Finding Their Voices

Philadelphia

Had anyone asked students at Jay Cooke Middle School a few years ago, "Does your voice count?" or "Can you make a change?" the definitive answer for most would have been "No!" For years, their blighted neighborhood on the north-central edge of Philadelphia has been a forgotten wasteland, suffering from gang conflicts, crime, and poverty. In its midst, the school was no exception. The 80-year-old building was deteriorating, teacher morale was low, test scores lingered well below the state average, and more than three-fourths of students lacked basic skills in reading and mathematics.

But life within this school has been changing. Many of Cooke's 950 5th through 8th graders are finding a powerful outlet for expressing their concerns and frustrations, and, in the process, they're discovering new motivation for learning.

Now, students seeking to answer those very questions are responding in a...