school and answered questions on program structure and scope
• Identified three structure areas needing to be more developed in the LVMH student voice program: 
  1) student survey process
  2) how to measure success for the program
  3) structure of student meetings with the principal.
• Groups brainstormed around these these areas, including what types of questions should be on surveys, how to better understand student engagement and growth as an area of success, and including a transparency measure in principal meetings (like taking notes and sharing with the school)
• Discussed how to expand program to other schools and how to start implementation next year
• Team decided it’s important to include student voice in middle schools and chose Dalewood Middle as potential next partner based on interest from its principal
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​Meeting 5 Recap

• The team worked in two groups to build out elements they would like to see in a student voice initiative
• Lookout Valley Middle/High was used as the sample school for programming build-out (their principal requested a program outline when meeting with Action Team members, and Kadijah Tinker, a UnifiEd Student Voice Team member and student at Lookout Valley, was present and able to provide feedback
• The group outlined a structure for a “Student Voice Ambassadors” program that they will work to further refine
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​Meeting 4 Recap

• Kadijah Tinker, a UnifiEd Student Voice Team member, presented research she has conducted about current avenues for student voice in Hamilton County high schools
• After small group discussions on current student voice programming and county representation, the team proposed Lookout Valley Middle High, Brainerd High, Hixson High, and Dalewood Middle as possible pilot schools for a student voice project
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​Meeting 3 Recap

• Held a group decision making session where project focus was determined by group consensus
• Group agreed to focus on a project specific to elevating student voice to affect policy change at the school level
  • Participants want to pilot the project in a few schools
  • Guidelines for choosing schools will be determined at next meeting along with other work scope needs
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​Meeting 2 Recap

• Facilitated discussion about national, state, and local level resources and programming that elevates student and teacher voice inside and outside of the classroom
• The group performed an asset mapping exercise, identifying the resources that currently exist in our community that support student and teacher voice​
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​Meeting 1 Recap

• Participants discussed the benefits and challenges associated with working alongside community members to make changes within the system
• The group determined the opportunities and challenges we will face ensuring that students and teachers have a voice in issues that matter to them​

Next Steps:

• Team will meet with Dalewood principal to determine how a student voice program could be integrated into their school
• UnifiEd will be contacting team members for interviews about their experience with APEX Action Teams
• Team members will be invited to participate in a design process for a report and communication tool to share their work with the community
• Next set of APEX Action Team meetings will resume in early 2019