Grapevine-Colleyville ISD program helps teachers hear ‘Student Voice’

Educators in Grapevine-Colleyville schools are tapping an under-utilized resource in the effort to make their teaching more effective: getting feedback from the students themselves.

This year, 66 teachers from 17 GCISD campuses are part of the Student Voice pilot program, a voluntary initiative to allow students to have a more direct impact on what goes on in the classroom.

Officials said that the program is getting insightful responses from kids and more interaction with their teachers.

“Now that students have a say, they have a deeper attachment to learning,” said Sarah Thompson, World History teacher at Colleyville Heritage High School. “I don’t think I could ever go back to not having Student Voice in my classroom.”

Thompson was part of an initial pilot of 11 teachers last spring and continued with the group of 66 this year.

She regularly surveys her students after a project on the good and the bad parts of the assignment and asks for recommendations for the next year.

Thompson said she was nervous at first about asking a bunch of 15-year-olds to critique her lessons but felt “an overwhelming sense of relief that students cared about their learning.”

Suzanne Newell, director of humanities, said she recently became interested in getting feedback directly from students after having a few experiences as an administrator where she learned that students and teachers had different perceptions of how things were going in the classroom.

“We wanted to give students a tool to give feedback on how learning is going because who would be better to ask,” Newell said.

Newell and Thompson presented a report about Student Voice at the November 16 board meeting.

The teachers who chose to participate this year agreed to p a day of training and read the book, “Student Voice: The Instrument of Change” by Russell Quaglia and Michael Corso. The teachers are in charge of their own surveys and share only the information they choose with their principals.

They agree to share with their principal at least one thing they learned from students and to use much of the information they receive to improve their lessons.

Newell said the approach differs from the way a lot of school districts around the nation are using student input. Some tie it to teacher evaluations. By giving the teacher control of the information and encouraging them to make adjustments, they make the experience positive for both parties.

Trustees were so pleased with the feedback from the initial pilot that they included expanding Student Voice in the district into the goals for Superintendent Robin Ryan.

“I think this is really important for the district. There’s no service industry that doesn’t ask customers what they like or don’t like, “ said Trustee Jorge Rodriguez.

“The best way to get really good at this job is to ask your students. That’s going to make you a better teacher.”

District officials are still working out how to broaden Student Voice without losing the positive nature of the current voluntary program.

This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 11:38 AM with the headline "Grapevine-Colleyville ISD program helps teachers hear ‘Student Voice’."