A Few Words from the Unheard: Students

Happy Election Day! If you haven't voted yet, make a plan to vote and check out the Board Rule voter guide to select school board candidates.

Before the results come in, we're giving the last word on the school board and issues in CPS to three high schoolers in Chicago Public Schools: Eliana Baker, a junior at Payton College Prep; Nur Islam Assan Khan, a senior at Mather High School; and Vaughn Webster, a senior at Ogden International. Baker and Webster are involved with Mikva Challenge; Khan is a youth leader with Communities United. Board Rule spoke with them last week and gathered some key insights from the conversation.

Don't survey us; talk to us. Survey fatigue is real. "A lot of times, students don't feel the board is really serving their interests," said Baker. "When it comes to the Cultivate survey, the EOS survey, and all sorts of other metrics to determine student success and satisfaction with schools, that's where students really start to get survey fatigue. They don't think that it's worth filling out anything...because they do not think that their voices will be heard or their feedback honored."

"They need to go face-to-face instead of getting surveys," said Webster.

Khan agreed, saying he believes the quality of information from a face-to-face discussion "is significantly different" from a survey. Only one of the three of them, Baker, knew who her school board member was, and none had spoken with them. However, they had met sitting board members Jitu Brown (5A) and Michilla Blaise (5B) at a candidate event on the West Side.

Give students real power. Currently, Chicago's school board includes one non-voting honorary student representative. Khan and Webster advocated for more than one student rep with real voting power on Chicago's school board. Khan also wanted to see the selection process change, saying, "I believe it should be completely random." He argued that choosing based on age and academic achievement was simply a form of gatekeeping. “It should just matter that they are students that are affected by the decisions of people in power.”

On the Issues

School funding and student engagement. Every problem the school district faces "really comes back to funding," said Baker. Khan and Webster agreed that CPS finances are an important issue, but stressed that lack of student engagement also affects the funding conversation.

"There's literally no point in funding [something] if we don't know what students need," said Khan. All three said Student Voice Committees at their school were either currently inactive or not well-known to students.

"I think a lot of times students might feel that there's no point in approaching adults because they won't be taken seriously, or their feedback will enter a whole bureaucratic nightmare," said Baker.

Attendance. Clear differences among schools emerged here. "Peyton overall has been very strict in its attendance policy," said Baker. She pointed to clear consequences for missed school and to Minga, an electronic hall pass system that makes it harder for students to cut class. Webster said Ogden also has Minga, and it has helped "stop the skippers from being in the bathroom."

"For my school, it's like the complete opposite. We get a whole bunch of skippers. We get a whole bunch of people not coming to school," said Khan. "Of course, my school has taken measures. ... They do a lot more hall sweeps. They double-check the bathrooms. If you miss enough days of school, your parents get called. I don't know if that helps or not."

What would really help, he added, is that magic combination of resources and student agency that promotes a sense of belonging. "They're not asking the students what would help. ... At the same time, there's not enough funding to have the resources to make sure students feel engaged, students feel safe, and students feel as if going to school is really worth their time."

Mental health. While conversation at board meetings has focused on student mental health, these students say more needs to be done within schools to create spaces where students feel safe enough to open up about their challenges. "I feel like kids are afraid somebody would tear them down if they, like, say the wrong thing about their mental health," said Webster.

"In all honesty, no one really asks for mental health support" at Mather, "even though I'm very sure there's a lot of issues going on," said Khan. "They should be partnering more closely with students who are actually affected."

Black teachers. "I feel like the lack of Black staff members in schools is a problem that not many people talk about," said Webster. He has only had one Black male teacher in his whole life as a student, he says: his current art teacher. "I feel like that bond between a young Black man and a male teacher unlocks a kid's fear of not having that safe space."

Events

Tuesday, Nov. 2: Vote! Voter registration and polling locations can be found here.

Tuesday, Nov. 2: Election Night Watch Party at CTU Headquarters, 7 p.m., 1901 W. Carroll. Details and registration here.

Tuesday, Nov. 2: Election Night Watch Party with Brittany and State Sen. Willie Preston, 6 p.m., Q's Lounge, 8406 S. Kedzie. Details here.

Thursday, Nov. 12: Pathways to Possibility: The State of Higher Education Summit, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Malcolm X College, 1900 W. Jackson Blvd. Register here.

Thursday, Nov. 12: Black Student Achievement Committee, 6 p.m., Chicago Board of Education office, 42 W. Madison. Details here.

Wednesday, November 18: IFT Springfield Lobby Day, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Pasfield House, 525 S Pasfield St., Springfield, IL. Register here.

By Nov. 26: Take the CPS Fall Survey! Topics include attendance boundaries, space use, the district's instructional vision for learning from PreK to second grade, and generative AI.