WASHINGTON — After working all year on a statewide advocacy project, a group of Alabama student leaders visited Capitol Hill this week to discuss initiatives they want to see implemented in schools.
The A+ Student Voices Team, a student-led group of high schoolers who advocate for education policy decisions, met with Alabama lawmakers and experienced the inner workings of the federal government up close during their trip. The group includes students from across the state, representing 22 schools and 14 counties.
“Just to get to see them in action, and really being able to articulate those ideas and the issues, and really amplifying the voices of students from all across the state of Alabama, it’s really important to see,” said Keenan Carter, director of partnerships with A+ Education Partnership.
This group’s statewide survey this year compiled from more than a thousand Alabama 9-12 graders revealed that mental health, school culture and student support are the biggest issues facing high school students in the state. The students had the opportunity to share some of their findings with the Alabama delegation.
Recent high school graduate Elizabeth Braden told Alabama Daily News she loved the opportunity to speak directly with U.S. Reps. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, and Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, on Tuesday. The students shared their personal experiences in the state’s high schools and discussed their survey’s findings with the lawmakers.
“We mainly talked about our student survey that we took throughout the year this past school year, and we talked about things like mental health and quality of instruction, and just we kind of talked about those statistics and what it meant,” Braden, who attended Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering, said.
Their survey found that 50% of students said they would like to see more access to mental health support within their schools to help them cope with the stress of academics and their lives outside of the classroom.
“Having the adequate mental health support in the schools is something that we really talk to policy makers about,” Braden said. “Getting adequate funding for counselors and mental health coordinators are just really important things, especially in the modern day, that we’re just trying to raise awareness about from the student perspective.”
The survey recommended that Alabama create a statewide mental health curriculum to equip students with the knowledge of how to identify mental health challenges, how to seek help and where they can find resources and support.
For Jaheim Wilcher, the trip to the nation’s capitol wrapped up three years of being a part of the student group, where he’s been able to collaborate with other students from a variety of backgrounds.
“Being a part of this team has definitely been eye opening to the issues that we face in our education system,” Wilcher told ADN, standing in front of the Capitol.
The recent graduate of Greensboro High School added that he’s learned each school and district has different needs and that “they all deserve to be heard and addressed.” At his high school, Wilcher said he’s focused on expanding extracurricular opportunities.
“I’ve met with my principal and administrators. We got more clubs, more resources for us to develop more outside of academics,” he said.
Increasing teacher pay, providing funding for staff development and encouraging teachers to use more project-based learning activities, were also part of the group’s survey recommendations this year.
Since 2018, the A+ Student Voices Team has visited Washington every other year, with its juniors and seniors.