Kentucky Student Voice Team

  • Mission: The Kentucky Student Voice Team supports students as research, advocacy, and policy partners to improve Kentucky schools. At any given time, we’re made up of approximately 100 self-selected Kentucky students, ages 13-22. Our work centers the least heard students, as the student voice isn’t meaningful when it’s only an opportunity afforded to students who get certain grades and come from certain zip codes. We envision a Commonwealth where all school staff—be it cafeteria staff, counselors, or custodians—are equipped to support students. We envision a Commonwealth where legislators co-design policies with young people. We envision a Commonwealth where research is democratized, informing action for justice. We envision a more just and equitable world.

  • Project: In the wake of statewide school closures, the Prichard Committee Student Voice Team (now Kentucky Student Voice Team), launched a student-designed quantitative and qualitative study investigating Kentucky students’ experiences during the first months of the COVID-19 crisis. Inspired by their overwhelming response rate, their data, and process, SVT developed companion studies on how Kentucky educators and families have been impacted by the COVID crisis. Through this codesign process and dialogue between students and educators and parents, SVT sought to bridge the empathy gap between our schools’ primary stakeholders; better inform education decision makers about how to support students, teachers, and families as schools work through and beyond the pandemic; and demonstrate what is possible when participatory action research is used to drive policy.

 

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Op-ed: Citizen voices are key to COVID response in education

Add to Kentucky’s groundswell of education influencers some innovative, if earnest, laypeople.


We are part of a citizen research team of school stakeholders. We call ourselves the “Intergen 9”, and we comprise three parents, three teachers, and three students representing eight districts across the Commonwealth, including five people of color. We were supported by the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence to co-design a study to amplify the voices of Kentucky teachers and families navigating the COVID-19 crisis.

Article: Thousands of Kentucky teachers, families weigh in on pandemic learning

LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — During a year when stakeholders say education has been flipped on its head, the Prichard Committee spoke to more than 4,000 teachers and families about their experience with virtual and hybrid learning compiling data across Kentucky to present to state lawmakers.

The Prichard Committee is a Kentucky organization aimed at studying issues and informing "the public and policymakers about best practices" to improve education for Kentucky.

Article: Report shows difficulties of remote learning for teachers, families
Article: Report shows difficulties of remote learning for teachers, families

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ/Press Release) – The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence today released the Coping with COVID-19 Teacher and Family Study.

The study, conducted in August through October, found that while some Kentuckians are finding benefits to remote K-12 instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic, many families and teachers face significant challenges in teaching and learning from home.

Coping with COVID Teacher and Family Study
Coping with COVID Teacher and Family Study

A study of the pandemic's impact on education. Told by Kentucky families and teachers. Captured by a 9-member intergenerational citizen research team.