HIGH SCHOOL RESEARCHERS FIND A GENERATION GAP

"Groundbreaking research by high school students in five states has turned up troubling discrepancies in how urban students and teachers view their interactions with each other. The innovative What Kids Can Do organization supported high school students from Chicago, Houston, Oakland, Philadelphia and St. Louis as they designed and conducted in-depth research in their urban high schools, surveying more than 6,350 of their peers and 466 teachers. The students' insightful questions and accessible language elicited responses that may surprise traditional educators and policymakers, and suggest ways in which students can become actors in improving their schools. Survey questions covered topics including academic pressure, cheating, school safety, race relations, and tensions between teachers and students. In all five sites, student research teams presented their findings through workshops, retreats, and public "summit meetings.""