Book_Thiessen_1402033664_Proof2_October 12, 2006 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 DANA MITRA STUDENT VOICE IN SCHOOL REFORM: FROM LISTENING TO LEADERSHIP Although many high schools have struggled with how to improve academic outcomes, few have gone straight to the source and asked the students. In recent years, the term “student voice” increasingly has been discussed in the school reform literature as a potential avenue for improving both student outcomes and school restructuring (including Carbonaro & Gamoran, 2002; Fielding, 2002; Mitra, 2003; Rudduck & Flutter, 2000). The concept addresses a core issue that has been missing in the discussion of school reform—the dilemma of ownership. Simply put, student voice initiatives push schools to reevaluate who gets to define the problems of a school and who gets to try to improve them. Typical student activities in U.S. high schools include planning school dances and choosing a homecoming court. Student voice denotes con- siderably different opportunities for young people. It describes the many ways in which youth could actively participate in the school decisions that will shape their lives and the lives of their peers (Fielding, 2001; Goodwillie, 1993; Levin, 2000). At heart, the expectation behind student voice is that students are included in efforts that influence the core activities and structures of their school, yet student voice opportunities vary from school to school in terms of the expecta- tions about youth capacity and the desire to foster youth leadership. In prac- tice, student voice can entail youth sharing their opinions on problems and potential solutions. It can also entail young people collaborating with adults to address the problems in schools or youth taking the lead on seeking changes, such as improvements in teaching and learning, as well as school climate. Drawing on my previous research of three student voice initiatives in U.S. schools, this chapter conceptualizes how schools can engage students in school reform by providing detailed illustrations of what student voice looks like in practice. The examples illuminate the lessons learned by these groups and consider both the benefits of their chosen strategy to increase student voice and the difficulties of their chosen path toward reform. The first example will describe a minimal form of involvement of students—adults listening to students through interviews and surveys. Teachers and other school personnel 727 D. Thiessen and A. Cook-Sather (eds.), International Handbook of Student Experience in Elementary and Secondary School, 727–744. © 2007 Springer.