Elevating Adolescents’ Voices and Roles in Family-School Engagement

Our student voice project offers articles and presentations educators and others can use to strengthen student voice in family engagement.  Visit this page for updates from a new research study and for new resources created by our team.  The goals of our student voice project are:

1. To improve awareness of the importance of student voice in family-school engagement;

2. To highlight real-life stories and examples of students actively leading or participating in family-school engagement;

3. To offer research-based strategies for administrators and educators to empower students’ voices and roles in schools’ and districts’ family engagement practices, programs, and policies.

Resource #1: Research Brief

Family Engagement with Students at the Center

This research brief offers four research-based strategies for administrators and educators to empower adolescents to play more active and influential roles in schools’ and districts’ family engagement practices and programs. In the brief, we also summarize the research on student voice, family-school engagement, and adolescent development as the backdrop for our four strategies.

Resource #2: Presentations

The Missing Link: Student Voice in Family-School Partnership

At the 2023 National Community Schools and Family Engagement Conference hosted by the Institute for Educational Leadership, Tom Capretta,  Project Coordinator at the Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center, shared about the four strategies from our Research Brief along with research findings and tools that educators can use.

Students at the Center: Empowering Adolescents' Voice and Role in Family-School Partnerships

At the 2023 Ohio Family Engagement Leadership Summit, Dr. Eric Anderman, Professor of Educational Psychology at The Ohio State University, and Max Zhang, Graduate Research Associate at the Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center, led an interactive session on the importance of and strategies for elevating student voice in middle- and high-schools’ family-school engagement efforts.

Resource #3: Sample Images for Printing and Social Media

Modify and use our student voice tips in your school or district! Tag us on your social media platforms @OhioEngage.