SSN to present on Youth Partnership around SEL Data at CASEL 2019 SEL Exchange

SSN’s Director of Youth Program and Partnership, Sooah; Director of Knowledge and Learning, Alex; and Youth intern, Omar have been invited to present the following session at the CASEL 2019 SEL Exchange conference in October. Click here for more information on the conference and registration.

Session Overview:

Too often, people in power make decisions without being in dialogue with those impacted by those decisions.

At the Student Success Network — a Network of youth development and education nonprofits in NYC– youth, practitioner, and researcher voices are all critical to ensuring equity and quality in measuring, reporting on, and fostering student SEL. We tap young people’s expertise in their own lived experiences, researchers’ expertise in creating reliable assessments, and practitioners’ expertise in youth development and their students’ contexts.

The resulting iterative, three-way dialogue among researchers, practitioners, and youth has enabled critical improvements in our survey design and use that would never have been possible otherwise.

Part I: Why Do This Work?

In recognition that adult learning happens when inspiration meets application, the SSN team will open the session by leading a whole-group intention setting.

Participants will share why they are committing to elevating youth voice and identify where their intentions overlap. Participants will learn about SSN’s journey from adult-dominant decision-making to youth-practitioner-researcher partnership that engages young people in inquiry and research as told through the perspectives of both youth and adult facilitators.

Part II: What Might You Accomplish?

Participants will learn key aspects of the SSN model– a partnership with Research Alliance for NYC Schools at New York University, a Data Advisory Working Group composed of practitioners at Network organizations, and a Youth Council composed of young people from Network organization programs– that serve as enablers of equitable survey design and use.

Participants will review tangible tools for incorporating youth voice in SEL measurement and improvement efforts: (1) an SEL assessment influenced by youth, researcher, and practitioner perspectives, (2) a youth-informed survey administration guide, and (3) SEL promising practices identified through authentic youth-adult partnership.

Part III: Where Are You On The Journey And Where Will You Commit To Going?

Our youth facilitator will engage participants in a student-centered design process, through which they will apply the model and tools they’ve learned to their own contexts. Participants will use a “human barometer” activity and self-assessment questions adapted from various youth voice rubrics and scales to critically examine youth participation at their organizations and join one of three centers corresponding to their level.

In these centers, participants will identify and workshop one area where they can better engage with young people and walk away with action commitments focused on youth partnership.