Reasons Real People and Real Schools Produce Student Focus Groups

In Jessamine County, educators and administrators were faced with an immediate issue that affected the entire district. Under the strong leadership of the superintendent of Jessamine County Schools, Linda France, focus groups took place in every school in the district and informed the decision of the Jessamine County school board. This kind of district-wide effort isn't the only path that can lead to student focus groups, though. Here are some other reasons real people and real schools conduct student focus group research.

Focus groups in individual schools

• Leaders in a middle school building learn that African American student performance, compared with that of Caucasian students, worsens with each year of middle school. Leaders want to get student insights into the reasons for this achievement divide, and want to invite students to brainstorm about strategies for working on the problem in ways that students will enjoy and find useful.

• Students in a low-performing high school typically perform much better on assessments related to language arts than those involving math subjects. School leaders decide to involve students in focus groups to understand more about what goes on in both language arts and math classrooms, and what students suggest about improvement.

Focus groups in a cluster of schools

• Parents of elementary students in a growing suburban school district object strenuously to the overcrowding their children experience, but disagree on ways to address it. School board members decide to listen to randomly sampled groups of children in different elementary schools to learn what they think about their present conditions, and what matters most to them as they imagine new school buildings. School board members also decide to engage randomly sampled parents in a series of focus groups on similar questions to broaden the information available to the board and avoid the tendency to yield to the most effective, largest pressure group.

• Students in two high schools within a district have grown increasingly intense in their support for their schools, which are locked in a classic sports rivalry. Parents and educational leaders concerned about the potential for real violence decide to conduct focus groups with students from each school to involve students in developing ways to maintain excellent school spirit without crossing the line into dangerous behaviors.

We presume one of these paths – individual school effort, cluster of schools effort, or district-wide effort – will apply to you. We also presume that your focus group effort will have the support of the school board, the superintendent or someone else from your district's central office, or perhaps all of the above. The support of principals is also essential to the success of student focus groups, particularly because of the extensive amount of time involved.

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