How Can Students Be Supported?: #FlipTheFrame Twitter Chat Round Up

Nov. 9, 2015 / By

Californians for Justice (C4J) and the Student Voice Campaign sought to #FliptheFrame Thursday by asking the Twitter-verse what California classrooms need for students’ success.

In the Twitter chat, held at 3:33 PM, there were several questions about how students can be better supported in the school system.

“We’re asking (people to) think about how we prioritize and engage students on school campuses,” said Saa’un Bell, Statewide Communications Manager C4J. “We need to create a school climate where students feel adults try to have meaningful and positive connections… and believe in them.”

The Twitter chat was promoted on social media, including C4J’s Thunderclap, which mentioned that a survey of 2,000 students pinpointed school staff and teachers as the most significant resource to aid them in their success. Bell also said school staff members need to go beyond preparing students academically and equip them socially and emotionally so they can face challenges in society. “I believe that listening to students’ voices, engaging students, especially those students that come from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, and allowing them the power to make decisions to improve their schools is the way to find a solution,” said Vito Chiala, a Overfelt High school Principal in San Jose in C4J’s video “Leading Together.”  

“In order to achieve the transformative change we want to see in our schools we must first close the Belief Gap,” or the disbelief that public schools, staff, students of color and low-income students can succeed, reads the Thunderclap page.

Parents and students need to start talking about what it’s going to take to prepare young people for the 21st century, starting with raising awareness, said Bell.