Austin ISD - Announcement: Students Invited To Participate In Conversations To Shape Future Of Schools

Press release from Austin ISD - Announcement:

May 12, 2021

Students, teachers and community members are invited to host conversations between peers about the future of our schools as part of a nationwide research project. 

100 Days of Conversations about School is a collaborative project organized in partnership with the Choice Filled Lives Network. It’s designed to propel conversations in communities across the country in each of the first 100 days of the new presidential administration. The deadline to participate has been extended to May 31 due to its popularity! 

The district is promoting the participation of diverse groups of students, families and community members in conversations with their peers about reimagining school after the pandemic. Researchers will analyze insights and data gathered from Austin conversations to contribute to policy advocacy briefs. The organizers will then share the information with the participating communities, state and federal education departments, nonprofit organizations, and educators. 

Youths should lead the conversations with support and participation from adults. Participants should host conversations outside school hours with adult or teacher support. Discussions should ideally happen in small groups of two to eight people to provide space for all voices to be heard. 

The extra time commitment of a facilitator or host is minimal and should only take 90 minutes to two hours. The requirements of hosting include:

The 100 Days of Conversations project has been reviewed and approved for external research by the district: bit.ly/100days_approval. Participation in the project is voluntary and should occur outside school time. Austin ISD is not conducting project activities.

To learn more about the 100 Days of Conversations research project visit www.100daysofconversations.org. For further details on how to host a conversation, view the Austin ISD 100 Days Resource Guide bit.ly/100days-rg or explore the “Host a Conversation” tab on the 100 Days official website linked above. Please contact Ali Ghilarducci at alison.ghilarducci@austinisd.org for more information. 

This press release was produced by Austin ISD - Announcement. The views expressed here are the author’s own.