Social Action and Inner-City

High School Students: Collective

Action as a Required Class

Schools
require students to learn skills to
empower them as individuals, but not skills to
empower them as collectives.

Research on youth organizing focuses

almost entirely on out-of-school efforts
conducted with self-selected students.
What is Public
Achievement?
Engages high school students in public
work to foster community change and
democratic citizenship.
Developed by Harry Boyte and colleagues at
University of Minnesota
Activities usually take place after-school
Students meet once a week with college
student coach.
What is Public Achievement? II

Past PA efforts have

Rebuilt playgrounds.

Contested school and city policies.

Created dramas about current issues.

Effortsin the past that threatened the status

quo of schools have been expelled.
What is PA? III
Drawsfrom theories of community organizing
and community development.

Lessconflictual in its presentation than most

out-of-school youth organizing efforts.

Nonetheless, the basic model resembles that

of youth organizers
PA vs. Service Learning
Service Learning
Generally serves the less fortunate (clients)

Usually a helping rather than collaborative social

action model

While a few advanced efforts engage in

collaborative research or community
development service learning rarely confronts
inequality and oppression directly.
Public Achievement Charter High
School (PACHS)
Founded in 2004
Approx. Enrollments
Year 0 (2004): 66 students, grades 9-10
Year 1 (2005): 80 students, grades 9-11
Year 2 (2006): 100 students, grades 9-12

Student Body Characteristics

90% African American Students
85% Free and Reduced Lunch
1/3 Special Education2nd Highest in District.
PACHS Pedagogy
School was founded by PA organization in
part to provide in-school context for PA
activities.
PA participation required to graduate.
No formal classes.
Students learn through individually designed
projects.
Every student has a computer.
Why is Unique School Like PACHS
Relevant More Broadly?
Only non-traditional schools like PACHS are
likely embrace social action as a required
part of their curriculum.
PACHSs student characteristics are
reflective of other schools in impoverished
inner-city districts.
Few students joined school out of desire to
participate in social action. Most were signed
up by parents.
Data Collection
All group sessions were audiotaped if students gave
permission

Fieldnotes were written up from audiotapes, with

individually identifiable contributions removed.

Focus of study is on groups as collective units and

not on growth of individual students.

No data was collected that didnt emerge from

ongoing teaching activities (e.g., no individual
interviews with students).
History of the PA Research Project
In the first year (Year 0: 2004) Schutz was
given permission to observe PA in PACHS

Given the challenges the school faced during

its first year, Schutz decided not to do any
formal research.

Schutz volunteered in different capacities at

the school, visiting one day a week.
End of Year 0 Evaluation
At the end of Year 0, Schutz interviewed
seven PA groups.

PACHS students showed little knowledge

of what they were supposed to be learning

of what they were supposed to accomplish in PA

besides helping the community.
End of Year 0 Evaluation II
Some groups hadnt moved to any action.

Completed Actions in 2004 Included

a one-day cleanup at the lake and
a mural to beautify PACHS

Actionswere not linked to any coherent

understanding of a social change or power
 Hypothesis: Limitations of Year 0

Schutz hypothesized that PA had failed to

teach students coherent lessons about social
action because coaches failed
To teach students social action concepts and
skills

To help students understand how particular

actions might actually affect the causes of
oppression.
Year 1 (2005) Research Project
Schutzagreed to recruit graduate students to
coach and collect data on PA groups

DuringYear 1, Schutz and 10 graduate

students coached 10 different groups of 6-7
HS students.

Researchers coached for Fall semester, and

analyzed data together during Spring
semester
Summer Preparation for Year 1:
PACHS Faculty
Schutz
met throughout the summer with
PACHS faculty to
Frame process for individual student projects

Link individual project procedures to procedures

for developing PA projects

Determine which key concepts from PA were most

important for students to learn at the beginning
A Streamlined Model of PA
Schutz and the faculty agreed that the
established PA model was too complex.

Thegroup ranked the importance of key

concepts and created a graphic organizer.

The group focused on one key ability

Determining cause and effect relationships
through a bubble map process.
 Original PA List of Core
Concepts

1. Public Work 6. Free Spaces

2. Politics 7. Interests
3. Citizenship 8. Diversity
4. Democracy 9. Power
5. Freedom 10. Accountability/
Responsibility
Focusing on a Few Concepts

Democracy Power

Interests
(self-interest)

Diversity Accountability/
Responsibility
Key Conceptual Tool:
Bubble Map
Boring Teachers Low Test Scores

Cant Go
TRUANCY to College
Lack of Funding

Staying Up
Police Give Fines
Too Late
Preparation for Year 1: UWM
Graduate Students
Schutzmet 5 times during the summer with
graduate student coaches. Workshops
focused on
Strategies and theories of community organizing

Discussions of the conceptual tools and concepts

developed with PACHS faculty

Preparation for first meetings with students

Pedagogical Goals for Year 1

1. To more closely follow the recommended

PA process of analysis and research prior to
action focusing students on
The CAUSES of social challenges and

The WORKINGS of systems of power.

Pedagogical Goals for Year 1
2. Coaches were encouraged to

SLOW student movement to action

Facilitate student RESEARCH through weekly

assignments

Provide tools to analyze RELATIONSHIPS

between cause and effect.
Start of Year 1: 1-2 Hour All-School
Workshops/Discussions
1. What is PA?

2. What is Community? What Would You Like to

Change in Your Community?

3. Introduction to Bubble Maps (Cause/Effect).

4. Discuss Causes and Effects of Specific

Issues.

5. Topics Convention: Brainstorm Topics. Each

Student Ranks Interest.
How did the Workshops Go?
PACHS facilitators struggled in all-school
sessions to keep student attention.

Practice
sessions with bubble-map went well,
but success was limited otherwise.

The Topics Convention, was rushed

Students were tired and resistant
Resulting topics were broad and vague: e.g.,
Foster Care, Police Brutality, Teen Pregnancy.
What Happened in PA Groups?
I. Finding a Topic.
Students arrived with little understanding of
what PA was supposed to be.
Weeks were spent talking about vague and
broad topics with little movement.
Students sometimes declared they didnt like
their topic but refused to change.
Early excitement turned to frustration.

Sense of Hopelessness Emerged Among

Students (and Coaches).
What can a small group of kids really do?
II. Learning Concepts and
Skills
A focus on concepts and skills was largely
abandoned in the struggle to find coherent
topics.
Thebubble map tool often just made topics
more complicated and difficult to deal with.
III. Completing Work
Assignments (homework) were almost
never completed
EVEN THOUGH
Students Showed Capacity for Sophisticated
Analyses of Power and Community.
AND
Significant work was often done during
meetings if a project was decided on.
IV. What Did Groups Accomplish?
Only
about half of the groups completed any
coherent project at all.

Completed and planned projects

Looked like service learning
Embodied little analysis of power.

Projects: Bake sale, mentoring children, poster with

a safe-sex slogan, a job board, a bracelet &
brochure on police brutality
Regrouping: What Went
Wrong?
I. Coach Roles: Caught Between Facilitation
and Direction
Groups either floated or were overly driven
by coaches. (See Kirchner, in press)

II. Coaches and Students Felt Hopeless

How can a small group of high school
students have an authentic impact on
oppression?
I. Rethinking Coach & Student Roles

1. Coaches needed to find a better balance

between facilitator and director roles.

2. With students, we needed to honor

Their extensive local knowledge
Their sophisticated analyses of social power
Their distaste for school learning (e.g., textual
research and homework.)
Their preference for active and oral learning
II. Rethinking Topic/Project Selection

1. Students needed more time to understand

and commit to different topics prior to entry
into PA groups.

2. Students and coaches needed doable

options from the beginning to avoid
directionless dialogue and hopelessness.
III. Plans to Support PA
Groups
1. Add weekly seminar at PACHS attended by
all students to introduce students to history,
concepts, and skills of organizing

2. Link each PA project to an existing

community organization for resources,
project support, collaboration, and
community base.
The Catch-22 of Hopelessness
If people feel they dont have the power to
change a bad situation, then they do not think
about it.

Why start figuring out how you are going to

spend a million dollars if you do not have a
million dollars . . . ?

[Only when change seems possible do

people] begin to think and ask questions about
how to make the changes.
--Saul Alinsky (1977, p. 105)
General Youth Organizing/PA Model
OUT OF SCHOOL/
NOT REQUIRED/ALL STUDENTS

Student Topic
Topic Research Specific
+
+ Project
Core +
Concepts Skill Develop
Power Analysis

Action Plan

General Model:
Topic + Conceptual Research Planning
Evolution of PA Model
IN SCHOOL/REQUIRED/INNER CITY
Student Local Knowledge
+
Coach Provided
Doable Information Plan
Project +
Interactive Data Collection
(Interviews/Tours)
Move to Action

Note that the focus here is on action, with conceptual issues

emerging through ongoing engagement.
Year 2 Changes: Workshops
1. Focused pre-PA workshops entirely on topic
selection with
An introductory presentation about other
students engaging in actions (videos)

Topic brainstorming sessions

An Action Fair where students attended

presentations about pre-selected projects with
doable efforts.
Year 2 Changes: Relations with
Organizations, Coach Roles, and
Weekly Seminar
2. Pursued relationships with community
organizations to support student projects

3. Focused summer workshops with coaches

on discussions of coach roles

4. Planned weekly seminar on history and

concepts of social action for all students at
PACHS.
Students: Experts & Leaders Coach: Positive Authority
RULES Boundaries for Safety
Options, not directives
Clear expectations of Clear expectations of group
group and coach and coach
Their Rules Help Ss enforce their rules

IDEAS Summarize/reframe
Questions not answers Ss ideas for them
WORK
Ss take responsibility Provide resources
Accountability to group, Jump starting
not only coach (when group starts to falter)
A conversational style Give and receive respect
(speaking with not at) (address disrespect)
I. What Happened In Year 2?
(6 Groups)
Studentsarrived in groups with better sense
of why they were coming to PA
Much less directionless dialogue in groups
Groups moved more quickly to interactive
data collection (surveys, interviews, tours)
Planned weekly seminar did not happen.
II. What Happened in Year 2?
Students remained much more engaged in
projects with higher attendance.

Support from outside organizations was

limited and often lacking.

Allgroups adapted their projects from the

plan they were originally provided (they took
ownership).
III. What Happened in Year 2?
Projects looked less like service learning:
Voter registration project
Discussion with police and on radio show about
youth issues
A mural project to express youth desires for social
change Liberty for All but Not for Us?
Video/Skit to show other youth how to interact
with police
A presentation of survey data to another school
about why students dont come to school
(truancy)
 Key Issue:
PA at PACHS is Still Pre-Political
Student Projects at PACHS Lack Two Key
Aspects of Authentic Power Organizing

1. Recruitment of constituents and allies for

collective power

2. Development of ongoing organization/group with

identity to carry reputation and developing power.

NOTE: The PA manual stresses the importance of #1,

and out of school youth organizing seems usually to
include at least #1 and often #2.
Plans for Year 3
1. Move out into community settings more
quickly, even if not directly related to specific
topic (tours, interviews, etc.) to spark student
interest and ideas.

2. Add weekly seminar at PACHS on history,

skills, and concepts of organizing

3. Examine ways to link projects to

constituencies.
Youth Organizing Manuals With
Topic + Conceptual
Research Planning Model
Checkoway, B. (1996). Young People Creating Community
Change.
Dingerson, L. & Hoy, S. H. (2001). Co/Motion Guide to Youth-led
Social Change.
Harmony VISTA. (2005). Empowering Youth for School and
Community Change.
Hildreth, R. et. al. (1998). Building Worlds, Transforming Lives,
Making History: A Guide to Public Achievement.
Lewis, B. (1998) The Kids Guide to Social Action.
Youth on Board. (2004). Steps to Organize and Advocate for
Change.