Describe your experience working on the ‘Coping with COVID Student Survey’.

KSVT conducted audits in person before the pandemic. Audits usually meant that the Kentucky Student Voice Team would visit schools in rural areas or schools that lacked as many resources as other parts of the state. At those schools, the team would evaluate the students, the environment they were learning in, and how they were doing emotionally and socially. In the end, the team would complete a summary report of their findings and send it to administration and community leaders to inform policy change. After the pandemic started, we wanted to continue that work. We converted the process into a digital format and sent out the survey to as many people as possible - for example, principals, youth-led organizations, and anyone with connections to education. We even launched a big social media campaign. We were able to get completed surveys from all 120 Kentucky counties and over 10,000 participants!

After that, we spent over six months analyzing the data. It was a long process because we looked at responses that were only numbers and ones that had descriptions or short answers. Doing this was crucial in understanding what all the statistics meant when talking about students in school during pandemic. We had adults and other organizations get involved to make sure we were analyzing the data correctly at this stage. The survey showed us how much the pandemic negatively impacted students. It was a really big effort that couldn’t have been done without the support of those adults and organizations.

What is the biggest takeaway you have learned from working on the Kentucky Student Voice Team?

I think young people are often not utilized enough. They are praised for being active but are rarely given meaningful tasks to do. Our work shows that involving young people should be the standard. The higher-ups need to know how their decisions are directly affecting young people.

I also had another big takeaway through working on the student survey. The project is an example of how much students can gain valuable experience even during a pandemic. We were able to distribute a survey, analyze the data, and send our results across the state. We presented our findings to the Kentucky Board of Education and lawmakers, made presentations in front of mental health professionals and policymakers, and even sent in recommendations to change school-related policies.

You’ve talked a little about education justice already, but how would you define it?

Education justice means many things. First it means that young people need to be at the center of important topics that affect them - for example, insufficient counseling resources, poorer outcomes based on race and class, and many other issues. We won’t see meaningful change without hearing from the young people who spend 40+ hours in the classrooms. Those are the people who need to be involved in conversations about schools. Education justice also means radically rethinking what public education looks like and that takes investing in young people. But education justice is not isolated. It relates to social justice, racial equality, and economic fairness. Everything is connected.