The document summarizes a social justice class at UHS where students engaged in youth participatory action research to examine social justice issues at their school. In the first half of the class, students learned about identity, power, and social justice concepts. In the second half, students researched topics like teacher-student relationships, dress code enforcement, and honors course enrollment. Students presented their findings and recommendations to administrators through posters, letters, and presentations. They aim to continue this work to enact positive change at their school.

1. UHS Social Justice
June 2013

2. Meaningful Collaboration
UIUC & UHS
 Challenging the “ivory tower” notion by learning from
experts within the field
 Nurturing stronger community relationships
 Fostering a more democratic school improvement effort:
 Equity centered
 Inquiry based & participatory (professional learning
communities)
 Student voice in school improvement
 Critical reflection & feedback

3. Elements of School
Improvement
Student Voice?
What about the voices of
those most impacted by
the school improvement
decisions of educational
stakeholders?
School Leadership:
Administrators must take
responsibility to foster,
support, and embed
student voice into school
improvement initiatives.

4. Student Voice, Youth Participatory
Action Research & School
Improvement

5. Ms. Moyer
 Teaches English at UHS
 Chair of the Social Justice Committee
 Serves on the School Improvement Administrative Advisory
 Taught Social Justice elective course for the first time this year
 Committed to Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and
disrupting traditionally asymmetrical power dynamics in the
classroom

7. Course overview
 In the first half of the semester, I led lessons that
helped students engage with issues of identity
and power
 In the second half of the semester, students
engaged in Youth Participatory Action Research
(YPAR)

8. First half of the semester
 learned key vocabulary and frameworks
related to identity and power
 reflected on our own identities
 studied historical and current events
 engaged in debates
 discussed the issues in our community and
decided to take action

9. Notable vocabulary
 Social construction: a perception or idea that is
'constructed’ (or made up) through cultural or
social practice; a product of human interaction
 Intersectionality: the overlapping of identities
 Who’s marginalized? Who’s privileged?

10. Notable readings
 Select chapters from The Latinization of US Schools by Jason
Irizarry
 “Colorblindness: the New Racism” (Teaching Tolerance)
 “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack” by
Peggy McIntosh
 Excepts by Gloria Ladson-Billings
 Excerpts from Courageous Conversations about Race by Glenn E.
Singleton and Curtis Linton

11. Notable assignments
 Gender autobiography
 Race autobiography
 Counternarratives
 Co-authored an article for The Social Justice Leader
with Dr. Welton and Mr. Wiemelt
 Copies available at the poster sessions

12. Common Core
Alignment to English and Social Studies standards
 Reading
 Example: RH.11-12.1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific
details to an understanding of the text as a whole
 Writing
 Example: WHST.11-12.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose,
and auidence
 Speaking and listening
 Example: SL.1..-12.1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on texts, issues, building on
others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively
 Research
 Example: WHT.11-12.9: Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research

13. Keep in mind…
 …because of purposeful recruitment of students by myself,
the counseling department, and administrative team, the
class demographics were representative of the school
population
 About 40% white, 40% black, 10% Latino, 10% other
 About 66% low SES
 …the class was comprised of 30 out of 32 underclassmen
(majority freshmen)
 …the work you’ll see from here (Powerpoint, posters, letters,
etc.) are completely student generated

14. Second half of the semester
 Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR)
 Youth gathering together to solve real
problems through research
 Students and teachers work collaboratively to
incite change within communities

15. www.mikvachallenge.org

16. How we chose our topics
 Voting
 Root causes and rationale
 Institutionalized racism: the cumulative effects of policies and systems which
have the effect of disadvantaging certain racial groups; describes a system of
inequality that can occur in institutions
 This does not include individual acts of blatant racism
 Color blindness: claiming that race doesn’t matter (“I don’t see race”)
 White privilege: unearned advantages white people benefit from because of their
light skin (ex: white people can go shopping pretty well assured that they will not
be followed or harassed)

17. Root causes
brainstorming

18. Our topics
 Teacher-student relationships
 Lack of faculty racial diversity
 Underrepresentation of students of color in honors
courses
 Disproportionate dress code enforcement on females
of color
 Overrepresentation of students of color in DRA

19. Research process
 Developed guiding research questions
 Consulted a variety of sources to find answers
 Established claims based off of findings

20. Research methods
 Quantitative research methods
 developed and distributed surveys
 tallied and tabulated survey results
 organized data into charts and graphs
 compared survey results with other statistics (especially from the Interactive
Report Card)
 Qualitative research methods
 Read and discussed scholarly articles related to research topics
 Conducted interviews with staff and students
 Coded interviews and short answer survey results for themes

21. Letters to the administration
 We summarized our findings and offered
recommendations for the future to 2013-14 UHS
administration in letters
 copies available during the poster sessions

22. Student presentations
May 10th
and 17th
, UHS library
 In attendance: teachers, counselors, deans,
administrators, U of I students and faculty,
community members, central office staff,
students

23. May 10th
presentations

24. Teacher-student
relationships
 CLAIMS AND FINDINGS
 We claim that culturally responsive teaching affects
students’ learning in positive ways because students’
identities are affirmed; relationships between students
and teachers matter
 We learned that teachers can better relate to
students by developing relationships and
embracing their students’ cultural identities

25. Disproportionate dress code
enforcement on females of color
 CLAIMS AND FINDINGS
 We claim that females of color get more dress code
infractions than any other group at UHS
 We learned that the vast majority of students
believe that the dress code is enforced more
severely on black girls

26. Lack of faculty of color

27. Overrepresentation of students of
color in DRA
 CLAIMS AND FINDINGS
 We claim that the higher level of referrals black
students receive may be “pushing” kids out of school
 We learned that 74% of students that receive DRA
are black

28. Underrepresentation of students
of color in honors courses
 CLAIMS AND FINDINGS
 We claim that there is a lack of racial, ethnic, and
linguistic diversity in Advance Placement courses
 We learned that the rate of white students enrolled
in AP courses is over three times the rate of black
students enrolled in AP courses.

29. Video clips

30. Student and teacher
activists
 Our next steps will be to…
 …work with administrators to implement as many of our
recommendations as possible
 …work with the Social Justice Committee to advocate for
and facilitate these changes
 …propose a second social justice class to the Curriculum
Development team
 …collaborate with the next Social Justice class in order to
continue this work

31. Q & A
What questions do you
have for us?

32. Poster sessions
 We invite you to learn more about why we’ve made these claims
 Posters include
 guiding research questions
 research methods
 the top 5 things we learned from our research
 claims
 recommendations

33. Your role
 Ask us questions
 Examine our materials
 surveys, letters to the administration, etc.
 Offer us feedback
 Engage in debate