SJ Class 20145.29.14

What is Social Justice class?

We are youth in the Urbana High School’s Social Justice class who are coming together in order to solve issues of social injustice in our school and community and trying to solve them

Social Justice Teaching and Learning

What is YPAR?

Youth Participatory Action Research

* When youth come together to incite change in their communities

* For us, that means a class of students who research school issues that concern them, use our research to bring the issues to light & make a change

* We will make recommendations to teachers and administrators to advocate for real changes in the school

Topic Selection* Spent first quarter of semester learning about various social injustices

* Selection process

* Was a democratic process but not majority rule

* We brainstormed and discussed a list of possible topics

* We anonymously voted

* We compromised and not all topics were chosen because of lack of interest

Our YPAR mission: Our mission is to address structural inequities at UHS and issues of access. While different groups in the Social Justice class will tackle different topics, we all will focus on how student voice can affect school policies and change those policies for the better

Key Vocabulary

Intersectionality: the recognition that identities overlap and that oppressions are interconnected

Unearned privilege: Special unearned benefits associated with dominant groups that make them systematically advantaged and made to feel “normal”

Final Topics

* College & career pathways

* Curriculum & instruction

* School & district funding

* School rules & structures

How we learned about our research questions and topics

* Generated, conducted surveys and tabulated survey data

* Conducted interviews and coded interviews for themes

* Actively read relevant texts

College & Career Pathways

GUIDING RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

* What is the school doing in order to prevent students from dropping out?

* Which group(s) of students are mostly being encouraged to take AP & AP prep classes?

* Which students are mostly given scholarship information and why?

College & Career PathwaysKEY FINDINGS:• More students from minoritized groups have or know someone who has dropped out.•Black and Latina/o students’ enrollment in AP or AP prep courses is disproportionately low and those who are in enrolled are one of few in these courses.•This is a problem because these courses are designed to prepare students for college.

College & Career Pathways

RECOMMENDATIONS: * Re-open the school’s outreach program* Enact culturally responsive teaching* Teachers should encourage students by breaking down the asymmetrical barriers and really try to get to know their students and better understand their students’ lives

School & District FundingGUIDING RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

* How are people of color affected by poverty at our school?

* How are white people affected by poverty at our school?

* Is our district distributing funding unevenly?* What departments get the most/least funding?* What are the school regulations for funding?

School & District FundingKEY FINDINGS ABOUT UHS:

* ¾ of our student body is under the poverty line. 60% of students in poverty are of color* Our school currently has a $6 million field house that was funded by a 1% tax increase. None of this money went to improving our educational materials.* Some departments receive a lot more money than other departments. One teacher said their department receives $15,000 per year for supplies, while one teacher said their department has $1,300 per year.

More findingsKEY FINDINGS ABOUT THE US:

* Schools are funded unevenly because property taxes determine how much money a district receives per student. For example Chicago’s Multicultural Arts High School in Little Village/Great Lawndale spends about $11,000 per student, whereas Illinois spends about $21,000 on a Deerfield High School student* Cities with poorly funded schools have many more students of color and of less wealth than cities with well funded schools* Poor funding is tied to poor academic outcomes

Recommendations* Improve the quality of food, range of types of food, and increase the amount of food offered to students. This is because students have dietary restrictions, and for some students, this is the only meal they receive in a day.

* Rather than spending on fancy facilities, spend money on learning. Spend more money on a range of different kinds of books because students say our books are old, outdated, and broken.

* Organize and apply for other streams of funding such as grants, community fundraisers and small-scale fundraisers.

* Fund fuller development of the recommendations proposed by other students in the Social Justice class such as:

– put technology in the MEP room

– reinstate the Outreach Coordinator position

– apply for the 21st Century Learning Grant

– purchase resources identified in the Alternative App Appendix to the Common Core

– build gender neutral bathrooms for transgender students

School Rules & StructuresGUDING RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

* How can we better support gender fluid and trans students?

* How are girls unfairly treated by the dress code?

* How are gender inequities embedded in our school?

School Rules & StructuresKEY FINDINGS:

* Students perceive gender & sexuality as a binary and don’t consider how it is a spectrum.

* 100% of all four gender-neutral students at UHS stated that they would benefit from gender neutral options (including locker rooms, bathrooms, and forms)

* 66 girls, compared to only 6 boys, feel they are unfairly targeted by the dress code because of their gender.

* 50 girls said they have had to change due to the dress code, compared to only 10 boys.

* 98 students that took our survey feel that dress code is unfair.

School Rules & StructuresRECOMMENDATIONS:

* English teachers include feminist ideas, and transgender issues in their curriculum * Administration and teachers take a summer class or workshop to become better educated on gender inequities, and transgender and LGTBQ issues* Provide gender neutral options such as bathrooms, locker rooms, and forms that benefit transgendered students* Revise the dress code so girls’ bodies are less policed

Curriculum & InstructionGUIDING RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

* Are students represented in curriculum?* Does representation of identity in curriculum help students learn?* How can the curriculum be more representative?

Curriculum & InstructionFINDINGS:* Most marginalized groups noticed that there is a lack of identity representation in the curriculum, where as most students of dominant groups did not see an issue of representation.* About 40% concerning, almost all marginalized groups agreed that their classroom settings were hostile when certain aspects of their identities were brought up

Curriculum & InstructionRECOMMENDATIONS:* Allow direct student input for the school’s curriculum* Create a thematic approach to teaching history* Use an alternate Appendix B for the Common Core.* Incorporate more lived experiences as text* Include more guest speakers* Prompt more text-to-self connections

Learning More…

Join us in our poster sessions. These sessions are a space to learn more and for* dialogue* feedback* Q&A

* sharing ideas