Student Board Of Education Essay

Aliza L. Houl

CE-ENG 122/Senior Honors Thesis

Dr. Jennifer Rinaldi

10 April 2023

Empowering Students Through Implementation of Student Board of Education in Denver Public Schools

“Young people can be powerful agents of social change. Many young people have the desire and capacity to transform the world and are looking for opportunities to do so. Youth have been key actors in nearly every major social movement in modern history” (Costanza-Chock 3). Assistant Professor of Civic Media at MIT's Comparative Media Studies program and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Sasha Costanza-Chock wrote this quote with her research on social and civil movements. In her research, she connects examples of young leaders such as

SBOE is a youth leadership program that equips students with the skills to design and advocate for sustainable youth-led policy solutions to social justice issues impacting their school communities. Student Board Representatives serve as liaisons on behalf of their schools between the student body, and the Board of Education, as well as participate in a year-long action civics and leadership development program. Different from Student Senate Programs, where students engage in event planning, SBOE involves policy-making throughout a school year in response to any issue with the school and/or district and creates a policy narrative and presentation to present at an event, Challenge 5280. The SBOE class has an embedded curriculum that introduces students to sociopolitical awareness and “Transformative Student Voice”, creating a healthy and enriching academic environment for students. In an informative article, The Relationship Between Student Voice and Student Engagement in Urban High Schools, Jershua Conner et al., researched 67 urban high schools in the School District of Philadelphia, regarding the impact of Student Voice on student engagement and found the students which rated as responsive to student’s voice, had higher grades and attendance, than those who rated as less responsive (3). Students who feel as though they are making a difference within their schools allow for higher engagement in classrooms and begin to critically think about their schools, but also their world as a whole. These programs allow young minds to become a prominent role in creating a better society. Shelly Zion, a Managing Director for the University of Colorado Denver within the Center for Advancing Practice, Education & Research (CAPER) was a prominent leader in the writing of the 2nd edition, Handbook of Urban Education in 2021