The Value of Youth Voice in a Research-Practice Partnership: The Evaluation of Social and Emotional Learning in Alexandria City Public Schools

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teen girl talking in a group meeting

Participatory community-based research engages key stakeholders in data collection, analyses, and decision-making, which ultimately affects social change. AIR used this approach in an evaluation of division-wide* social and emotional learning (SEL) programming commissioned by Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) in Virginia.

AIR’s evaluation addressed these questions that ACPS wanted to understand:

  1. How does ACPS's staff build supportive relationships with students? To what extent does that vary across and within school sites? What structures and practices work well? What conditions are needed?
  2. To what extent do adults in the division have the knowledge, skills, and behaviors to be able to deliver and model SEL programs?     
  3. To what extent is there evidence of organizational alignment and integration to support student and adult SEL?
     

AIR's Approach

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Flip chart from brainstorming session

As the evaluation partner, AIR was responsive to ACPS’s request to adopt a collaborative approach and worked closely with ACPS in co-designing the evaluation method, collecting data, interpreting findings, and sharing the knowledge with the members of the ACPS community who were involved as key partners; namely division and school leaders, teachers, staff, community partners, caregivers, and students.

Our evaluation included these primary processes:

  1. We facilitated a co-design session with key partners to build a shared understanding of the evaluation, ensuring the evaluation design incorporated input from key partners and was responsive to ACPS’s needs.
  2. At a meaning making session, key partners were involved in a data walk to review and interpret evaluation findings, and to share insights that informed the recommendations to ACPS leadership.
  3. Students were actively involved in data collection. They helped with the planning of site visits; provided feedback that enhanced the focus group protocols; co-facilitated student focus groups conducted in the high school; and supported the walkthrough in the high school. 

The students we have collaborated with now have a face and a name to go to outside of their school and I expect that they will hold us accountable for turning the evaluation findings and recommendations into actions.

– Dr. Jennifer Whitson, ACPS Department of Accountability and Research

The collaborative approach provided multiple benefits. The meetings with the key partners and students enhanced the evaluation methods and interpretation of the evaluation findings. Student involvement not only improved the quality of data, but it also provided opportunities for the students to gain knowledge about evaluation methods, as well as SEL and its implementation. Students were also able to develop facilitation skills that they found valuable.

In addition, the close research-practice partnership allowed ACPS leadership to experience the benefits of student engagement as a model for actively involving them as key partners in continuous improvement processes.
 

What We Learned

  • To recruit a diverse body of students, ACPS used multiple channels of outreach to its existing student leadership groups and teachers and staff who worked with students, which proved to be useful.
  • Adult champions who have connections with students played a key role in recruiting, engaging, and supporting student participation. 
  • Regular communications and in-person meetings facilitated rapport building between students and researchers. These meetings also allowed the evaluation team to learn more about student experiences and helped the students prepare to support, co-lead, or lead evaluation activities.
  • Regular check-ins and reflective dialogues between the evaluation team and ACPS's core planning team supported the research-practice partnership we achieved in this project.
     

*Public schools in Virginia are organized by school divisions rather than school districts.