Dear Friend,
As we start this new year, we are both humbled and inspired to be working alongside our partners to elevate student and stakeholder voice across the country. Amidst the acute challenges of early 2022, we are inspired by these highlights from 2021 and the YouthTruth community’s fierce commitment to listen and learn from students.
Here are some of our highlights from 2021:
- Elevating the voices of over 368,285 students, 33,909 teachers and school staff, and 97,003 parents and guardians in 2021! That brings us to a total of 1,962,735 student voices, over 2.3 million stakeholder voices overall.
- 141 school systems partnered with YouthTruth to learn directly from their students, family, and/or school staff about their experiences during an ever-changing year. And our Partnerships team delivered over 60 workshops, providing over 3,000 hours of professional learning on topics like student voice for equity.
- We launched THREE aggregate data reports sharing student insights and experiences across the country, including Students Weigh In Part 2, Part 3, and a special Spotlight. AND a case study with our friends in Sonoma County. These insights were amplified by the 74 Million, K-12 Dive, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, and the San Francisco Chronicle, to name a few. And our research has been cited by the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, the Center on Reinventing Public Education, The Learning Policy Institute and more!
- We stayed connected virtually and presented at the AASA National Conference on Education, the ACSA Leading for Excellence through Equity, the NCEA Leadership Summit and the RTM K12 Education Congress. We were also honored to partner on speaking engagements with CASEL, Grantmakers for Thriving Youth, the Gates Foundation, and Grantmakers for Education.
- We built community, shared best practices, and articulated ideas for the future with our Bay Area and Ohio Student Voice Initiatives coming to a close. These learning communities engaged nine foundations and 40 local education agencies, many of which will continue using YouthTruth to prioritize student voice feedback.
- We launched a series of animated videos that help tell the story of our work and engage new audiences.
- YouthTruth is growing! We hired 8 new people this year to support and propel this work, in service of our mission.
It’s been a trying year for all of us, and yet there is so much to be proud of and thankful for.
Thank you for being invested in this work. We are grateful to have you as part of our community.
