Quaglia Institute News and Events

Parent Presentation from Mt. Gleason Middle School

The Aspirations Team at Mt. Gleason Middle School delivered a presentation to parents about Student Voice during their regularly scheduled Coffee with the Principal. For Student Voice to truly become a way of being, all members of the school community, including parents and community members must be included. This is a great example representing the work many schools are doing to include families in their Student Voice & Aspirations work. Click here to download the parent presentation.

Monday Morning Assemblies at Rosa Parks Learning Center

During the 2019-20 school year, Rosa Parks Learning Center began holding Monday Morning Assemblies to increase and amplify student voice. Each week, a class takes responsibility for leading the whole school in the Monday Morning Assembly, using the opportunity to teach student voice skills, celebrate learning and student accomplishments on a regular basis, and cultivate a sense of belonging between all students and staff at the school. Thanks to the hard work of Principal King and the Aspirations Team, the school was able to continue the Monday Morning tradition via virtual means during the 2020-21 school year. Throughout the week, teachers and students would compile pictures and videos to be showcased and submitted write-ups to recognize individual students during what morphed into the Monday Morning Video. This provided a structured time each week to hear from the voices of students on the school wide stage, and through virtual means, let student shine and be acknowledge for their talents, accomplishments, and hard work. Enjoy these samples of Monday Morning Videos from Rosa Parks, including students leading the pledge of allegiance form his home, highlighting student artwork, and a beautiful recognition of individual students at the end of each video.

Student Voice

Louie Galman, a year 9 student at the Brisbane Catholic Education schools in Australia, recently put together a slide deck illustrating the work of the Quaglia Institute, and the importance of the 3 L's: Listen, Learn, Lead. You can watch a video of his presentation here.

Lawrence Middle School Student Voice Data World Cafe

70 students recently participated in a World Cafe exercise designed to analyze Student Voice survey data in partnership with school leaders at Lawrence Middle School in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Student participants continue to share how excited they were to be heard and how valued they felt. It was an impressive group of students who were mature and constructive in their data analysis conversations. It was clear that they love their school and are ready to use their voices and take actions that will support Lawrence in being the best it can be! Check out this short video that was created by Aiden Lopez, acting Student Historian at Lawrence.

Edison Middle School Evidence Portfolio

The Aspirations Team at Edison Middle School in the Los Angeles Unified School District has created a digital portfolio reflecting their work to amplify student voice & aspirations as a way of being across their campus. Check out this link to explore a wide variety of evidence ranging from school level actions, to specific examples of how instruction is being impacted by their focus on instructional strategies that honor student voice.

Check out the Reseda Charter School Instagram account dedicated to Student Voice: rchs_studentvoice

One recent post highlights the awesome work done by 6th graders to brainstorm realistic ways to improve their school, and create detailed action plans for implementation that were presented during Advisory. Students are now ready to take responsibility and put their voices into action! Suggestions included: hosting a middle school club rush to diversify the clubs on campus, establishing weekly participation buddies that can be a go-to support on a regular basis, end every day with positive affirmations/shout outs, include "coffee shop" time during Friday Advisory for students needing a little help or more time to complete assignments, volunteer to participate in peer tutoring, identify a student each day to serve as a co-host with their teacher, and creating an electronic space for student and parents to get to know one another at the start of next school year. To see a full list of suggestions made by students, visit http://bit.ly/RCMSvoiceinaction

Keep up the GREAT work Regents!

Recognition of the Aspirations Task Force at Woodside High School

Congratulations to Woodside’s student and staff task force members working on Aspirations and the 8 Conditions. The members of this monthly task force supported the annual student My Voice survey (given this year earlier so the school could consider the at-home learning data), sorted through the data, and hosted follow-up student focus groups on an asynchronous Wednesday to learn more about the data. Results were presented to school staff in mid April. Staff leaders included teachers Meghan O’Holleran, Kayla Dice, Sarah Lefort, Leslie With and students Sheona Yakupitiyage and Roxy Reid. Thanks to these Wildcats for keeping the non-academic means in focus.

The Power of Voice

Andrea Stringer's latest blog post discusses the need to be having conversations where everyone has a voice and actively listens - the students, teachers and leaders. How well are we listening and who currently has the most influential voice?

Resources for talking to students about politics, civic engagement, and uncertainty

The ASCD is providing a number of free resources for talking to students about politics, civic engagement, and uncertainty, including Dr. Quaglia's latest book The Power of Voice in Schools.

Dr. Joseph Meloche, Cherry Hill School District

Congratulations to Dr. Meloche, 2021 Superintendent of the Year Region III!

Thomas Edison Middle School

The Aspirations Team at Thomas Edison Middle School in Los Angeles recently engaged in a Voice Systems Self-Assessment exercise. The team celebrated areas of growth, and identified areas for continued improvement. The day after the meeting, the team took immediate action and began to work on a variety of ways to continue amplifying student voice at Edison, including the following:

Identifying student "Eagle" Representatives in each Advisory class and partnering with them to gather student ideas for school improvement that can be included in the school’s Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) plan and actions.
Including students in Schoolwide Positive Behavior Intervention Plan meetings.
Administering the Student Voice Survey in order to learn from students what their experiences are like during emergency remote learning.

Chatsworth Charter High School

Students at Chatsworth Charter High School in Los Angeles recently completed all 6 of the My Voice My Future student webinars. Students worked together to research opportunities for young people to virtually engage in civic action related to causes they care about. QISVA was honored to learn from student presentations in which they screen shared each resource and explained why they thought these resources would support student understanding of how they can use their voices for the Good of the Whole.

In their concluding remarks, one student said that all of the resources they suggested "give a voice to the voiceless"—something they think is a very important part of using your voice for the Good of the Whole. Thanks to the CCHS students for introducing us to these amazing resources that will be shared with all students engaging in the My Voice, My Future series moving forward.

Maui Complex Educators Complete the Quaglia Institute Facilitator Training

Congratulations to Maui Complex educators for completing The Quaglia Institute Facilitator Training. The QISVA team has truly enjoyed working with such a talented and passionate group of educators. We look forward to watching student voice continue to grow in the Maui Complex. The ten new trainers are: Benjamin Callahan, Christine Oshita, Danielle Tevis, Desiree Sides, Jennifer Rikert, Jill Schwindler, Juvy Ventura, Lauren Lott, Lori Yatsushiro, and Miki Kubo.

Student Voice Webinars

Quaglia Institute is excited to announce My Voice, My Future, a series of webinars for students to amplify their voices in positive ways. These webinars will help students develop the skills necessary to navigate the inevitable changes in their educational lives. To view a trailer, please visit this page.

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), California

The Quaglia Schools of Action in LAUSD have shown great progress in their efforts to amplify student voice and aspirations and are prepared to meet the challenges that COVID-19 has brought about with emergency remote learning. To continue momentum in the area of student voice and aspirations, the Quaglia Institute will support Schools of Action in their efforts to grow and sustain this work in the online context and when schools transition back to learning in physical school buildings.

Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE), Australia

Twenty BCE educators are enrolled in the Quaglia Institute's voice certification process. These educators are participating in a series of Voice Professional Development sessions with the goal of being certified to lead training in their district. Educators in Brisbane are listening, learning, and leading with students. Visit https://www.bne.catholic.edu.au/Pages/default.aspx to learn more about student voice in Brisbane.

Australia Consultants

QISVA is currently training highly skilled educators as consultants in Australia. These consultants will be supporting the work of the Australian Institute for Voice and Aspirations (AIVA) as student voice continues to grow and expand across the continent. For more information on AIVA, please contact Jason Caine, Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific at [email protected].