Build Student Perspective Into Continuous Improvement

Continuous Improvement can sound like fixing something that is wrong, but it is actually a structured process to strategize for success. It fosters a growth mindset, especially toward planning, evaluating, and adopting new practices to foster equity for students in your setting. Using state assessment and other student data is an essential part of the process. An overlooked and potent form of data is student perspective data. Student perspectives can be a crucial data point, especially in making improvements for educational equity.

A few tools we use to gain student perspective:

An Empathy Interview is a process to gather qualitative data through an interview. These interviews are designed to gather insights from the individual’s perspective. They focus on the stories, experiences, and understanding of the interviewee. 

Observations can be made either from the student's vantage point or during classroom observations. Educators can make structured observations as a student; taking the bus, sitting in a class, and having lunch with students can tell you more about how they experience school. 

Instructional Rounds are Classroom observations centered on a question or dilemma to get focused feedback and data. It can be focused to observe student experience and impact, not just for fidelity to curriculum.

Janelle Clarke-Holley, Director, Executive Leadership Programs

Using these tools can gather powerful student perspectives, and it is the facilitated collaborative discussions of what is learned that can lead a school to new ways of thinking and doing. The debrief is just as important as the process. This can provide much needed innovation and agency in a school’s improvement process.

These processes help measure impact vs. intention of improvements. Getting students’ perspectives can provide insight into what we are seeking to improve and to see how practices actually impact student experience.