The CRLS VOICE initiative, re-launching this fall, aims to reimagine the way student feedback is given, received, and applied in classrooms, with the ultimate goal of helping teachers meet the needs of all students.
The VOICE acronym stands for Visions Of Improving Classroom Equity. VOICE is currently the only initiative operating under the larger student organization Good Trouble, founded in the summer of 2020 and which has in the past included other initiatives in addition to VOICE. The name Good Trouble references a quote from civil rights leader John Lewis on the importance of challenging power. The VOICE initiative is now accepting membership applications. Students interested in starting a new initiative under the Good Trouble umbrella are welcome to pitch ideas for future years as well.
“VOICE is a real opportunity to make change at CRLS,” Max Klumb ’25, a founding member, told the Register Forum. “We above all ensure there is no disconnect between teachers and students, and help foster a space where everyone is receiving the best education possible,” he said.
Through a three-step process conducted in repetition over the course of a semester, VOICE relays student feedback to teachers. First, VOICE members meet with the teacher to discuss individual goals, after which small student groups are pulled out of class periods for ten to fifteen minutes. Student feedback sessions are conducted solely by high schoolers working with VOICE and are entirely confidential.
The goal of these meetings, members stress, is to encourage honest and authentic student discussion. “VOICE works to bridge the communication gap,” founding member Kate Wheatley ’25 said to the Register Forum. “We’re creating a system where students who are less comfortable with academia can voice issues they have in their classes.”
Following these sessions, representatives meet individually with educators to discuss realistic solutions in response to feedback voiced. “While reporting back, the members were sympathetic and kind,” said Mr. Evan Milstein-Greengart to the Register Forum, a 9th grade English teacher who worked with Good Trouble in the spring of 2023. “[The members] offered advice as
something to think about.”
The group plans to hold small-group student feedback sessions in twelve classrooms over the 2023-2024 school year, according to Good Trouble’s website.
VOICE representatives work in classrooms by request from students or teachers. Members stress that any classroom can benefit from the student feedback process, regardless of teacher availability or previous history. “VOICE offers an opportunity for teachers to understand their students and how they learn in a way they couldn’t achieve otherwise,” said Edda Williams ’25, a founding member.
The initiative also participates in the Cambridge Office of Equity Collaborative yearly, and will be organizing professional development courses aiming to start a larger conversation around how teaching improvement can be driven by student feedback, according to Wheatley.
Member applications can be accessed on Good Trouble’s website and Instagram platform and will be open until October first. Wheatley further emphasized why students should join: “It’s a way of granting opportunities you wish you’d had to others,” she said. “But you also just get to be with really cool people doing really cool things.”
This article also appears in our September 2023 print edition.
