Some places embody SoundOut’s work entirely. We called these Meaningful Student Involvement Schools.
Within these schools, the cascading effects of Meaningful Student Involvement on both individuals and institutions is obvious. They show clearly that the more individual opportunities for meaningful involvement in a specific class, around a school building, throughout a district, within a state, or across a nation, the more meaningful education will be for every single student involved. This includes different ages, socio-economic statuses, cultural backgrounds, racial differences, and soon on.
When taken as a whole, though, individual actions within and throughout a school supersede isolated incidents and ripple far beyond the people involved. Meaningful Student Involvement simply works better when it happens more. As shown in the earlier chapter on benefits, the more people who are directly engaged in Student/Adult Partnerships the more the entirety of a school or district can be affected. There are a number of schools where this is happening today.
Examples
Several earlier examples mentioned on this website are be included here, including:
- Park Forest Elementary School in State College, Pennsylvania
- Federal Hocking High School in Stuart, Ohio
- Nova Project High School in Seattle, Washington
- Mission Hill School in Boston, Massachusetts
- Alternatives in Action High School in Oakland, California
- Independent Project at Monument Mountain Regional High School in Barrington, Massachusetts
- Jefferson County Open School in Edgewood, Colorado
- The Tree School in Brazil
- Escuela Nuestra in Columbia
All of these are public schools, and all of them foster Student/Adult Partnerships. Each of them deeply infuse Meaningful Student Involvement throughout learning, teaching and leadership in their buildings.
We’re working towards being a Meaningful Student Involvement District and it’s so exciting to hear other examples and models! Thanks to all these educators and students behind this work!