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Building Smart Education Systems |
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Check out photographs taken by students working with Critical Exposure. > View student gallery > Visit the Critical Exposure web site www.criticalexposure.org |
Voices in Urban Education
Archives
Getting to Equity
VUE Number 11, Spring 2006
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
EXCERPT:
First Ask the Students: A New Lens on Equity and Excellence in Public Schools
By Adam Levner
Adam Levner is co-director of Critical Exposure, a youth empowerment and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
> Author's Biography
A project in which students, through photography, document "the best and worst" in their schools and classrooms demonstrates the benefits of youth engagement in education reform – both to the students and to the reform effort.
The movement to secure excellence and equity in public education all too often deprives itself of one of its most valuable resources – the very students it seeks to help. Students not only provide the moral grounding and urgency for our work; they also have the ability to show us the truth about our schools, tell us what is really important, help shape our priorities and agendas, and build a significantly broader, stronger movement. In depriving this school reform movement of all that students have to offer, we are also depriving the students of the educational opportunity offered by the movement itself.
These beliefs form the underpinnings of Critical Exposure, an organization committed to empowering students to strengthen the movement for excellence and equity through art and advocacy. Founded in 2004, Critical Exposure provides thirty-five millimeter cameras and training in documentary photography to middle and high school students, beginning first in Baltimore and, recently, expanding to Washington,D.C., and Austin, Texas.
Students take their cameras to school and document what they believe is important for the public to know about their schools, capturing images of both conditions in serious need of repair and positive developments taking place despite those conditions. Students write captions for their photographs and exhibit their work at art galleries, libraries, community centers, and other public spaces, which generates media attention and increases public awareness of the conditions facing students in public schools.
And the students don't stop at raising awareness. They use their images and testimony as advocacy tools, taking them directly to the decision-makers in a position to address their concerns. The initial success of these strategies speaks to the need to provide students with more opportunities to take active part in the movement, for both their own sake and the sake of our collective struggle to improve public education.
What Students Can Contribute
Students have a great deal to contribute to our collective efforts to create a truly excellent and equitable public education system in the United States. To begin with, they can provide a remarkably accurate compass to guide our work. Students see, with striking clarity and enviable simplicity, what is happening in their schools and how those factors impact their education. Students know which teachers are engaged, what it takes to create classes that challenge and inspire, and whether the facilities provide the necessary conditions in which to learn. They know which extracurricular activities and administrators build their self-esteem and which ones tear it down, which aspects of their schools make them proud and eager to learn and which aspects cause them to shut down or drop out.
Archives
Getting to Equity
VUE Number 11, Spring 2006
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
EXCERPT:
First Ask the Students: A New Lens on Equity and Excellence in Public Schools
By Adam Levner
Adam Levner is co-director of Critical Exposure, a youth empowerment and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
> Author's Biography
A project in which students, through photography, document "the best and worst" in their schools and classrooms demonstrates the benefits of youth engagement in education reform – both to the students and to the reform effort.
The movement to secure excellence and equity in public education all too often deprives itself of one of its most valuable resources – the very students it seeks to help. Students not only provide the moral grounding and urgency for our work; they also have the ability to show us the truth about our schools, tell us what is really important, help shape our priorities and agendas, and build a significantly broader, stronger movement. In depriving this school reform movement of all that students have to offer, we are also depriving the students of the educational opportunity offered by the movement itself.
These beliefs form the underpinnings of Critical Exposure, an organization committed to empowering students to strengthen the movement for excellence and equity through art and advocacy. Founded in 2004, Critical Exposure provides thirty-five millimeter cameras and training in documentary photography to middle and high school students, beginning first in Baltimore and, recently, expanding to Washington,D.C., and Austin, Texas.
Students take their cameras to school and document what they believe is important for the public to know about their schools, capturing images of both conditions in serious need of repair and positive developments taking place despite those conditions. Students write captions for their photographs and exhibit their work at art galleries, libraries, community centers, and other public spaces, which generates media attention and increases public awareness of the conditions facing students in public schools.
And the students don't stop at raising awareness. They use their images and testimony as advocacy tools, taking them directly to the decision-makers in a position to address their concerns. The initial success of these strategies speaks to the need to provide students with more opportunities to take active part in the movement, for both their own sake and the sake of our collective struggle to improve public education.
What Students Can Contribute
Students have a great deal to contribute to our collective efforts to create a truly excellent and equitable public education system in the United States. To begin with, they can provide a remarkably accurate compass to guide our work. Students see, with striking clarity and enviable simplicity, what is happening in their schools and how those factors impact their education. Students know which teachers are engaged, what it takes to create classes that challenge and inspire, and whether the facilities provide the necessary conditions in which to learn. They know which extracurricular activities and administrators build their self-esteem and which ones tear it down, which aspects of their schools make them proud and eager to learn and which aspects cause them to shut down or drop out.
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