During an afternoon in the nation’s capital, a high school cafeteria buzzed with conversation as teachers, staff and students gathered around circular tables. It wasn’t lunchtime, it was a staff meeting at Columbia Heights Education Campus (CHEC) in Northwest D.C., one of our district’s 117 schools.

While students don’t typically attend these meetings, this one was different: students were present and at the center of the conversation. Scholars spoke candidly about their experiences with the school’s evolving model for clubs and internships — what was working, what could be improved and what they hoped would come next. The students were reflecting on a program called “Worldview Wednesday,” which allows them to explore academic and career interests during the school day. The goal of the staff meeting was to identify implementation trends, including those raised by students, and improve structures for the following school year’s programming.

What‘s remarkable about CHEC’s approach to staff meetings is not just the clarity of the students’ insights or their sincerity in wanting to help improve programming; it‘s the way the adults lean in, quite literally. Teachers nod, take notes and ask follow-up questions, resembling a co-design session more than a traditional staff meeting.

That was the CHEC leadership team’s goal. During school year 2024-2025, Principal Maria Tukeva and her staff had set the ambitious target to engage 20% of their learners in traditional adult decision-making spaces. They exceeded that aim, with 30% of their scholars participating over the course of the school year. That also led to student sense of belonging increasing by 7%, according to a school climate survey.

I see members of the CHEC team modeling a monumental shift in power as staff members center student voice and revamp school culture. Across the country, pockets of school innovation and improvement have historically gained traction in one classroom or school, but their impact is often isolated. Innovative teachers and school leaders are busy people. Districts rarely have the resources, capacity, and system-level enablers to codify and diffuse promising school-level practice widely.

Read the full article about elevating student voices by Lewis D. Ferebee at The 74.