THEORY INTO PRACTICE, 46(3), 205211

Pedro A. Noguera

How Listening to Students Can

Help Schools to Improve

In this article, findings from a study of 150

10th-grade students attending 10 Boston public high schools are presented. Data obtained
from surveys and interviews with the students
in the study are used to illuminate how student
perspectives on their school experiences can be
used to strengthen reform efforts. Themes such
as teacher-student relationships, the impact of
high stakes testing, concerns about discipline
and safety, and student goals and motivation are
explored. Implications for how such a research
strategy can be used to assist efforts to improve
urban high school are proffered to policy makers
and school district leaders.

HERE IS NOW A BROAD consensus that

our nations high schools are not adequately
serving the needs of students or society, and that

Pedro A. Noguera is a Professor at Steinhardt School

of Education, New York University.
Correspondence should be addressed to Pedro A.
Noguera, Steinhardt School of Education, New York
University, 82 Washington Square E, New York, NY
10003. E-mail: Pedro.noguera@nyu.edu

they are in need of substantial reform. Indicators

that many of the nations high schools are in trouble have been evident for some time, including
astonishingly high dropout rates, especially in urban areas (Harvard Civil Rights Project, 2000);
widespread concerns about violence and safety
(Newman, Fox, Harding, Mehta, & Roth, 2004);
pervasive low achievement on most standardized
tests, but especially in science and math (MDRC,
2002); and a wide and seemingly intractable
achievement gap that corresponds disturbingly
and predictably to the race and class backgrounds
of students (Jencks & Phillips, 1998).
These indicators are not new, and in fact, several reports and blue ribbon studies have pointed
to such trends to support calls for systemic policy intervention and sweeping reform (Cohen,
2001). Yet, despite the growing chorus of calls
for change, until recently, the organization and
structure of most high schools remained largely
unchanged and trapped in traditions that had long
outlived their purpose. Several critical studies
pointed out that many schools were characterized
by pervasive antiintellectualism, boredom, and
alienation among students (Steinberg, 1996); organizational fragmentation combined with a lack
of mission and focus (Siskin, 1993); and a curriculum that offered a smorgasbord of courses but
little of the intellectual depth and rigor needed to

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develop substantive knowledge and higher order

thinking skills. Further, the large, comprehensive
high school, serving 1000 or more students, has
been accused of breeding mediocrity and intellectual laziness, disorder, and delinquency, and
an inability to provide a personalized learning
environment for students (Newman, 1992). According to these critics, the modern high school
was inspired by a factory model of education, in
which hierarchical management structures, a burdensome and inchoate bureaucratic division of labor, and a control system governed by bells and
arcane rules and procedures, prevented the typical high school from serving as the enlightened
centers of learning that were needed (Wasley
et al., 2000).
In the last few years, the problems facing high
schools have gradually risen to the top of the education policy agenda. Driven by policy reports
from the U.S. Department of Education (Lugg,
2005) and critiques issued by various private
foundations and think tanks, a new willingness
to address the problems confronting high schools
has emerged. With this newly found sense of urgency has come a wave of reform with a focus on
the organization, size, and structure of schools.
With substantial commitments to this effort already, the drive to create smaller high schools is
now sweeping the country.
There is some research to justify the push to
create smaller schools and learning communities
(Cotton, 1996; Page, 2002), yet there is also good
reason to be skeptical about the recent rush to
embrace this reform. Smaller schools have been
found to offer greater safety, a stronger sense
of community, and improved relationships between adults and students (Clinchy, 2000). Yet,
the clearest evidence that making schools smaller
may not be enough to make them better can be
seen from the fact that there are already many
small schools in existence, and not all of these are
examples of academic excellence (Stiefel, Berne,
Iatarola, & Fruchter, 2000). Moreover, the much
maligned large, comprehensive high school has
advantages that most smaller schools will never
be able to replicate, such as an ability to offer
more elective courses, particularly in foreign language and advanced placement; greater resources

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to serve the needs of populations with special

needs (e.g., Special Education and English as a
Second Language students); and a wider offering of extracurricular activities including sports,
music, and theater.
To the advocates of small schools, arguments
such as these are easily ignored. Proponents of
small schools assert that gains in safety and
student learning will more than compensate for
any losses that might occur as a result of this
change. Despite the fact that the theory of change
guiding this reform is highly suspect (i.e., small
schools C better student/teacher relations D
higher student achievement), the effort to make
high schools smaller has taken off and is leading to substantial changes in the American high
school throughout the United States.
In an effort to contribute to the ongoing discourse over what should be done to improve the
nations high schools, this article examines how
schools are confronting the challenges that beset them not by seeking answers from a wellregarded think tank or policy center but from
students themselves. Drawing on research carried out at 10 high schools (both small and large)
in Boston through a project known as Pathways
to Student Success, the ideas and suggestions
students have for how schools can be improved
are presented and analyzed. Although no groundbreaking or previously unheard solutions are offered, the reader may be surprised to learn that
students do put forward practical, common sense
insights into why certain practices are ineffective,
and why others should be considered. The goal
of presenting these ideas here is to show that solutions to some of the problems confronting our
nations high schools may not be as out of reach
as they have seemed, particularly if we have the
wisdom and courage to listen to those who bear
the brunt of our schools failures.

Findings: Learning From

Student Experiences
The major themes that emerged from the 132
students across 10 high schools are presented
here briefly as a basis for the suggestions on

Noguera

how listening to students can be incorporated into

school decision making that concludes this article. The themes that emerged from the students
that have implications for improving high schools
are: (a) relationships between students and teachers/adults, (b) the impact of high stakes testing,
(c) discipline and order, and (d) student motivation and goals for the future. In the following sections, I analyze these themes and the lessons they
provide to school reformers and practitioners.

Relationships Between Students and

Teachers/Adults
Perhaps the most significant, yet hardly surprising difference, that emerged between students
attending small and large schools pertained to the
issue of anonymity. Whereas only 26% of the students at the large schools stated that their teachers
knew them well and another 34% stated that there
was an adult at school they could turn to if they
needed assistance with a personal problem, at the
small schools the percentages were 92% and 84%
respectively. Opportunity for greater personalization in the learning experience of students has
long been seen as one of the primary advantages
of small schools (Wasley et al., 2000). Consistently, students cited personalization as one of
the major advantages of small schools.
Although personalization is a key factor, relatively few students had ideas for how relations between students and teachers could be improved, though several did suggest that if their
teachers got to know them better, it might help.
However, at all of the schools in the study, students had a clear sense of how teaching could be
improved. When asked to describe the characteristics of a school where they would be excited
to learn, some of the following suggestions were
offered:
 Teachers should be organized and well prepared for the classes they teach.
 Teachers should be patient and ask students if
they understand the material. If they dont get
the material being taught, the teacher should
explain the material in a different way.

Listening to Students

 Teachers should have a strong command of the

material and a passion for the subjects they
teach so that they can get students to be excited
about learning it.
 Teachers should show respect to students in the
same way that they expect to receive respect.
 Teachers should be firm and not allow students
to get away with preventing other students
from learning.
These examples of student voice speak volumes to school reformers and practitioners in
clear, seemingly simple ways. But they provide
evidence of the work to be done to help improve
schools and the crucial role of students in creating an environment to foster sound relationships
as a basis for their achievement.

High Stakes Testing

At the time of our study, the 10th graders
were preparing for the state examination (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessments of Skills,
MCAS). This was the first time that the exam
would be used to determine which students
would graduate, and all of the schools in the
study were under considerable pressure to prepare their students. Among teachers and administrators, some regarded the state examination as
a fair benchmark of student learning; others were
adamantly opposed to the idea of using a single
test to determine whether or not a student should
be allowed to graduate. Interestingly, the attitudes
of educators toward the test did not correspond
in predictable ways to student performance on
the test.
Such sentiments about the MCAS were common among the students. Students in all of the
schools overwhelmingly stated that they want
their schools to prepare them to be successful
in life, not merely to pass a test. They objected
to the notion that a single test should be used
to determine if they could graduate, and several
argued that not enough had been done throughout their years in school to insure that they could
pass the exam. When asked to describe one aspect of their school that they did not like, 36% of

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the students cited the emphasis on test preparation, even though the question made no reference
to the test. Yet, many students acknowledged that
certain aspects of the test were beneficial. For example, several students expressed the view that
the state examination makes schools more accountable, because it forced them to make sure
that their students were learning.

Discipline and Safety

Concerns related to discipline, safety, and order are increasingly common in public schools
(Newman et al., 2004). This was also the case for
many of the students in our study, but we found
noticeable differences in the perceptions of students at small versus large schools. Students in
the small schools were far more likely to report
that they felt safe (94%), as compared to students
at the large schools (46%). They were also more
likely to respond affirmatively to the question If
I feel threatened by someone at school there is an
adult I can turn to for support (92%, compared
to 38%).
Advocates of small schools are likely to seize
upon these findings to support their claim that
small schools are safer and offer a better educational experience to students. Safety and order
are essential conditions in any learning environment, and it appears that the small schools in
the Pathways study succeeded in creating a more
personalized environment that contributed to students perceptions that their schools were safe.
Yet, although the small schools in the study were
generally perceived as safe, students at some of
the schools did experience discipline problems in
the classroom that were not unlike those encountered in the large schools.
One of the questions students were asked to
address is what they thought it would take to
make schools safe and orderly. The following is
a list of some of their recommendations:
 Make students who cut class attend Saturday
school.
 Require students who disrupt a class to do extra academic work.

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 Have administrators observe teachers in

classes with frequent disruptions so that they
can help them to become better at managing
students.
 For kids who fight, find out why they fought
before they are punished. If suspension is
not necessary, make the students who fought
work together to do something to improve the
school.
 Ask parents and adults from the community to
volunteer to serve as hall monitors.
 Require students who are rude and disrespectful toward teachers to write apologies and to do
community service, including helping to clean
the school.
 Create a panel of students to serve as a jury for
students who break school rules. Provide them
with training on how to hear discipline cases
and advise them on the kinds of punishments
that can be assigned.
These ideas might not seem particularly innovative or out of the ordinary, but the fact that
they come from students themselves is important. Students recognize the need for safety and
order in school, and many of the students interviewed wanted to see disruptive students dealt
with in a firm manner. However, it is rare for a
school to seek student input on matters related to
discipline even though their buy-in is essential if
schools are to succeed in creating an environment
that is conducive to learning.

Student Goals and Motivation

Research on student motivation has shown that
students who possess clear goals about the future and concrete plans for how they will achieve
those goals are more likely to be successful in
school (Mickelson, 1990). Students who understand that the hard work they engage in while
in school will lead to greater opportunities after graduation are more likely to complete their
assignments, even if they regard them as little
more than busy work, and more likely to tolerate teachers even if they view them as boring.
Students in the Pathways study who had clear

Noguera

plans about the future were also more likely to

attend school regularly, more likely to become involved in extracurricular activities, and were less
likely to get into trouble at school. Unlike their
peers whose ideas about the future were ambiguous, the students with clear goals understood that
good grades were important and they were more
likely to work hard to attain them.
Yet, clarity about future goals and the motivation to attain them rarely comes from a student
by himself or herself, particularly when that student comes from a family where there is no history of attending college (Steinberg, 1996). We
found that the students who had the clearest goals
were most likely to cite an adulta teacher, a
counselor, a parent, or a relativeas the source
of guidance related to future aspirations. Once
again, the students attending the smaller schools
in the study, which typically provided more counseling and advising for students, had a clear advantage over the students in the large schools.
Although high achievers at all 10 schools were
generally more likely to articulate clear plans after graduation, even middle and low achievers
attending the small schools were likely to have
developed a goal that they intended to pursue
after graduation.

How Listening to Students Can Be

Incorporated Into School
Decision-Making
Students may not have all the answers to the
problems plaguing urban high schools. This does
not mean that they may not have ideas on improving schools on a wide variety of issues, including
school safety and student achievement. Students
may very well have ideas and insights that adults
are not privy to, and that could prove to be very
helpful to improving schools if adults were willing to listen.
I saw this personally while carrying out research in five high schools in the Bay Area of
northern California. I was trying to understand
the causes of racial violence within schools that
had been plagued by racial conflict, some of
which posed a serious threat to the safety of

Listening to Students

adults and students. Prior to my involvement,

all five schools responded to the problem in
the same waycalling police after a violent incident. Despite the severity of the problem
several students had been seriously injured at two
of the schoolsthe police publicly stated that
they could not solve the problem because it was
an issue that extended well beyond law enforcement, and they pointed out that it was neither
cost effective or plausible to deploy dozens of officers to the campuses. Unlike the police, school
administrators could not dodge their responsibility to address the problem. At a loss for how to
proceed, the schools turned to me for assistance
in figuring out what could be done. I suggested
that we start by convening small groups of students from the conflicting ethnic groups to get
their sense of what was causing the violence and
to solicit their ideas for how to respond to the
problem. These meetings turned out to be extraordinarily effective. Not only did the students
have insights into what was causing the conflicts
(most incidents started outside of school) that the
adults were oblivious to, but they also had practical ideas for addressing the problem that included
involving students in the implementation of solutions (Noguera & Bliss, 2001).
Given how poorly so many past reforms in
our nations high schools have fared with respect to delivering lasting improvements in student achievement and overall quality, it certainly
could not hurt to solicit student perspectives on
what they believe might be done to make their
schools better from a variety of perspectives. Of
course, a willingness to listen to students implies that adults actually want to hear what students think, that they respect them enough to
listen and learn, and that they will be open to
suggestions they might make. In schools where
decisions about reform are made in a top-down
manner by administrators with little, if any, input
from teachers, it is highly unlikely that such an
approach to listening to students would ever be
embraced. Insecure leaders are likely to regard
soliciting student opinions as an admission that
they do not know what they are doing, and being
exposed in that way would undoubtedly be more
than they could bear.

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Others who are more courageous and secure

in their positions might recognize that one of the
benefits of engaging students in discussions about
the state of their school is to get them to take their
own education more seriously. Too many schools
operate under the false assumption that the quality and character of schools can be shaped by
adults alone. In so doing, they assume that the
actions and behavior of students are less important than those of adults, even though the decisions and choices students make about how hard
to study, or whether or not to take their education seriously, have considerable bearing upon
the quality of their educational experiences. A
substantial body of research has shown that student norms and attitudes have influence upon
the quality and character of schools (Steinberg,
1996; Valenzuela, 1999). The question is how can
schools influence student attitudes and behavior
so that they reinforce the importance of learning and positive social development rather than
undermining it?
One part of the answer to this question is finding ways to include students, on a regular basis, in discussions about their school experiences.
Such discussions can occur in formal settings,
such as on established committees or decisionmaking bodies, and they can occur informally at
the classroom level. The main thing is that they
occur regularly and that adults respond respectfully to what they hear. Students can tell if adults
are genuinely interested in their opinions, and if
they discern that no one is listening when they
share their perspectives they will quickly lose interest in a meaningless exercise. To be effective,
it is also important that these conversations not
be limited to students who have been hand-picked
by adults because they occupy a leadership role
within the school. It is important not to omit
those who might know more because they are
better connected to their peers, even if it means
including students who are not models of ideal
student conduct.
This project illustrates that students may
sometimes have criticisms of the way things are
done at their schools, and when invited to share
their thoughts they may also say things that may
offend some adults. This should not deter edu-

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cators from listening to what students have to

say. The best schools in this project utilized the
input they received through the research to find
ways to make their schools better. These schools
show us that success is achieved not by their ability to implement a particular reform, but rather
to the quality control they exercised in implementing the reform. Soliciting and responding to
the perspectives of students can serve as another
means of insuring quality control, and unlike so
many other reform strategies-this one cost nothing. Given the importance of what is at stake in
our efforts to reform the nations high schools, it
may be time to try an approach that allows us to
learn about how to improve schools without expending additional resources, yet engaging those
with so much at stakestudents.

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Listening to Students
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