Black Student Voices: What We Need From Our Schools

Education Week spoke with 10 Black high school students from across the country about how they think issues of race and racism should be handled in school, discussing what students want educators to know, the impact of school security, and their experiences talking about race in classes. In the first video of this series, students share what they need from educators to improve their school experience. Students, they say, need a seat at the table so they can identify school policies that lead to inequities and advocate for things like representation within curricula and counseling supports. Highland High School student Jaden Adeyemi said, “As people of color and as youth, we know what we need. We don’t need teachers to tell us what we need.”