The Council Of Youth Research

By Author: Jordon
Total Articles: 91
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The following summer, in 2008, Miss Rodriguez joined a group of teachers and graduate students in our annual summer seminar. Each summer, a university colleague and I offer a course that brings high school students from the local, major metropolitan area to the university to learn how to conduct critical research in their schools and communities. For five weeks they read works in urban sociology, critical theory, research methodology, and education research. Along with their group leader (usually a K--12 classroom teacher) they develop a research question, design a research study, collect and analyze data, write essays and research reports, create PowerPoint presentations, and put together short documentary films. At the culmination of Vibram Five Fingers each seminar the research groups (numbering four or five) make their presentations and show their films to an audience of parents, teachers, administrators, policymakers, and university faculty.

In the summer of 2007, the students explored the dropout problem in our city. In many of the schools the students attended, fewer ...
... than one third of the students who start high school finish with diplomas four years later and many of those who finish do not have the classes or grades needed to enroll in four-year universities. The student-researchers wanted to understand the conditions that lead to student investment and increase student engagement and achievement. Each of the five student groups in 2008 focused on a particular geographical area of the city where they interviewed adult powerbrokers such as the superintendent and school board members, interviewed and surveyed students, visited school sites and community

Oganizations, and analyzed statistical databases such as the U.S. Census and the Educational Data reports released by the California Department of Education. The final products were a research brief written as a group, a PowerPoint presentation, a short digital video documentary, and individual 1,500-2,000 word essays (what we called auto-ethnographies) on their experiences as critical researchers. The final reports, PowerPoint presentations, and documentaries were presented at City Hall to the Mayor's office of education. The mayor attended, as did members of the local print and television media. The students' findings have generated a Discount Vibram Fivefingers great deal of attention from the media and from policymakers and district administrators. Several students and one teacher were invited to participate in an achievement gap summit sponsored by the state Superintendent of Public Instruction. Other students participated in a weeklong discussion with a former school board member.