Engaging students in discussion on the achievement gap

A. David Dahmer:

Two hundred students from 23 school districts across the country will convene in Madison for the annual Minority Student Achievement Network (MSAN) Student Conference Sept. 24-27. This year's theme will be "Futura De La Juventud: Laying Foundation, Affirming Our Identity, Building Relationships."

"One of the things that the conference is really focused on is engaging the kids in discussion about the achievement gap and what barriers that students of color face in their school environment," says Lisa Black, special assistant to the Superintendent for Race & Equity and the planning chair for the MSAN Conference. "Our goals really are to increase access to post-secondary options."

African American and Latino students from around the country will gather at Monona Terrace to share experiences and develop strategies for improving student academic achievement and school climate in their home districts.

Black stresses that the students have really taken ownership of the planning for the conference.

"The students really set the agenda. We shared with them what MSAN is all about and they studied the gap and all the data in the district, and they are taking it from there," she says. "It's important that their voices and views are heard, and [that] it's not always adults setting the agenda."

Each year, MSAN holds a student conference in a different city across the United States where teams of students of member district schools engage in discussion and plan for follow up activities related to improving the effectiveness of their schools in educating African American and Latino youth.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 21, 2008 7:33 AM
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