Roberts & Kay, Inc. -- Turn Up the Volume: The Students Speak Toolkit

Turn Up the Volume: The Students Speak Toolkit

1999 - Present

For the Partnership for Kentucky Schools, we developed Turn Up the Volume: The Students Speak Toolkit. The Toolkit is a comprehensive guide for school communities that are interested in conducting their own student inquiry efforts. It compiles years of research experience with students and educators into an easy-to-use, step-by-step format, with the aim of encouraging school communities to take advantage of their students' willingness and ability to be responsible partners in their own learning.

Turn Up the Volume describes inquiry methods that school communities can use to talk with students and listen to their experiences with school and learning. The Toolkit includes:

A detailed guide to planning and carrying out systematic focus group research on the student experience
Ready-to-use examples of forms, letters, meeting agendas, tips booklets, and research questions to help you complete student focus groups

As of 2005, schools in five Kentucky public school systems – Jessamine County Public Schools, Fayette County Public Schools, Jefferson County Public Schools, Boyle County Public Schools, and Woodford County Public Schools – have conducted student focus groups using the Toolkit as a guide. Schools in these districts have addressed the following topics:

School safety and school climate (Jessamine County Schools, k-12)
Cultural barriers to academic and social success (Morton Middle School, Fayette County)
Ways to involve parents of students who live far from the school (Noe Middle School, Jefferson County)
Ways to improve the learning climate, with a particular focus on student responses to the "Different Ways of Knowing" teaching/learning strategies (Westside Middle School, Jefferson County)
Narrowing the academic achievement gap between high-performing and low-performing students (Henry Clay High School, Fayette County)
How administrators, teachers, and students can work together to close the achievement gap (Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, Fayette County)
Reasons why students do or do not participate in technology programs (Eastside/Southside Centers for Applied Technology, Fayette County)
Students' perceptions of the work they do for school (Jessamine County Schools, k-12)
Students' opinions on and concerns about school building renovation (Morton Middle School, Fayette County)

The Partnership encourages peer learning opportunities for school systems that choose to use Turn Up the Volume to launch student listening projects or student-focused research. RKI worked with the Partnership to develop a cadre of skilled advisors and facilitators for these efforts. We intend to continue using authentic school experiences to improve and refine the Turn Up the Volume toolkit and to improve our own understanding of how schools and communities can engage students successfully in their own learning.

Check out other descriptions of our work in the area of school improvement.

Back to the Partnership for Kentucky Schools