What happens when students sit at the center of conversations about improving their schools? Last Friday at Connecticut River Academy in Hartford, we found out. Twenty students from five urban public high schools sat down for a conversation about their schools. Two dozen teachers and school leaders perched and stood around the circle, leaning in to hear. Kerry Lord -- a Teaching Our Cities...
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Joel Tolman December 7, 2016
Last week, Keilly Solano -- a Common Ground High School senior -- took the mic at the front of a room full of classroom teachers, young people, and school leaders from across the Northeast United States. She described her journey from a shy and inward-looking freshman to a senior who’s organizing peers, leading workshops that help other young people find their voice, and pushing to make Common...
Joel Tolman November 26, 2016
In February, every member of Common Ground's senior class stood before an audience parents, students, and staff. Each senior shared two acts of leadership, chosen from the electronic leadership portfolios they had been building since they arrived at Common Ground. Drawing on these experiences, students described how they had grown as leaders over the last four...