Students changing schools: Lessons from urban students engaged in school policymaking and reform

Urban students usually know on some level when their educational opportunities are inadequate. In a dilemma highlighted by many studies, students' intuition of unequal school or societal conditions frequently leads to school rejection and the production of negative academic outcomes (e.g., Fine, 1991; Ogbu, 1987; Willis, 1977). In this study, I investigate whether the opportunity to participate in school policymaking and reform broadens urban students' choices for responding to and interacting with their schools.;This dissertation is a case study of an urban community-based youth organization that sponsors a program to facilitate high school students' engagement in school reform. Using qualitative methods, the study examines two consecutive years of the student involvement program, including its structure and support, the processes and strategies students utilize while working for school change, and the outcomes of the program for the predominantly low-income and African American students that participated.;The option the program provided to engage in school policymaking and reform opened up a new pathway for students to relate to school. Following their participation in the program, the majority of students moved from a previous position of powerlessness, silence, anger, and apathy towards their urban school conditions to a sense of efficacy to participate in school change. Thus, the students channeled their feelings of alienation into a more constructive response to schooling.;This study suggests that providing students with structured venues for participating in school policymaking and reform can reduce the potential, documented in the prior literature, for low-income students and students of color to disengage from their schools or retaliate against them when they recognize limitations on their opportunities. In addition, schools can capitalize on students' insider knowledge to identify the factors that provoke their distress and generate improvements pertinent to the student body. Even more important than diminishing their alienation, students' engagement in school policymaking and reform can be a resource for schools to stop the production of alienation at its source.