GREENFIELD — In the face of declining enrollment and a traditional school model not fulfilling student needs, Mohawk Trail Regional School has been emphasizing the need to center student feedback in its decisions, and a Student Summit on Friday served as the latest opportunity to hear student voices.
All freshmen, sophomores and juniors at Mohawk Trail Regional School gathered at the Cohn Family Dining Commons at Greenfield Community College on Friday for a Student Summit focusing on the theme of “Your Voice. Your School. Your Future.”
For Rachel Silverman, an art teacher who was part of the Instructional Leadership Team for the summit, Friday’s event was a long time coming. In her speech to students, Silverman said staff members had been struggling with the school’s reputation and knew they needed a change.
“At Mohawk Trail, we felt like we were caught in a little bit of a downward spiral. Our reputation was not what it could be. We had declining enrollment because of population changes and more school choices for [students],” Silverman said. “And we recognized that this traditional school model really wasn’t meeting the needs of students. … Our response to this was to get really curious about how we could do things differently.”
The staff turned to the community, first holding a summit with staff, parents and students that was made possible through the Barr Foundation, which also helped put on Friday’s summit. Silverman noted two main ideas emerged from the previous summit.
“One [idea] was that students want to learn things that feel relevant to their lives, and two, they want to feel like they matter and they belong,” Silverman said. “And we’ve kind of taken these two ideas and centered those in all the work we’ve done since.”
And for Mohawk Trail, the best way to achieve this was by centering student feedback in the school’s decisions. For Silverman, it is necessary to incorporate student feedback going forward to provide them with an educational experience that best suits their needs.
“The end user is the student, you know? If we don’t design [school] with that in mind, then we’re probably just going to miss the mark,” Silverman said.
The school has been focusing on student feedback more since the switch to the Trailblazer model in 2021, an educational model designed to help students personalize their education. For Rachel Hoogstraten, one of the other members of the Instructional Leadership Team, Friday’s summit was just another layer to add to the school’s efforts to focus on the student experience.
“Over the course of five, six, seven years … there’s a lot of new structures we have been going through. Things like advisory, student-led conferences, project-based learning, interdisciplinary classes, the schedule change. … We’ve begun these programs and we have tried them out, and now students have experience with them,” Hoogstraten said. “And we were really recognizing that it was this pivotal moment where we needed student input and student reflection on those experiences in order to continue improving those programs. We can’t continue to make it better without student involvement.”
During her speech, Sheryl Stanton, superintendent of the Mohawk Trail Regional School District, encouraged students to take advantage of the opportunity to provide feedback to the school, even if it may feel awkward.
“I encourage you today to not step back if you’re feeling a little unsure, or if you’re feeling a little nervous,” Stanton said. “Lean in. Step into this opportunity.”
After free breakfast, and hearing opening speeches from staff members and keynote speaker Gaelin Elmore, students were divided into small groups to discuss how they feel about a wide variety of topics within the school, such as homework, student-led conferences, progress reports and the class schedule. Each breakout group had two student facilitators to help guide conversations, while staff members monitored each group, taking notes on emerging trends in student feedback.
Aidan Gauthier, a junior at Mohawk Trail, believes the summit is a step in the right direction for the school’s growth.
“It’s a really good step in the progression of the school, and how it can evolve and become more inclusive and really reflect what students need and want,” Gauthier said.
Sophomore Naomi den Ouden, who was a student facilitator in her breakout group, echoed Gauthier’s praise for the event, but felt it could be more focused.
“I think overall [the summit] was pretty good. There were some insightful things happening … but I feel like it’ll be more helpful once we have more of a framework. … The [conversations] are kind of too broad at this point,” den Ouden commented.
Den Ouden expressed concern with the school’s seven-block schedule, as balancing large assignments can be difficult. Among other topics, students also aired concerns about receiving brief and unhelpful feedback on progress reports, the new trimester schedule, and being assigned work that they feel does not increase their comprehension of a topic.
Bethany Basal, a history teacher at Mohawk Trail, was a staff monitor for her breakout group. She said she noticed a trend of students wanting to hear full, detailed feedback from their teachers.
“What I really noticed is that kids want a lot of feedback,” Basal said. “They want to know how they’re doing. They want to know how to be successful. There’s a real desire to get the outcome that we talk about school being for, which is to be skillful and knowledgeable on things. They want to know how to get there … so they just want really explicit, clear feedback.”
Basal also expressed that she hopes the school continues to hold student summits. Basal felt that by taking students out of the classroom, and treating them to food and some games in between breakout groups, they were able to have high-quality conversations.
“I want to hear what students have to say, and I think this was a really good means of getting there,” Basal said. “I want every student at some point in their ninth through 11th grade years to have this day where they come, get treated to food and they get treated like an adult.”
Mohawk Trail Regional School Principal Chris Buckland said he wants to keep the student voice involved in the school’s decisions for years to come.
“This is great feedback for us as to how we shape Mohawk Trail Regional School, for the rest of this week, for next year and beyond,” Buckland told the students. “You are starting to lay the foundations for what this school can be in the region for years to come. … You’re providing us really good insight on what we could be and we’re depending on you.”