December 4, 2025 • 53 mins
Hand students a real budget and a ballot, and watch a campus transform. We sit down with Tara Bartlett (ASU), KaRa Lyn Thrasher, and Sabrina Estrada (Center for the Future of Arizona) to unpack how school participatory budgeting turns student voice into visible change—without adding noise or partisanship. From the first Arizona pilot to 80+ schools statewide, the story is clear: when students lead, engagement grows, trust deepens, and communities benefit.
We break down the complete school PB cycle in plain language: forming an inclusive student steering committee, collecting ideas from the whole school, vetting costs and feasibility, building a transparent ballot, campaigning with civil discourse, and running a real vote day complete with booths and “I Voted” stickers. You’ll hear vivid examples—water bottle refill stations and AEDs that solved urgent needs, therapy dogs that scaled district-wide, and a Watho shade structure built with tribal partners—that showcase how culture shifts when young people drive decisions.
Beyond inspiring stories, we dig into outcomes you can measure. Using a KASP framework—civic knowledge, attitudes, skills, and practices—students report stronger public speaking, teamwork, project management, empathy, and confidence to act. We address common hurdles like educator time, funding myths, and adultism, and share practical solutions: integrate PB into coursework, set aside a budget slice, recruit “not the usual suspects,” and use bite-sized trainings and resource hubs to make facilitation easier.
Curious to bring school PB to your district or classroom? Explore the toolkit, try the short videos, and start with a student-led committee and a real line item. If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a review telling us what your students would put on the ballot.
Check it out: https://www.arizonafuture.org/programs/education-programs/school-participatory-budgeting-in-arizona/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:52):
Welcome to the Arizona Civics podcast.
I am stoked to talk to thesethree ladies today because they
do something incredibly amazingand it's something I've actually
got to participate in.
So today we have Tara Bartlett,Sabrina Estrada, and Carlin
Thresher.
And they're going to be talkingabout school participatory
(01:13):
budgeting.
And if you're like, Liz, I haveno idea what that is, that's
okay, because that's what we'regoing to talk about today.
But my favorite thing, one of myfavorite things that I did
teaching in the 2019, 2020school year, I got an email from
my administrator and he's like,hey, there's this thing called
school participatory budgeting.
Um, do you want to do it?
(01:33):
And I was like, sure.
I had seniors, they were AP, andthey absolutely ran with it.
I, as a teacher, just had to, Imean, facilitate my class.
Um, but it ended up being thisreally cool, engaging thing to
do right before the pandemic.
Um, and it was probably one ofthe more memorable things we've
(01:54):
done, and so memorable thatthere is a, you know, there's
pieces of it on our campus.
So the district said, here's aset-aside budget.
Um, my students came up withdifferent campaigns to have
things on the ballot, created aballot, and we had an 85% voter
(02:14):
turnout at our school.
And the thing that the studentschose was water bottle refilling
stations because they were tiredof the plastic, as I have my
water here.
They were tired of the plastic,they wanted the refillers, but
in a close second place uh wereAEDs because at our school the
(02:34):
year prior, we had a studentthat had a cardiac event, and
the closest AED was acrosscampus.
The district and my principalwere so appreciative of the
students because they had thisthing in the gym where kids came
in and voted.
We had kids sign up to uhactually vote that were going to
be of age, but the district andthe principal liked it so much
(02:57):
that they funded both becausethey were just so impressed by
the kids.
So I feel like everybody needsto know about this.
So I have these three amazingwomen here to talk about it.
So the first question isprobably what people are
wondering about.
What is school participatorybudgeting and how did it first
take root here in Arizona?
SPEAKER_01 (03:20):
Yeah, I'll go ahead and answer that.
And thanks, Liz, for hosting ustoday.
Uh, my name is Tara Bartlett.
I'm currently professor in theArizona State University College
for Teaching and LearningInnovation.
And just like Liz, I had thewonderful experience of first
encountering schoolparticipatory budgeting on the
educator side.
And I was working with middleschool students.
(03:42):
I did that process for threeyears.
And during those three years, Isaw such incredible gains across
my students through agency,efficacy, and really greater
engagement within theirclassroom and the school campus
broadly, that that was actuallythe impetus of me wanting to
then jump into doing a PhD andactually studying this
phenomenon and student voicewithin school spaces broadly.
(04:05):
And so school participatorybudgeting for me is one of those
outstanding civic learningprograms.
It really derives from ahands-on process that, as I
said, really talks about, youknow, how do we improve student
agency?
How do we improve their voiceand engagement within school
communities?
But then for the long term, howcan we get them to see
themselves as change makers andhave that efficacy to be able to
(04:28):
make change within their greatercommunity?
On the actual learning side,what I saw for my students was
teamwork, collaboration,critical thinking skills, and
also empathy in thinking about,you know, what do other students
on my campus encounter and need?
And so I think altogether, thatreally paints this picture of
school participatory budgetingas a win for engaging young
(04:50):
people to be prepared in civiclife for the long term.
And so what we say with partnersat Center for the Future of
Arizona, who will be sharing ina bit, we call this this
learning by democracy, learningdemocracy by doing process.
And that students themselves areactually doing democracy on
their school campus, but at thesame time learning about what is
democracy, right?
(05:11):
What does that look like and howcan I be a part of that?
And actually, schoolparticipatory budgeting is not a
phenomenon in of itself.
It derives from a municipalmodel, the participatory
budgeting model, um, thathappens across cities and towns
and communities worldwide.
It actually started, I thinkit's nearly been 40 years ago,
actually, in Porto Alegre,Brazil.
(05:34):
And in that particular context,the city of Porto Alegre decided
to set aside a budget of theircity for city residents to
decide how to spend.
And it was actually from thatmodel that people began to say,
we need better health care andwe need better sanitation in our
city.
And some of the facts andfigures that came out of that
(05:55):
were amazing.
The infant mortality ratedecreased by nearly 20% within
the city.
Um, sanitation went up to nearly90% 98% of homes having
sanitation instilled.
And so just those key takeawayswere enough to spread this
phenomenon across the world.
But what's really cool is thatthe school version actually
(06:16):
started here in Arizona.
So in 2013, a principal atBioscience High School heard
about this for one of thelongtime engaging folks within
the school participatorybudgeting and participatory
budgeting world broadly,Danielle Shagarensky, was
teaching a class at ArizonaState University.
And this particular principalwas taking this course and heard
(06:38):
about the municipal model.
And so the principal, Dr.
Quintin Boyce, decided, well,why are we not doing this with
young people in schools, right?
I'm going to set aside a budgetand have my students do this
process.
And so that was in 2013.
Since then, school PB has spreadacross Arizona, across the US,
and really the globe.
(06:59):
And in 2016 was really when theParticipatory Budgeting Project,
the Center for the Future ofArizona, and Daniel Shogarinsky
at Arizona States UniversityParticipatory Governance
Initiative came together to helpseed and feed this process.
I think Liz, in terms ofChandler, that you were right
behind that in 2016 havingstarted.
(07:21):
I know myself as an educator inMesa, we started in 2015.
So there was already this kindof underlying ecosystem of it
spreading across Arizona.
And now we have, you know,upwards of 80 plus schools
statewide doing this process.
And I know that we work closely,I'm on the ASU side, but with
Center for the Future ofArizona.
(07:42):
And I know that, Carlin, you canprobably speak better to this,
is that this process really uhseeds and feeds what we call
civic health.
And I know that CFA has been alongtime um proponent for that.
SPEAKER_03 (07:56):
Yeah, and I'm happy to jump in.
Thank you so much for having us,Liz.
I'm Carlin Thrasher.
I'm our project manager forCivic Health at Center for the
Future of Arizona.
Um, and exactly what Tara hasbeen saying, I I actually
started at CFA around 2022.
So this was kind of post a lotof this expansion and growth
that was going to otherdistricts as folks were just
(08:17):
hearing how powerful thisprocess was.
Um and it got to me too, fromacross the country, actually.
And I ended up moving to Arizonain 2021 with my then boyfriend,
now husband, and heard aboutthis work and saw it as just a
really powerful way to be ableto engage young people in trust
(08:37):
building in their communities.
And um I really came from a lotof the bridge building spaces
and um national service spacestoo, before I started at CFA.
And I saw, especially with someof the young adults that I was
working with, some of thatdisconnection with the trust in
institutions, the trust in beingable to see that we can make a
difference.
(08:57):
And this process just providedthe answer, in my opinion, to be
able to practice a lot of thethings that we preach about
democracy and how democraticpractices can look.
Um and I just thought it wassuper, super exciting as a
program.
And so I wanted to be a part ofit.
So I started as a programcoordinator at CFA in 2022.
And around that time, what Tarawas mentioning, and you know, as
(09:20):
I was learning about our skin inthe game at CFA, was around what
civic health can look like.
And so at CFA, we just we definecivic health as the way people
come together to solve publicproblems.
And what we see as reallypromising with School PB is that
is an opportunity to practiceall of these skills and
(09:41):
competencies that Arizonans wantto see from our leaders.
Um, and we know that our leadersin our school communities, our
both our educators and thestudents, are going to be those
community members who make adifference out in our community
for the long term.
And we know that investing inschool PB can have just, we hope
we will we started to see, aswe've been doing it for about 10
(10:03):
years now, um, we're starting tosee what kind of progress can be
made and how important andimpactful it can be for students
to learn this process and howschool cultures shift as well.
One of the greatest things thatwas happening when I started to
onboard was that we were seeingthat we needed to be able to
build the capacity of multipleeducators, multiple schools and
(10:26):
districts, whereas in the pastwe were only able to do that
kind of district by district,and as folks were um becoming
aware, um, people had reallyit's really started to pick up
through word of mouth, through alot of our um championing of the
process.
We go literally in any space wecan to talk about how powerful
SPV can be.
Um, and then had to change ourmodel, of course, to help meet
(10:48):
that so that we could expand towhat Tara mentioned, these 80
plus, and I mean this number isgrowing every day.
80 plus schools, um, hundreds ofthousands of Arizona students
who get to participate in thisprocess, which is super
impactful.
SPEAKER_02 (11:02):
I love how you talked about the culture shift
at a school because I do thinkit's really important for
students to feel an actual partof the school and that they can
affect changes and that they'renot just, you know, passive
participants in the democracythat is a school.
So, can we talk about how doesthe process work inside a
school?
So, from the kind of ideageneration to students casting
(11:25):
their vote.
SPEAKER_00 (11:27):
Awesome.
Yes, I can answer that.
Um, I'm so grateful to be here.
I'm Sabrina Estrada, and I'm thesenior program coordinator of
civic health at the Center forthe Future of Arizona.
And I've been here about a yearand a half.
So I am always I'm stilllearning, especially as our
amazing teachers and studentscontinue to innovate on this
(11:50):
process.
Um, but I'll dive in with alittle bit of how this process
looks in action.
So once a champion bringsparticipatory budgeting to their
school, and this can be astudent, a teacher, a principal,
or even a district leader orgoverning board member.
Um, the first step is buildingthat buy-in with key
(12:11):
stakeholders and securing abudget.
And from there, the process istruly student-led.
Uh, it all begins with a studentsteering committee, um, and they
get support from school staffand partners like CFA and ASU.
Um, and that steering committeeof students sets the project
(12:32):
parameters.
Um, they will announce theavailable budget and the purpose
to their whole school.
Uh so everyone, including uhteachers, staff, and students,
know what's going on.
Um, and then they open a callfor ideas.
How should we invest this moneyto improve our school community?
What are our school needs andhow can these funds address
(12:54):
those needs?
So once they start to get thoseideas coming in, the steering
committee will review them andnarrow them down to the top
options based on thoseparameters that they set, as
well as what is feasible.
Um, and then they turn thoseideas into full proposals.
So this is where they arecontacting vendors, researching
(13:17):
costs, uh establishing timelinesif a project needs to be
implemented and installed.
They're looking at thesustainability of a project and
the impact of that project ontheir school community needs.
Um, so then after projectproposals have been completed,
they're approved by their schoolleaders, and then they are
(13:38):
placed on a ballot.
Um, then at this point, studentswill shift into campaigning and
deliberation.
So they create campaignmaterials.
Uh, so everyone knows what'sgoing to be on their ballot,
everyone's aware and informed.
Um, they will talk with theirpeers to discuss the pros and
cons of each proposal.
Um, and we encourage them topractice that civil discourse
(14:00):
with one another.
Then comes uh the really bigmoment of their vote day.
Um schools often organize it uhlike a real election with
centralized voting areas.
They will have ballot boxes,voting booths, and even I voted
stickers.
Uh and the students will comeand they will get to select the
(14:23):
project that they want to seefor their school community.
And this is where students getto experience the power of their
vote in a tangible and memorableway.
Uh and then once those votes aretallied, the winning project is
announced, it is funded, and itis implemented.
So this is authentic change thatis happening at a school.
(14:44):
It's not a simulation.
Um, and after that, students,teachers, and other uh school
stakeholders will conduct anevaluation of their entire
process to reflect on what wentwell, what did they learn from
doing this process?
What areas of growth did thestudents experience?
And how do they want to improveit for their next cycle?
(15:06):
And something we emphasizethroughout every phase is that
students are not just deciding,you know, how to spend a budget,
but they're strengthening theircivic skills and learning how to
work collectively to improvetheir community and start
exercising those civic muscles.
SPEAKER_02 (15:25):
And I mean, I know I talked a little bit at the
beginning about my experience.
It was so fun as an APgovernment teacher to actually
have the curriculum come alive,right?
Instead of just sitting andtalking about it, students got
to actually participate in itand really kind of flex those
muscles that they wouldn't havedone, you know, in any other
(15:46):
way.
And, you know, for us, the thestudent that had the cardiac
event, he was fine, but thatbrought out this need.
And I think sometimes peopledon't understand.
If you give students agency,they will run with it.
And they're so incredible.
And this is why we got twoprojects funded, is because our
(16:06):
administration was like thepassion and the power and how
many students voted and howclose it was, showed that this
is actually something thestudents want and need.
So can you each share amemorable example of student-led
projects that made realdifferences in school
communities?
SPEAKER_01 (16:29):
Yeah, there are so many amazing examples as you
shared, Liz.
And having done this for severalyears with my own students and
then now broadly supportinginitiatives across the state,
there's so many projects I'dlove to talk about.
I'm gonna highlight two.
One that was one I did inpartnership with the school that
I had worked at and the studentsthat um I had worked with for
(16:52):
two years in seventh and eighthgrade.
And this project outcome wasactually a school therapy dog,
which is absolutely amazing.
And I know where dog peoplelive.
So, yes, I think this speaksreally, really greatly to our
love of dogs.
Um, but this was amazing becausethis particular project already
had an emphasis on inclusion.
And so we actually partneredwith the Arizona Developmental
(17:15):
Disabilities Planning Councilfor this particular school
participatory budgeting process.
And the goal was to make itinclusive.
And so we mindfully includedover 40% of the student steering
committee having a documenteddisability, and we
over-represented a sampling ofstudent groups who historically
had not had a voice inleadership positions or engaging
(17:39):
processes throughout the school.
And so, just by design, I feellike the voices that were
central to this process in thestudent steering committee
really drove this idea ofinclusion that came out in
several of the projects.
However, again, the winningproject was a school therapy
dog.
And that story doesn't stopthere because the entire school
(17:59):
district then adopted schooltherapy dogs across the district
to every single school, whichwas absolutely amazing to see
the 50 plus schools in thisschool district now serve
students' needs of, you know,mental health or being able to
practice reading and, you know,really instill the stronger idea
of academics alongside, youknow, reading a book to a dog.
(18:22):
It is just a really incrediblestory.
So yes, I know I'm gettingteary-eyed, Liz.
I can see you are too.
But that is one of my favorites.
Um, and that one was alsospecial because it was students
I had worked with for, again, anumber of years and their
families that also were includedin the vote that year.
The other one that I think isalso pretty amazing and I would
say really captures a lot of ourcommunities within Arizona was
(18:47):
done in partnership with theTahano Odham tribe down in
southern Arizona.
And this particular schoolactually had their Native
American student club run theprocess.
And they had other studentsengaged throughout, but their
voices were very central.
Their winning project wasactually a shade structure, but
they didn't go with, you know,your kind of fabricated metal,
(19:09):
you know, that kind of plastictype of, you know, netting type
of shade structure that you seeon typical school, you know,
playgrounds and, you know,different spaces across schools.
They actually decided to partnerwith the tribe and build a
Watho, which is an indigenousshade structure built from the
(20:11):
landscape, right?
So like a catillo branches andmesquite logs.
And it was incredible because,you know, this the school put
out a video where students areactually building alongside
tribal members.
Elders came out once it wasbuilt and actually blessed the
actual Watho structure andtalked about the significance of
representation on that schoolcommunity for those student
(20:33):
groups, and just really thinkingabout how that is a sustainable
piece of uh, you know, a projecton that school campus that
really brings in the fold of,you know, Arizona's ecosystem
and how to build sustainableinfrastructure.
And so that is also one of myfavorite projects and stories to
tell.
Um, but I know Carlin andSabrina, you have your own as
(20:54):
well.
So I'd love to hear what yourfavorite projects have been.
SPEAKER_03 (21:00):
Oh, thank you, Tara, for those.
Yes, I'm also holding backtears.
Um, it the process is superpowerful.
So you'll see.
Like that's why we had to narrowdown our stories.
Um, one that I will share, um,when I started, I actually
started in a fully elementaryschool district, which I don't
know if we've um mentioned up tothis point because we've talked
(21:20):
a lot about the processhappening in the high school
settings.
Tara has mentioned at the juniorhigh middle school levels too.
Um, but kiddos as young askindergartners, and we've even
heard like some pre-K classes,maybe as a class, maybe not as
individuals, have also been umdoing this process.
And we think that just shows thepower of this truly like pre-K
(21:40):
or K-12 initiative.
And can we even imagine ifkindergartners are getting these
types of civic opportunitiesevery year after they start as
kindergartners, what they willbe empowered to do as adults
when they're able to participatein the community and even before
then, right?
Um, there's ways that we canmake our voices heard and make
change in our communities beforewe're allowed to vote.
(22:03):
Um, so just to go to one quickstory, um, at that K-8
Elementary School, FoleyElementary School District, one
of the sites, um, you know, alot of times this the adults
aren't using sometimes the samespaces as the students are.
So these students in their firstyear of bringing PB to their
school had like recess equipmenton their ballot, but they also
(22:25):
had bathroom mirrors.
And it was one of those umwinning projects that made it to
the ballot that came from thestudents, right?
That adults were just supersurprised about.
Um, and it actually ended upbeing the winning project.
I remember being there on theirum vote day, and as they were
announcing it across the campus,um, folks were doing drum rolls
(22:46):
and all the classes were on Zoomtogether as they were ending the
day and making the announcement.
And when they said the bathroommirrors, like you could hear the
whole school roar.
And I think something as simpleas like a space where students
can be able to engage withthemselves.
I'm thinking they might not havehad like those clear types of
(23:07):
mirrors, like some you mightimagine some of the ones that
are at like a park where it'smore like reflective, but it's
not fully you.
Um, and the students wanted tochange that.
Um, I think that was a superpowerful example of a winning
project and how it made a realdifference on their community.
One of the other things we'veheard from the adults at that
campus, too, was that if therewere questions about how
(23:29):
students were taking care ofthings or maybe there was damage
that was done to some of theprevious mirrors, that the hope
was that because students votedon this project, that then they
would have some buy-in too ontaking care of what their
community looks like.
So I think that was a super umpowerful example.
And then the only the last thingI'll add there is that those
(23:51):
students actually like continuedthe process for two more years
after that.
And even when they had adulttransitions, so these are four
through eighth grade students,they had teacher transitions who
were supporting them through theprocess.
They did not skip a beat becausethey were, they learned the
process as young um students,were able to come back and
continue to share it withothers.
(24:13):
And then now they were reallyusing their voice and their
leadership to run this processwith or without, or, you know,
of course, not without, but withthe support of educators on the
side.
So I think it that example, notonly from like the surprise of
what the project actually was,and that students come up with
very meaningful ways to usefunds, but also that they're
(24:36):
learning their own leadershipthrough this process and they
can carry that with them, likeyou said, Liz, um, forever,
honestly.
SPEAKER_00 (24:46):
Well, I have one story I want to share, and I
think this one I resonates withme because it's in a community
that I used to teach in as well,in Tulison.
And it's um it's one thathappened.
Well, I've been here at CFA, soum I'm happy to share this
story.
It's about West Point HighSchool.
Um, they had their pilot processlast school year, and I really
(25:09):
feel like it shows thedifference that the PB process
made into the broader community.
Um, under the guidance of theircoordinator, Gabriela Cabrera,
the um she really createdopportunities for those students
to connect what they learnedthrough the PB process to
broader um communityinvolvement.
(25:33):
One example is they took a fieldtrip to the Maricopa County
Tabulation and Election Center,and they learned how ballots are
processed.
They learned about differentways to make voting more
accessible.
And the students on their ownwent back to their PB process
and found ways to implement thatlearning.
(25:53):
They created like an earlyvoting uh ballot, an absentee
ballot.
And then they made sure that thestudents in like self-contained
classes had the opportunity tovote too by creating a special
ballot for those students.
Um, then another thing that theydid was they had students
participate in the junior deputyregister program, where you 16
(26:16):
and older are trained uh toregister anyone uh who is
eligible to vote, um, toregister those voters.
And they hosted voterregistration drives at their
school carnival duringhomecoming and at other
community events like theirtrunk or tree.
Um, and they even registeredteachers, they registered
(26:39):
parents.
So they really started buildingbridges between the school and
the wider community.
And on their SPB vote day, inwhich took place in about six
and a half hours, theyregistered 250 new youth voters.
Uh, and so we just see theripple effects of that
continuing to grow.
Uh, the year prior, they hadzero students get the civic
(27:03):
literacy skill seal on theirdiploma.
And in that first pilot year ofdoing PD, they had 20 students
do it.
So it just continues to show howhow impactful this can be for
our student learning and thebroader community.
And this is their second yearimplementing this year, and we
are so excited to see what's tocome for them.
SPEAKER_02 (27:26):
And I know this is an audio podcast, but I wish
it's also touching to us as theadults, right?
Because every time somebody'stelling a story, we're nodding,
we're tearing up, because it iswe take for granted how powerful
students can be.
And I love that we're talkingabout elementary and middle
school and high school and allof them participating.
(27:49):
And I appreciate that the ummirrors was brought up because
we talk about kids taking careof things.
It kind of leads me to my nextquestion.
What challenges come withimplementing school
participatory budgeting?
And how do you make the processinclusive for all students?
(28:09):
So those with disabilities orstudents who are traditionally
underrepresented.
SPEAKER_01 (28:19):
Yeah, I think big picture, there's lots of
challenges, but I think, Liz,you can also relate to this as
an educator that this is alwaysin competition to educator time,
capacity.
And if it's not also in line orrecognized to be in line with
the school's mission or vision,oftentimes, or how that is, you
(28:40):
know, aligning with uhinitiatives and priorities that
are happening within that schoolor district, then that sometimes
is a challenge to really getthis process started.
Um, we also understand thebalancing of multiple
priorities, and so some of thatis a um a re-lensing or a
reframing of how this shouldn't,to your point, Liz, be an
(29:01):
add-on, right?
Like it should beinstitutionalized, it should be
ingrained, like this isliterally something that could
be done in existence to youknow, classes and programs and
already learning taking, youknow, across that campus.
So I think that's also umsomething to think about when we
specifically look at the adultson campus.
We talk a lot about studentagency and student voice through
(29:23):
this process.
And I know, Liz, you actuallysaid at the beginning that you
facilitated alongside students,right?
You were not the stage on thestage.
You were not telling students,we are doing this, these are the
things that you should be doingfor projects.
This is so much a decentering ofadults that sometimes that
adultism can come into play.
(29:46):
And that also has been achallenge in communicating how
students really are the leadersof this particular process.
Um, there's a lot of, you know,conversation around how does
that look?
You know, how much give and takeand power.
And again, every school has theability to, you know, implement
this process according to theirown context, but we really do
(30:06):
try to emphasize the idea thatthis is a student-driven
process.
Um, the other challenge thatcomes into play is the idea
around funding.
So when we talk to schoolpartners around, you know, you
set aside a certain amount ofyour budget, a lot of school
partners think that, oh, I needto go find more money to do this
(30:26):
particular process.
And that actually is not thecase because we're asking folks
to think, to rethink on howbudgetary decisions are made,
right?
Like there's money that's beingspent on school campuses every
year.
Sometimes there might be, youknow, a working group of parents
involved, or there might be someconsultation with students, but
(30:47):
it's not truly a budget lineitem or a section of a budget
set aside for students.
And so it's more so rethinkingthat design process of the
budgetary decision model to havestudents central to that
decision.
And so that I think has been oneof the larger issues that we've
seen.
We also want to make sure thatall student voices are heard
(31:11):
when these budgetary decisionsare being made.
So to really think about who hashistorically not been involved
in these decision makingprocesses on schools.
We like to encourage schooldistricts and uh partners to
think about who are your notusual suspects, right?
Like not just student governmentstudents or students in, you
know, National Honor Societythat are already getting these
(31:34):
amazing leadership experiences.
But how can we kind of findthose diamonds in the rough that
just need a little opportunityto shine and realize that they
also have leadership capacity?
And so really thinking about,you know, students who are
English language learners,because this really could be an
accessible process.
Students with disabilities, as Ishared before, uh, through that
(31:55):
process, you know, with theschool therapy dog, but just in
general, uh, students that havenot been able to have their
voices heard.
SPEAKER_03 (32:04):
Yeah, and I can add on to that too, especially
around like the challenges whenwe're within implementing the
process.
I think Tara was just talkingabout um sometimes a challenge
that comes up with identifyingthose students who will be on
the steering committee is one,being able to keep them
throughout the school year,because usually the process will
go from the fall through thespring, but there is definitely
(32:27):
different iterations of how thatcan look based on each school
community.
We really do like to say thatthe SPB process can be designed
by your school community foryour school community because it
truly can be.
It's it's highly malleable andadaptable in that type of way.
Um, but that also means likethere sometimes challenges for
making for sure that you cankeep and retain students on that
(32:49):
steering committee.
So sometimes that just lookslike how you design when you'll
meet, maybe not doing afterschool because they might end up
having competing prioritiesdepending on those types of
students that you're trying toengage.
Um, maybe having it in theclassroom model, but then those
students didn't necessarily signup for it.
They might have been voluntoldthat they'll be doing it.
(33:10):
So I think the second part ofthat challenge, too, is just
making for sure that you canengage the students over the
process as well.
So not just retaining them andbeing able to design a meeting
structure and frequency and uh agroup norms and things like that
that can invite students fromall walks of life to be able to
be able to be a part of thesteering committee, but also to
(33:30):
engage them throughout theprocess.
Um, but I think, like you bothmentioned, what some of the ways
that we encourage our educatorsand being intentional about this
is just how they can thinkcreatively of being that guide
on the side and in impartingkind of that wisdom and some
guidance for the students tothink about how they can engage
(33:51):
throughout the process.
So that might look liketranslating materials into the
languages that students speak ontheir campus or creating
multiple ways to share ideas,like drawing a picture instead
of having to write out what youwould say, especially when we're
thinking about some of thosekindergartners who are filling
out their idea collection too.
Like maybe just let them have alittle bit more creativity in
(34:12):
the way that they collect thoseideas.
Um, also hosting town hallswhere students have the
opportunity to discuss amongstone another and deliberate on
what's going to be on theirballots and what they can vote
for.
So, some of that we just say,you know, thinking that
creatively of how you can engagestudents, how they can be the
leaders in their process, andthen ensure that the students
(34:34):
really represent the diversityof the student body that they're
um, that they're leadingalongside of.
I mean, I mean, Sabrinamentioned some of these stories
too, of just like at West PointHigh School, where students,
when they are given thatopportunity to be able to think
inclusively about other folks,um, to be able to be creative in
the ways that they can um maketheir ballots and host their
(34:55):
vote days, like those types ofthings make it really um
powerful for them to be able tokind of engage in the process as
well.
Um, and then the last thing I'llmention is just we really do ask
the students to, we challengethem to ask themselves, like,
who else is missing?
Whose voices are we notconsidering?
(35:16):
Um, and I think that's reallywhat makes SPB so powerful.
It's not just this budgetingexercise, but it's a real
democratic practice.
And the students are making forsure that it's not just their
perspective as the studentleaders on the steering
committee, but also that they'rebeing representative of their
student body and sometimes theirschool community at large, too,
depending on who all isparticipating in their process.
SPEAKER_02 (35:41):
I love that.
And I love that you talk aboutcivic skills because I think
sometimes teachers getrightfully so caught up in well,
it's not in the curriculum, um,but but it is like we just have
to be creative with how we lookbecause it really does.
Civic skills really really dospan all sorts of state
(36:02):
standards.
So, what impact have you seen onstudent civic skills, the school
culture, and a sense of agency?
SPEAKER_01 (36:13):
I'm so glad that you asked this question, Liz, and
that you prefaced it, that theseare things that are measurable
according to standards, right?
I mean, even just looking at thesocial study standards, all of
those interdisciplinary skillsand processes, that's all civic
skills.
And then when you dial down intospecific grade levels, right,
there's like literally writtenin there, as Carlin talked
(36:36):
about, like the need to havestudents exposed and engaged in
deliberative forums and civicdiscourse.
So, I mean, this is inherent towhat students are already
learning.
Um, and so I get to, in my rolenow, um, that I'm at the
teachers' college at ASU isassist the Center for the Future
(36:57):
of Arizona on the measurementaround these specific civic
skills.
And so what we've done is we'vecreated lots of opportunities to
be able to gather data alongsideschool districts, teachers, and
students.
And we've really been able tolook at the student steering
committee specifically and theirgrowth across their civic
(37:19):
skills, civic efficacy, civicconfidence.
And it's really exciting to seeall of the gains that students
come out of post-schoolparticipatory budgeting.
So we actually have a frameworkcalled the CASP, which is really
it, you know, there's differentkinds of uh semantics that come
into how this is set up, butit's you know inherent to every
(37:41):
single kind of civicmeasurement.
So we have our knowledge, right?
Civic knowledge.
Do students know more about youknow rules and how they're made
at their school?
Are students more aware of, youknow, what a democracy is and
how they can engage?
So all of these kind ofinstitutionalized processes and
infrastructures are measuredwithin that knowledge aspect.
And then we also have attitudes,right?
(38:02):
Which again, other kind offrameworks might call it, you
know, dispositions or values.
But in terms of attitudes, youknow, are they building empathy?
Are they, as you know, Sabrinaand Carlin talked about,
thinking of other students attheir school and broadly beyond
themselves, what their schoolcommunity might need.
And then we also have civicskills, which really are, and I
(38:23):
hate this term, but a lot ofpeople call them, you know,
quote unquote soft skills foremployability.
They really are skills that arevery needed on the day-to-day
and actually are what employersare looking for more nowadays.
Um, but skills like publicspeaking, being able to work in
a team with, you know,collaborative experiences, um,
being able to do research, allof these things, you know,
(38:44):
project management.
And so we measure thoseunderneath our skills aspect of
the framework.
And then, of course, practices.
And these are really kind ofthose behaviors, those
day-to-day actions and how theyshow up students themselves,
right, within their schoolcommunities.
You know, are they more apt totalk to students who they didn't
talk to before?
Are they more apt to use theirvoice to talk to educators
(39:06):
about, you know, problems thatthey're seeing in their school
and they're they're advocatingfor change, right?
Are we seeing kind of apropensity that they're saying,
I'm going to register to vote assoon as I'm able to?
Or am I going to pursue a careerin some type of public service
or community-driven outlook,right?
So these are things that we'remeasuring across this particular
framework.
(39:27):
And I'll say we've had hugegains across every single one of
these areas.
You know, students are reportingthat they feel more confident to
be able to speak out aboutissues within their community
and on behalf, you know, ofother students' needs.
They're, you know, more apt tohave leadership skills broadly
and that they're actually, youknow, wanting to put those
leadership skills into usepost-high school in some type of
(39:50):
career or even like theircollege pursuits and their
voting pursuits.
And then obviously theircollaboration and being able to
think about how am I engaging onthe day-to-day within my school
community.
And so across the board, I, youknow, we have anywhere from 40
to 50 indicators that studentsare showing these huge gains.
And it's always super excitingto be able to see what they're
(40:10):
reporting out post-the process.
And we capture this throughagain various ways, whether it's
focus groups or surveys orinterviews, and then also
observations.
I know our team comes out andtries to support schools, you
know, as our schedules allow,but really being on the ground
and listening to students'stories and educator stories are
also something that we reallyhold dear to being able to
(40:32):
support schools with thisprocess.
I think it's important tohighlight, and I know we've kind
of alluded to it, is this ideaof the civic opportunity gap,
right?
It's not an achievement gap,which you can't achieve what you
don't have an opportunity toachieve.
And so school participatorybudgeting carves out that
opportunity and really intendsto enclose that gap by having
(40:53):
all students participate in thispowerful process.
And so, again, this comes backto the not usual suspects,
ensuring that, you know, all theideas and the process itself is
driven by students and thatreally they're looking to make a
change within their immediateschool culture that then lends
itself to this broader societalculture.
(41:13):
And I think that that's the mostexciting part is thinking about
these long-term aspects as well.
SPEAKER_02 (41:20):
I also hate the term soft skills because I feel like
they're actually just skillsneeded.
And when you said projectmanagement, Tara, as somebody
who is a project manager, Iactually thought back to when my
students were doing it and I waslike, the skills, the workplace
skills that they were learningin doing this, and these project
management skills are soapparent now.
(41:43):
Now, again, now that I'm aproject manager, but these are
skills that students might nothave been able to practice or
might not have been able todevelop without this school
participatory budgeting.
So it's so funny, like talkingto you all now.
I mean, I'm five years out ofthe classroom, but I can still
remember these things and I knowwhere my students, you know, the
(42:06):
that group of students is.
And I'm like, yeah, because alot of them are doing really
amazing things.
And I saw it when they wereseniors because they had these
skills.
So looking ahead, how is ASU'sTeacher College and the Center
for the Future of Arizonaplanning to grow school
participatory budgeting acrossArizona?
(42:27):
And if other states are like,hey, this is kind of cool, what
lessons could they learn andtake from this work?
SPEAKER_03 (42:36):
Yeah, I'm happy to kick us off.
I think we're really excitedabout the momentum that SPB has
like both had in Arizona in thepast and as it has been a leader
in the country as well, as Taramentioned.
So, our goal, of course, is tocontinue to build the coalition
of the willing to share andchampion this process as much as
(42:57):
we can so that more districtsand students across Arizona can
see it as a key part of beingable to build student voice and
have a really high-quality civiclearning experience as well.
I know Sabrina mentioned in thepast that the Arizona Seal of
Civic Literacy, our programbeing one of the many that is
(43:19):
available for Arizona studentsto be able to contribute towards
that seal of civic literacy,makes us really proud.
And we see those numbers havebeen going up over the last
years as we also have beenhighly sharing about that
opportunity, especially for ourhigh school students.
Um, I think some of the otherthings that we're considering,
of course, as we continue toplant the seeds and support
(43:43):
processes that grow is providingthat educator professional
development to more of theteachers, the school leaders.
We haven't mentioned, you know,we've had librarians who have
run the process alongside thestudents.
So just making for sure that alleducators who are interested in
being able to support thisprocess have the tools and
resources and knowledge thatthey need to be able to bring it
(44:06):
to fruition with fidelity aswell.
Um, and we know that that takestime too.
You start, you know, youpractice it, you implement it.
And then, like you mentioned,there's things that you look
back on and you're like, oh, Icould have done this
differently, or educators arelearning from one another with
what Sabrina had mentionedearlier, which are really
innovative approaches to howthey integrate the process into
(44:27):
the school communities.
So I think we'll continue todocument those, um, help support
the educator professionaldevelopment, and of course,
alongside a lot of other civiceducation partners here in
Arizona, be able to empower oureducators and our school
communities to take on theseprocesses.
And hopefully, what we share alot too is that they can then
(44:48):
institutionalize them.
So we hope that over time theydon't need us as much.
Um, hopefully, we're just thereas cheerleaders and champions
for their process, but now theyhave the skills that they need
to be able to adapt it to theirschool community and continue it
without our support, hopefully,over time, which I think is
really um powerful and a reallysystems-level way of thinking
(45:09):
about how folks can adopt theprocess.
Um, we're also really focused.
I think when you mentioned uhother states who are interested
in it, yes, we've already hadfolks who have shared or
requested, you know, moreinformation or coaching or
conversations with us about whatit can look like in other
communities across the country.
Um, one of the things that we'vebeen working on is really
(45:31):
building our online resourcehub.
It has kind of worked in it fortwo ways, both to be able to
provide a one-stop shop for theeducators who are implementing
the process, to access lessonplans, activities, templates.
There's like email guides.
There's so much information.
It probably is a little bitoverwhelming.
Um, but we try to like put thatall into one space.
(45:52):
And what we're hoping to do tooin the next few years is be able
to share those resources andkind of our playbook of how we
support school communitiesacross Arizona with other states
and others who are interested inreplicating that or looking at
how it can look in theircommunity.
So being able to bring thattogether, like our unique
ecosystem that happens in thispartnership with you know, you
(46:15):
know, AESU, a university kind ofpractitioner nonprofit at CFA,
for us to be able to share ourinsights and lessons learned of
how we work together to makethis possible in Arizona, I
think will be what we're whatwe're hoping to showcase to in
that playbook.
SPEAKER_01 (46:34):
I do want to give a shout out to Sabrina and Carlin
for building out so many ofthese accessible kind of
platforms and resources.
I know that it was last summerwe kicked off our first like
in-person, you know,professional development
intensive workshop that we didwith educators and Chandler.
And then from there have, youknow, really offered a wide
(46:56):
variety of other ways that, youknow, educators can learn about
the process.
Um, I don't know, Sabrina, ifyou want to talk a bit about how
you've put together a lot of,you know, almost asynchronous
videos for educators.
We've had some online, um, youknow, weekly type of meetups.
Um, so yeah, I just I want tosay that they've really upped
the access in being able tospread the word around how to
(47:18):
implement school PB.
SPEAKER_00 (47:21):
Yes.
Uh some of the resources thatwe've newly created are these
asechness training videos thatteachers or principals or even
school leaders who areimplementing PB can go in and
watch a video just about each ofthe phases.
(47:41):
And it really breaks it downinto smaller pieces so that
teachers and students aregetting exactly what they need
at that point in the process.
Um, another thing is we have amonthly professional learning
community where educators acrossthe state who are doing PB can
come together and learn from oneanother.
(48:03):
What are some of the challengesthat we can work through
together?
Or what are some of the thingsthat are working really well in
your process?
And how can we uh have otherteachers also do that and build
upon it?
So those are some of the thingsthat we are working on
currently.
SPEAKER_02 (48:21):
And I do want to say, like, I'm looking at this,
these videos are not long.
The longest video is fourminutes.
So it is, they're verydigestible and very like I think
user-friendly, right?
If somebody's just like, Iwonder what this is, I mean, I'm
I've been looking at the page.
There's so much here thatanybody who's interested can see
(48:43):
impact, they can see how it'sdone.
There's news articles in here.
I mean, there is so muchavailable on this page that can
be helpful to whether you're anadministrator, um, a parent,
like a teacher, whatever thatlooks like.
Is there so before we kind ofclose out, because and I will
(49:04):
put that link in our show notes.
Um I do want to say, if you'relistening to this and you're
like, that sounds really nice,but I just don't have the time.
Let me tell you something.
I taught AP government in asemester.
I did this spring semester.
Spring semester, I have 10 lessdays with my students because of
breaks.
(49:24):
They have their AP tests, youknow, the the very first one.
Spring is was my like shortesttime to teach kids.
I cannot overstate, and I'm notbeing paid to do this.
I just this program was soimpactful.
I cannot overstate the skillsand the processes that these AP
(49:49):
kids got, and they were anamazing group of kids because
they just were I saw in their APtest.
And that was the year that theyhad to take their AP test
online.
Like there's a lot of just, itwas scary.
The world shut down.
It was so impactful.
And if I was still in theclassroom, I would still do it,
(50:10):
even if it took time out of myspring semester with my AP Gov
kids because of the genuineimpact I saw on my classroom and
I saw on our school as a whole.
Like it's cool.
My daughter goes to that schoolnow and she fills up her water
in something that my students,you know, made sure was there.
(50:33):
And the students at Batcha HighSchool in 2019, 2020 voted on.
And I think that that is it'ssuch a big deal.
And I don't, I just I can'toversell this enough.
I also want to say that I, as ateacher, felt so supported by
the center.
(50:53):
Um, I felt just supported ingeneral.
I didn't feel like it wassomething thrust upon me, extra
thing I had to do.
I had supports all the waythrough, and I was.
I was a facilitator of learning.
And there were things I neededto do because I was the adult in
the room and emails.
But for the most part, this wascompletely student-led.
As somebody who's also taughtkindergarten, I could do this in
(51:16):
a kindergarten classroom.
Little kids, they have opinionsand they they have a sense of
justice and they want to dothese things and they don't want
to be told you're too young,whatever else.
So I am so happy we finally didthis because, you know, I taught
for 17 years.
(51:37):
I got to do a lot of really coolthings, but I wish that every
school in our state did this.
And I really, really hope thatthis is something that spreads
nationwide because it's notpartisan.
It is an ability to participatein a political process that
doesn't invite all of that in,right?
(51:58):
It is about the students, it isabout what they think, and that
is so incredibly powerful.
Sabrina, Carlin, Tara, thankyou, thank you, thank you so
much.
And listeners, I will make surethat this, these show notes are
full of everything you couldever want.
And I really hope that a teacherlistens to this and reaches out
(52:21):
because this program is amazing.
Like it genuinely is.
So thank you so much for yourexpertise and for your passion.
Because I know people can't seeus, but we're all smiling, we're
nodding every time somebody'stalking.
So thank you so much.
SPEAKER_03 (52:38):
Thank you.
Thank you for having us.
SPEAKER_02 (52:40):
Thank you, Liz.
Welcome to the Arizona Civics podcast.
I am stoked to talk to thesethree ladies today because they
do something incredibly amazingand it's something I've actually
got to participate in.
So today we have Tara Bartlett,Sabrina Estrada, and Carlin
Thresher.
And they're going to be talkingabout school participatory
(01:13):
budgeting.
And if you're like, Liz, I haveno idea what that is, that's
okay, because that's what we'regoing to talk about today.
But my favorite thing, one of myfavorite things that I did
teaching in the 2019, 2020school year, I got an email from
my administrator and he's like,hey, there's this thing called
school participatory budgeting.
Um, do you want to do it?
(01:33):
And I was like, sure.
I had seniors, they were AP, andthey absolutely ran with it.
I, as a teacher, just had to, Imean, facilitate my class.
Um, but it ended up being thisreally cool, engaging thing to
do right before the pandemic.
Um, and it was probably one ofthe more memorable things we've
(01:54):
done, and so memorable thatthere is a, you know, there's
pieces of it on our campus.
So the district said, here's aset-aside budget.
Um, my students came up withdifferent campaigns to have
things on the ballot, created aballot, and we had an 85% voter
(02:14):
turnout at our school.
And the thing that the studentschose was water bottle refilling
stations because they were tiredof the plastic, as I have my
water here.
They were tired of the plastic,they wanted the refillers, but
in a close second place uh wereAEDs because at our school the
(02:34):
year prior, we had a studentthat had a cardiac event, and
the closest AED was acrosscampus.
The district and my principalwere so appreciative of the
students because they had thisthing in the gym where kids came
in and voted.
We had kids sign up to uhactually vote that were going to
be of age, but the district andthe principal liked it so much
(02:57):
that they funded both becausethey were just so impressed by
the kids.
So I feel like everybody needsto know about this.
So I have these three amazingwomen here to talk about it.
So the first question isprobably what people are
wondering about.
What is school participatorybudgeting and how did it first
take root here in Arizona?
SPEAKER_01 (03:20):
Yeah, I'll go ahead and answer that.
And thanks, Liz, for hosting ustoday.
Uh, my name is Tara Bartlett.
I'm currently professor in theArizona State University College
for Teaching and LearningInnovation.
And just like Liz, I had thewonderful experience of first
encountering schoolparticipatory budgeting on the
educator side.
And I was working with middleschool students.
(03:42):
I did that process for threeyears.
And during those three years, Isaw such incredible gains across
my students through agency,efficacy, and really greater
engagement within theirclassroom and the school campus
broadly, that that was actuallythe impetus of me wanting to
then jump into doing a PhD andactually studying this
phenomenon and student voicewithin school spaces broadly.
(04:05):
And so school participatorybudgeting for me is one of those
outstanding civic learningprograms.
It really derives from ahands-on process that, as I
said, really talks about, youknow, how do we improve student
agency?
How do we improve their voiceand engagement within school
communities?
But then for the long term, howcan we get them to see
themselves as change makers andhave that efficacy to be able to
(04:28):
make change within their greatercommunity?
On the actual learning side,what I saw for my students was
teamwork, collaboration,critical thinking skills, and
also empathy in thinking about,you know, what do other students
on my campus encounter and need?
And so I think altogether, thatreally paints this picture of
school participatory budgetingas a win for engaging young
(04:50):
people to be prepared in civiclife for the long term.
And so what we say with partnersat Center for the Future of
Arizona, who will be sharing ina bit, we call this this
learning by democracy, learningdemocracy by doing process.
And that students themselves areactually doing democracy on
their school campus, but at thesame time learning about what is
democracy, right?
(05:11):
What does that look like and howcan I be a part of that?
And actually, schoolparticipatory budgeting is not a
phenomenon in of itself.
It derives from a municipalmodel, the participatory
budgeting model, um, thathappens across cities and towns
and communities worldwide.
It actually started, I thinkit's nearly been 40 years ago,
actually, in Porto Alegre,Brazil.
(05:34):
And in that particular context,the city of Porto Alegre decided
to set aside a budget of theircity for city residents to
decide how to spend.
And it was actually from thatmodel that people began to say,
we need better health care andwe need better sanitation in our
city.
And some of the facts andfigures that came out of that
(05:55):
were amazing.
The infant mortality ratedecreased by nearly 20% within
the city.
Um, sanitation went up to nearly90% 98% of homes having
sanitation instilled.
And so just those key takeawayswere enough to spread this
phenomenon across the world.
But what's really cool is thatthe school version actually
(06:16):
started here in Arizona.
So in 2013, a principal atBioscience High School heard
about this for one of thelongtime engaging folks within
the school participatorybudgeting and participatory
budgeting world broadly,Danielle Shagarensky, was
teaching a class at ArizonaState University.
And this particular principalwas taking this course and heard
(06:38):
about the municipal model.
And so the principal, Dr.
Quintin Boyce, decided, well,why are we not doing this with
young people in schools, right?
I'm going to set aside a budgetand have my students do this
process.
And so that was in 2013.
Since then, school PB has spreadacross Arizona, across the US,
and really the globe.
(06:59):
And in 2016 was really when theParticipatory Budgeting Project,
the Center for the Future ofArizona, and Daniel Shogarinsky
at Arizona States UniversityParticipatory Governance
Initiative came together to helpseed and feed this process.
I think Liz, in terms ofChandler, that you were right
behind that in 2016 havingstarted.
(07:21):
I know myself as an educator inMesa, we started in 2015.
So there was already this kindof underlying ecosystem of it
spreading across Arizona.
And now we have, you know,upwards of 80 plus schools
statewide doing this process.
And I know that we work closely,I'm on the ASU side, but with
Center for the Future ofArizona.
(07:42):
And I know that, Carlin, you canprobably speak better to this,
is that this process really uhseeds and feeds what we call
civic health.
And I know that CFA has been alongtime um proponent for that.
SPEAKER_03 (07:56):
Yeah, and I'm happy to jump in.
Thank you so much for having us,Liz.
I'm Carlin Thrasher.
I'm our project manager forCivic Health at Center for the
Future of Arizona.
Um, and exactly what Tara hasbeen saying, I I actually
started at CFA around 2022.
So this was kind of post a lotof this expansion and growth
that was going to otherdistricts as folks were just
(08:17):
hearing how powerful thisprocess was.
Um and it got to me too, fromacross the country, actually.
And I ended up moving to Arizonain 2021 with my then boyfriend,
now husband, and heard aboutthis work and saw it as just a
really powerful way to be ableto engage young people in trust
(08:37):
building in their communities.
And um I really came from a lotof the bridge building spaces
and um national service spacestoo, before I started at CFA.
And I saw, especially with someof the young adults that I was
working with, some of thatdisconnection with the trust in
institutions, the trust in beingable to see that we can make a
difference.
(08:57):
And this process just providedthe answer, in my opinion, to be
able to practice a lot of thethings that we preach about
democracy and how democraticpractices can look.
Um and I just thought it wassuper, super exciting as a
program.
And so I wanted to be a part ofit.
So I started as a programcoordinator at CFA in 2022.
And around that time, what Tarawas mentioning, and you know, as
(09:20):
I was learning about our skin inthe game at CFA, was around what
civic health can look like.
And so at CFA, we just we definecivic health as the way people
come together to solve publicproblems.
And what we see as reallypromising with School PB is that
is an opportunity to practiceall of these skills and
(09:41):
competencies that Arizonans wantto see from our leaders.
Um, and we know that our leadersin our school communities, our
both our educators and thestudents, are going to be those
community members who make adifference out in our community
for the long term.
And we know that investing inschool PB can have just, we hope
we will we started to see, aswe've been doing it for about 10
(10:03):
years now, um, we're starting tosee what kind of progress can be
made and how important andimpactful it can be for students
to learn this process and howschool cultures shift as well.
One of the greatest things thatwas happening when I started to
onboard was that we were seeingthat we needed to be able to
build the capacity of multipleeducators, multiple schools and
(10:26):
districts, whereas in the pastwe were only able to do that
kind of district by district,and as folks were um becoming
aware, um, people had reallyit's really started to pick up
through word of mouth, through alot of our um championing of the
process.
We go literally in any space wecan to talk about how powerful
SPV can be.
Um, and then had to change ourmodel, of course, to help meet
(10:48):
that so that we could expand towhat Tara mentioned, these 80
plus, and I mean this number isgrowing every day.
80 plus schools, um, hundreds ofthousands of Arizona students
who get to participate in thisprocess, which is super
impactful.
SPEAKER_02 (11:02):
I love how you talked about the culture shift
at a school because I do thinkit's really important for
students to feel an actual partof the school and that they can
affect changes and that they'renot just, you know, passive
participants in the democracythat is a school.
So, can we talk about how doesthe process work inside a
school?
So, from the kind of ideageneration to students casting
(11:25):
their vote.
SPEAKER_00 (11:27):
Awesome.
Yes, I can answer that.
Um, I'm so grateful to be here.
I'm Sabrina Estrada, and I'm thesenior program coordinator of
civic health at the Center forthe Future of Arizona.
And I've been here about a yearand a half.
So I am always I'm stilllearning, especially as our
amazing teachers and studentscontinue to innovate on this
(11:50):
process.
Um, but I'll dive in with alittle bit of how this process
looks in action.
So once a champion bringsparticipatory budgeting to their
school, and this can be astudent, a teacher, a principal,
or even a district leader orgoverning board member.
Um, the first step is buildingthat buy-in with key
(12:11):
stakeholders and securing abudget.
And from there, the process istruly student-led.
Uh, it all begins with a studentsteering committee, um, and they
get support from school staffand partners like CFA and ASU.
Um, and that steering committeeof students sets the project
(12:32):
parameters.
Um, they will announce theavailable budget and the purpose
to their whole school.
Uh so everyone, including uhteachers, staff, and students,
know what's going on.
Um, and then they open a callfor ideas.
How should we invest this moneyto improve our school community?
What are our school needs andhow can these funds address
(12:54):
those needs?
So once they start to get thoseideas coming in, the steering
committee will review them andnarrow them down to the top
options based on thoseparameters that they set, as
well as what is feasible.
Um, and then they turn thoseideas into full proposals.
So this is where they arecontacting vendors, researching
(13:17):
costs, uh establishing timelinesif a project needs to be
implemented and installed.
They're looking at thesustainability of a project and
the impact of that project ontheir school community needs.
Um, so then after projectproposals have been completed,
they're approved by their schoolleaders, and then they are
(13:38):
placed on a ballot.
Um, then at this point, studentswill shift into campaigning and
deliberation.
So they create campaignmaterials.
Uh, so everyone knows what'sgoing to be on their ballot,
everyone's aware and informed.
Um, they will talk with theirpeers to discuss the pros and
cons of each proposal.
Um, and we encourage them topractice that civil discourse
(14:00):
with one another.
Then comes uh the really bigmoment of their vote day.
Um schools often organize it uhlike a real election with
centralized voting areas.
They will have ballot boxes,voting booths, and even I voted
stickers.
Uh and the students will comeand they will get to select the
(14:23):
project that they want to seefor their school community.
And this is where students getto experience the power of their
vote in a tangible and memorableway.
Uh and then once those votes aretallied, the winning project is
announced, it is funded, and itis implemented.
So this is authentic change thatis happening at a school.
(14:44):
It's not a simulation.
Um, and after that, students,teachers, and other uh school
stakeholders will conduct anevaluation of their entire
process to reflect on what wentwell, what did they learn from
doing this process?
What areas of growth did thestudents experience?
And how do they want to improveit for their next cycle?
(15:06):
And something we emphasizethroughout every phase is that
students are not just deciding,you know, how to spend a budget,
but they're strengthening theircivic skills and learning how to
work collectively to improvetheir community and start
exercising those civic muscles.
SPEAKER_02 (15:25):
And I mean, I know I talked a little bit at the
beginning about my experience.
It was so fun as an APgovernment teacher to actually
have the curriculum come alive,right?
Instead of just sitting andtalking about it, students got
to actually participate in itand really kind of flex those
muscles that they wouldn't havedone, you know, in any other
(15:46):
way.
And, you know, for us, the thestudent that had the cardiac
event, he was fine, but thatbrought out this need.
And I think sometimes peopledon't understand.
If you give students agency,they will run with it.
And they're so incredible.
And this is why we got twoprojects funded, is because our
(16:06):
administration was like thepassion and the power and how
many students voted and howclose it was, showed that this
is actually something thestudents want and need.
So can you each share amemorable example of student-led
projects that made realdifferences in school
communities?
SPEAKER_01 (16:29):
Yeah, there are so many amazing examples as you
shared, Liz.
And having done this for severalyears with my own students and
then now broadly supportinginitiatives across the state,
there's so many projects I'dlove to talk about.
I'm gonna highlight two.
One that was one I did inpartnership with the school that
I had worked at and the studentsthat um I had worked with for
(16:52):
two years in seventh and eighthgrade.
And this project outcome wasactually a school therapy dog,
which is absolutely amazing.
And I know where dog peoplelive.
So, yes, I think this speaksreally, really greatly to our
love of dogs.
Um, but this was amazing becausethis particular project already
had an emphasis on inclusion.
And so we actually partneredwith the Arizona Developmental
(17:15):
Disabilities Planning Councilfor this particular school
participatory budgeting process.
And the goal was to make itinclusive.
And so we mindfully includedover 40% of the student steering
committee having a documenteddisability, and we
over-represented a sampling ofstudent groups who historically
had not had a voice inleadership positions or engaging
(17:39):
processes throughout the school.
And so, just by design, I feellike the voices that were
central to this process in thestudent steering committee
really drove this idea ofinclusion that came out in
several of the projects.
However, again, the winningproject was a school therapy
dog.
And that story doesn't stopthere because the entire school
(17:59):
district then adopted schooltherapy dogs across the district
to every single school, whichwas absolutely amazing to see
the 50 plus schools in thisschool district now serve
students' needs of, you know,mental health or being able to
practice reading and, you know,really instill the stronger idea
of academics alongside, youknow, reading a book to a dog.
(18:22):
It is just a really incrediblestory.
So yes, I know I'm gettingteary-eyed, Liz.
I can see you are too.
But that is one of my favorites.
Um, and that one was alsospecial because it was students
I had worked with for, again, anumber of years and their
families that also were includedin the vote that year.
The other one that I think isalso pretty amazing and I would
say really captures a lot of ourcommunities within Arizona was
(18:47):
done in partnership with theTahano Odham tribe down in
southern Arizona.
And this particular schoolactually had their Native
American student club run theprocess.
And they had other studentsengaged throughout, but their
voices were very central.
Their winning project wasactually a shade structure, but
they didn't go with, you know,your kind of fabricated metal,
(19:09):
you know, that kind of plastictype of, you know, netting type
of shade structure that you seeon typical school, you know,
playgrounds and, you know,different spaces across schools.
They actually decided to partnerwith the tribe and build a
Watho, which is an indigenousshade structure built from the
(20:11):
landscape, right?
So like a catillo branches andmesquite logs.
And it was incredible because,you know, this the school put
out a video where students areactually building alongside
tribal members.
Elders came out once it wasbuilt and actually blessed the
actual Watho structure andtalked about the significance of
representation on that schoolcommunity for those student
(20:33):
groups, and just really thinkingabout how that is a sustainable
piece of uh, you know, a projecton that school campus that
really brings in the fold of,you know, Arizona's ecosystem
and how to build sustainableinfrastructure.
And so that is also one of myfavorite projects and stories to
tell.
Um, but I know Carlin andSabrina, you have your own as
(20:54):
well.
So I'd love to hear what yourfavorite projects have been.
SPEAKER_03 (21:00):
Oh, thank you, Tara, for those.
Yes, I'm also holding backtears.
Um, it the process is superpowerful.
So you'll see.
Like that's why we had to narrowdown our stories.
Um, one that I will share, um,when I started, I actually
started in a fully elementaryschool district, which I don't
know if we've um mentioned up tothis point because we've talked
(21:20):
a lot about the processhappening in the high school
settings.
Tara has mentioned at the juniorhigh middle school levels too.
Um, but kiddos as young askindergartners, and we've even
heard like some pre-K classes,maybe as a class, maybe not as
individuals, have also been umdoing this process.
And we think that just shows thepower of this truly like pre-K
(21:40):
or K-12 initiative.
And can we even imagine ifkindergartners are getting these
types of civic opportunitiesevery year after they start as
kindergartners, what they willbe empowered to do as adults
when they're able to participatein the community and even before
then, right?
Um, there's ways that we canmake our voices heard and make
change in our communities beforewe're allowed to vote.
(22:03):
Um, so just to go to one quickstory, um, at that K-8
Elementary School, FoleyElementary School District, one
of the sites, um, you know, alot of times this the adults
aren't using sometimes the samespaces as the students are.
So these students in their firstyear of bringing PB to their
school had like recess equipmenton their ballot, but they also
(22:25):
had bathroom mirrors.
And it was one of those umwinning projects that made it to
the ballot that came from thestudents, right?
That adults were just supersurprised about.
Um, and it actually ended upbeing the winning project.
I remember being there on theirum vote day, and as they were
announcing it across the campus,um, folks were doing drum rolls
(22:46):
and all the classes were on Zoomtogether as they were ending the
day and making the announcement.
And when they said the bathroommirrors, like you could hear the
whole school roar.
And I think something as simpleas like a space where students
can be able to engage withthemselves.
I'm thinking they might not havehad like those clear types of
(23:07):
mirrors, like some you mightimagine some of the ones that
are at like a park where it'smore like reflective, but it's
not fully you.
Um, and the students wanted tochange that.
Um, I think that was a superpowerful example of a winning
project and how it made a realdifference on their community.
One of the other things we'veheard from the adults at that
campus, too, was that if therewere questions about how
(23:29):
students were taking care ofthings or maybe there was damage
that was done to some of theprevious mirrors, that the hope
was that because students votedon this project, that then they
would have some buy-in too ontaking care of what their
community looks like.
So I think that was a super umpowerful example.
And then the only the last thingI'll add there is that those
(23:51):
students actually like continuedthe process for two more years
after that.
And even when they had adulttransitions, so these are four
through eighth grade students,they had teacher transitions who
were supporting them through theprocess.
They did not skip a beat becausethey were, they learned the
process as young um students,were able to come back and
continue to share it withothers.
(24:13):
And then now they were reallyusing their voice and their
leadership to run this processwith or without, or, you know,
of course, not without, but withthe support of educators on the
side.
So I think it that example, notonly from like the surprise of
what the project actually was,and that students come up with
very meaningful ways to usefunds, but also that they're
(24:36):
learning their own leadershipthrough this process and they
can carry that with them, likeyou said, Liz, um, forever,
honestly.
SPEAKER_00 (24:46):
Well, I have one story I want to share, and I
think this one I resonates withme because it's in a community
that I used to teach in as well,in Tulison.
And it's um it's one thathappened.
Well, I've been here at CFA, soum I'm happy to share this
story.
It's about West Point HighSchool.
Um, they had their pilot processlast school year, and I really
(25:09):
feel like it shows thedifference that the PB process
made into the broader community.
Um, under the guidance of theircoordinator, Gabriela Cabrera,
the um she really createdopportunities for those students
to connect what they learnedthrough the PB process to
broader um communityinvolvement.
(25:33):
One example is they took a fieldtrip to the Maricopa County
Tabulation and Election Center,and they learned how ballots are
processed.
They learned about differentways to make voting more
accessible.
And the students on their ownwent back to their PB process
and found ways to implement thatlearning.
(25:53):
They created like an earlyvoting uh ballot, an absentee
ballot.
And then they made sure that thestudents in like self-contained
classes had the opportunity tovote too by creating a special
ballot for those students.
Um, then another thing that theydid was they had students
participate in the junior deputyregister program, where you 16
(26:16):
and older are trained uh toregister anyone uh who is
eligible to vote, um, toregister those voters.
And they hosted voterregistration drives at their
school carnival duringhomecoming and at other
community events like theirtrunk or tree.
Um, and they even registeredteachers, they registered
(26:39):
parents.
So they really started buildingbridges between the school and
the wider community.
And on their SPB vote day, inwhich took place in about six
and a half hours, theyregistered 250 new youth voters.
Uh, and so we just see theripple effects of that
continuing to grow.
Uh, the year prior, they hadzero students get the civic
(27:03):
literacy skill seal on theirdiploma.
And in that first pilot year ofdoing PD, they had 20 students
do it.
So it just continues to show howhow impactful this can be for
our student learning and thebroader community.
And this is their second yearimplementing this year, and we
are so excited to see what's tocome for them.
SPEAKER_02 (27:26):
And I know this is an audio podcast, but I wish
it's also touching to us as theadults, right?
Because every time somebody'stelling a story, we're nodding,
we're tearing up, because it iswe take for granted how powerful
students can be.
And I love that we're talkingabout elementary and middle
school and high school and allof them participating.
(27:49):
And I appreciate that the ummirrors was brought up because
we talk about kids taking careof things.
It kind of leads me to my nextquestion.
What challenges come withimplementing school
participatory budgeting?
And how do you make the processinclusive for all students?
(28:09):
So those with disabilities orstudents who are traditionally
underrepresented.
SPEAKER_01 (28:19):
Yeah, I think big picture, there's lots of
challenges, but I think, Liz,you can also relate to this as
an educator that this is alwaysin competition to educator time,
capacity.
And if it's not also in line orrecognized to be in line with
the school's mission or vision,oftentimes, or how that is, you
(28:40):
know, aligning with uhinitiatives and priorities that
are happening within that schoolor district, then that sometimes
is a challenge to really getthis process started.
Um, we also understand thebalancing of multiple
priorities, and so some of thatis a um a re-lensing or a
reframing of how this shouldn't,to your point, Liz, be an
(29:01):
add-on, right?
Like it should beinstitutionalized, it should be
ingrained, like this isliterally something that could
be done in existence to youknow, classes and programs and
already learning taking, youknow, across that campus.
So I think that's also umsomething to think about when we
specifically look at the adultson campus.
We talk a lot about studentagency and student voice through
(29:23):
this process.
And I know, Liz, you actuallysaid at the beginning that you
facilitated alongside students,right?
You were not the stage on thestage.
You were not telling students,we are doing this, these are the
things that you should be doingfor projects.
This is so much a decentering ofadults that sometimes that
adultism can come into play.
(29:46):
And that also has been achallenge in communicating how
students really are the leadersof this particular process.
Um, there's a lot of, you know,conversation around how does
that look?
You know, how much give and takeand power.
And again, every school has theability to, you know, implement
this process according to theirown context, but we really do
(30:06):
try to emphasize the idea thatthis is a student-driven
process.
Um, the other challenge thatcomes into play is the idea
around funding.
So when we talk to schoolpartners around, you know, you
set aside a certain amount ofyour budget, a lot of school
partners think that, oh, I needto go find more money to do this
(30:26):
particular process.
And that actually is not thecase because we're asking folks
to think, to rethink on howbudgetary decisions are made,
right?
Like there's money that's beingspent on school campuses every
year.
Sometimes there might be, youknow, a working group of parents
involved, or there might be someconsultation with students, but
(30:47):
it's not truly a budget lineitem or a section of a budget
set aside for students.
And so it's more so rethinkingthat design process of the
budgetary decision model to havestudents central to that
decision.
And so that I think has been oneof the larger issues that we've
seen.
We also want to make sure thatall student voices are heard
(31:11):
when these budgetary decisionsare being made.
So to really think about who hashistorically not been involved
in these decision makingprocesses on schools.
We like to encourage schooldistricts and uh partners to
think about who are your notusual suspects, right?
Like not just student governmentstudents or students in, you
know, National Honor Societythat are already getting these
(31:34):
amazing leadership experiences.
But how can we kind of findthose diamonds in the rough that
just need a little opportunityto shine and realize that they
also have leadership capacity?
And so really thinking about,you know, students who are
English language learners,because this really could be an
accessible process.
Students with disabilities, as Ishared before, uh, through that
(31:55):
process, you know, with theschool therapy dog, but just in
general, uh, students that havenot been able to have their
voices heard.
SPEAKER_03 (32:04):
Yeah, and I can add on to that too, especially
around like the challenges whenwe're within implementing the
process.
I think Tara was just talkingabout um sometimes a challenge
that comes up with identifyingthose students who will be on
the steering committee is one,being able to keep them
throughout the school year,because usually the process will
go from the fall through thespring, but there is definitely
(32:27):
different iterations of how thatcan look based on each school
community.
We really do like to say thatthe SPB process can be designed
by your school community foryour school community because it
truly can be.
It's it's highly malleable andadaptable in that type of way.
Um, but that also means likethere sometimes challenges for
making for sure that you cankeep and retain students on that
(32:49):
steering committee.
So sometimes that just lookslike how you design when you'll
meet, maybe not doing afterschool because they might end up
having competing prioritiesdepending on those types of
students that you're trying toengage.
Um, maybe having it in theclassroom model, but then those
students didn't necessarily signup for it.
They might have been voluntoldthat they'll be doing it.
(33:10):
So I think the second part ofthat challenge, too, is just
making for sure that you canengage the students over the
process as well.
So not just retaining them andbeing able to design a meeting
structure and frequency and uh agroup norms and things like that
that can invite students fromall walks of life to be able to
be able to be a part of thesteering committee, but also to
(33:30):
engage them throughout theprocess.
Um, but I think, like you bothmentioned, what some of the ways
that we encourage our educatorsand being intentional about this
is just how they can thinkcreatively of being that guide
on the side and in impartingkind of that wisdom and some
guidance for the students tothink about how they can engage
(33:51):
throughout the process.
So that might look liketranslating materials into the
languages that students speak ontheir campus or creating
multiple ways to share ideas,like drawing a picture instead
of having to write out what youwould say, especially when we're
thinking about some of thosekindergartners who are filling
out their idea collection too.
Like maybe just let them have alittle bit more creativity in
(34:12):
the way that they collect thoseideas.
Um, also hosting town hallswhere students have the
opportunity to discuss amongstone another and deliberate on
what's going to be on theirballots and what they can vote
for.
So, some of that we just say,you know, thinking that
creatively of how you can engagestudents, how they can be the
leaders in their process, andthen ensure that the students
(34:34):
really represent the diversityof the student body that they're
um, that they're leadingalongside of.
I mean, I mean, Sabrinamentioned some of these stories
too, of just like at West PointHigh School, where students,
when they are given thatopportunity to be able to think
inclusively about other folks,um, to be able to be creative in
the ways that they can um maketheir ballots and host their
(34:55):
vote days, like those types ofthings make it really um
powerful for them to be able tokind of engage in the process as
well.
Um, and then the last thing I'llmention is just we really do ask
the students to, we challengethem to ask themselves, like,
who else is missing?
Whose voices are we notconsidering?
(35:16):
Um, and I think that's reallywhat makes SPB so powerful.
It's not just this budgetingexercise, but it's a real
democratic practice.
And the students are making forsure that it's not just their
perspective as the studentleaders on the steering
committee, but also that they'rebeing representative of their
student body and sometimes theirschool community at large, too,
depending on who all isparticipating in their process.
SPEAKER_02 (35:41):
I love that.
And I love that you talk aboutcivic skills because I think
sometimes teachers getrightfully so caught up in well,
it's not in the curriculum, um,but but it is like we just have
to be creative with how we lookbecause it really does.
Civic skills really really dospan all sorts of state
(36:02):
standards.
So, what impact have you seen onstudent civic skills, the school
culture, and a sense of agency?
SPEAKER_01 (36:13):
I'm so glad that you asked this question, Liz, and
that you prefaced it, that theseare things that are measurable
according to standards, right?
I mean, even just looking at thesocial study standards, all of
those interdisciplinary skillsand processes, that's all civic
skills.
And then when you dial down intospecific grade levels, right,
there's like literally writtenin there, as Carlin talked
(36:36):
about, like the need to havestudents exposed and engaged in
deliberative forums and civicdiscourse.
So, I mean, this is inherent towhat students are already
learning.
Um, and so I get to, in my rolenow, um, that I'm at the
teachers' college at ASU isassist the Center for the Future
(36:57):
of Arizona on the measurementaround these specific civic
skills.
And so what we've done is we'vecreated lots of opportunities to
be able to gather data alongsideschool districts, teachers, and
students.
And we've really been able tolook at the student steering
committee specifically and theirgrowth across their civic
(37:19):
skills, civic efficacy, civicconfidence.
And it's really exciting to seeall of the gains that students
come out of post-schoolparticipatory budgeting.
So we actually have a frameworkcalled the CASP, which is really
it, you know, there's differentkinds of uh semantics that come
into how this is set up, butit's you know inherent to every
(37:41):
single kind of civicmeasurement.
So we have our knowledge, right?
Civic knowledge.
Do students know more about youknow rules and how they're made
at their school?
Are students more aware of, youknow, what a democracy is and
how they can engage?
So all of these kind ofinstitutionalized processes and
infrastructures are measuredwithin that knowledge aspect.
And then we also have attitudes,right?
(38:02):
Which again, other kind offrameworks might call it, you
know, dispositions or values.
But in terms of attitudes, youknow, are they building empathy?
Are they, as you know, Sabrinaand Carlin talked about,
thinking of other students attheir school and broadly beyond
themselves, what their schoolcommunity might need.
And then we also have civicskills, which really are, and I
(38:23):
hate this term, but a lot ofpeople call them, you know,
quote unquote soft skills foremployability.
They really are skills that arevery needed on the day-to-day
and actually are what employersare looking for more nowadays.
Um, but skills like publicspeaking, being able to work in
a team with, you know,collaborative experiences, um,
being able to do research, allof these things, you know,
(38:44):
project management.
And so we measure thoseunderneath our skills aspect of
the framework.
And then, of course, practices.
And these are really kind ofthose behaviors, those
day-to-day actions and how theyshow up students themselves,
right, within their schoolcommunities.
You know, are they more apt totalk to students who they didn't
talk to before?
Are they more apt to use theirvoice to talk to educators
(39:06):
about, you know, problems thatthey're seeing in their school
and they're they're advocatingfor change, right?
Are we seeing kind of apropensity that they're saying,
I'm going to register to vote assoon as I'm able to?
Or am I going to pursue a careerin some type of public service
or community-driven outlook,right?
So these are things that we'remeasuring across this particular
framework.
(39:27):
And I'll say we've had hugegains across every single one of
these areas.
You know, students are reportingthat they feel more confident to
be able to speak out aboutissues within their community
and on behalf, you know, ofother students' needs.
They're, you know, more apt tohave leadership skills broadly
and that they're actually, youknow, wanting to put those
leadership skills into usepost-high school in some type of
(39:50):
career or even like theircollege pursuits and their
voting pursuits.
And then obviously theircollaboration and being able to
think about how am I engaging onthe day-to-day within my school
community.
And so across the board, I, youknow, we have anywhere from 40
to 50 indicators that studentsare showing these huge gains.
And it's always super excitingto be able to see what they're
(40:10):
reporting out post-the process.
And we capture this throughagain various ways, whether it's
focus groups or surveys orinterviews, and then also
observations.
I know our team comes out andtries to support schools, you
know, as our schedules allow,but really being on the ground
and listening to students'stories and educator stories are
also something that we reallyhold dear to being able to
(40:32):
support schools with thisprocess.
I think it's important tohighlight, and I know we've kind
of alluded to it, is this ideaof the civic opportunity gap,
right?
It's not an achievement gap,which you can't achieve what you
don't have an opportunity toachieve.
And so school participatorybudgeting carves out that
opportunity and really intendsto enclose that gap by having
(40:53):
all students participate in thispowerful process.
And so, again, this comes backto the not usual suspects,
ensuring that, you know, all theideas and the process itself is
driven by students and thatreally they're looking to make a
change within their immediateschool culture that then lends
itself to this broader societalculture.
(41:13):
And I think that that's the mostexciting part is thinking about
these long-term aspects as well.
SPEAKER_02 (41:20):
I also hate the term soft skills because I feel like
they're actually just skillsneeded.
And when you said projectmanagement, Tara, as somebody
who is a project manager, Iactually thought back to when my
students were doing it and I waslike, the skills, the workplace
skills that they were learningin doing this, and these project
management skills are soapparent now.
(41:43):
Now, again, now that I'm aproject manager, but these are
skills that students might nothave been able to practice or
might not have been able todevelop without this school
participatory budgeting.
So it's so funny, like talkingto you all now.
I mean, I'm five years out ofthe classroom, but I can still
remember these things and I knowwhere my students, you know, the
(42:06):
that group of students is.
And I'm like, yeah, because alot of them are doing really
amazing things.
And I saw it when they wereseniors because they had these
skills.
So looking ahead, how is ASU'sTeacher College and the Center
for the Future of Arizonaplanning to grow school
participatory budgeting acrossArizona?
(42:27):
And if other states are like,hey, this is kind of cool, what
lessons could they learn andtake from this work?
SPEAKER_03 (42:36):
Yeah, I'm happy to kick us off.
I think we're really excitedabout the momentum that SPB has
like both had in Arizona in thepast and as it has been a leader
in the country as well, as Taramentioned.
So, our goal, of course, is tocontinue to build the coalition
of the willing to share andchampion this process as much as
(42:57):
we can so that more districtsand students across Arizona can
see it as a key part of beingable to build student voice and
have a really high-quality civiclearning experience as well.
I know Sabrina mentioned in thepast that the Arizona Seal of
Civic Literacy, our programbeing one of the many that is
(43:19):
available for Arizona studentsto be able to contribute towards
that seal of civic literacy,makes us really proud.
And we see those numbers havebeen going up over the last
years as we also have beenhighly sharing about that
opportunity, especially for ourhigh school students.
Um, I think some of the otherthings that we're considering,
of course, as we continue toplant the seeds and support
(43:43):
processes that grow is providingthat educator professional
development to more of theteachers, the school leaders.
We haven't mentioned, you know,we've had librarians who have
run the process alongside thestudents.
So just making for sure that alleducators who are interested in
being able to support thisprocess have the tools and
resources and knowledge thatthey need to be able to bring it
(44:06):
to fruition with fidelity aswell.
Um, and we know that that takestime too.
You start, you know, youpractice it, you implement it.
And then, like you mentioned,there's things that you look
back on and you're like, oh, Icould have done this
differently, or educators arelearning from one another with
what Sabrina had mentionedearlier, which are really
innovative approaches to howthey integrate the process into
(44:27):
the school communities.
So I think we'll continue todocument those, um, help support
the educator professionaldevelopment, and of course,
alongside a lot of other civiceducation partners here in
Arizona, be able to empower oureducators and our school
communities to take on theseprocesses.
And hopefully, what we share alot too is that they can then
(44:48):
institutionalize them.
So we hope that over time theydon't need us as much.
Um, hopefully, we're just thereas cheerleaders and champions
for their process, but now theyhave the skills that they need
to be able to adapt it to theirschool community and continue it
without our support, hopefully,over time, which I think is
really um powerful and a reallysystems-level way of thinking
(45:09):
about how folks can adopt theprocess.
Um, we're also really focused.
I think when you mentioned uhother states who are interested
in it, yes, we've already hadfolks who have shared or
requested, you know, moreinformation or coaching or
conversations with us about whatit can look like in other
communities across the country.
Um, one of the things that we'vebeen working on is really
(45:31):
building our online resourcehub.
It has kind of worked in it fortwo ways, both to be able to
provide a one-stop shop for theeducators who are implementing
the process, to access lessonplans, activities, templates.
There's like email guides.
There's so much information.
It probably is a little bitoverwhelming.
Um, but we try to like put thatall into one space.
(45:52):
And what we're hoping to do tooin the next few years is be able
to share those resources andkind of our playbook of how we
support school communitiesacross Arizona with other states
and others who are interested inreplicating that or looking at
how it can look in theircommunity.
So being able to bring thattogether, like our unique
ecosystem that happens in thispartnership with you know, you
(46:15):
know, AESU, a university kind ofpractitioner nonprofit at CFA,
for us to be able to share ourinsights and lessons learned of
how we work together to makethis possible in Arizona, I
think will be what we're whatwe're hoping to showcase to in
that playbook.
SPEAKER_01 (46:34):
I do want to give a shout out to Sabrina and Carlin
for building out so many ofthese accessible kind of
platforms and resources.
I know that it was last summerwe kicked off our first like
in-person, you know,professional development
intensive workshop that we didwith educators and Chandler.
And then from there have, youknow, really offered a wide
(46:56):
variety of other ways that, youknow, educators can learn about
the process.
Um, I don't know, Sabrina, ifyou want to talk a bit about how
you've put together a lot of,you know, almost asynchronous
videos for educators.
We've had some online, um, youknow, weekly type of meetups.
Um, so yeah, I just I want tosay that they've really upped
the access in being able tospread the word around how to
(47:18):
implement school PB.
SPEAKER_00 (47:21):
Yes.
Uh some of the resources thatwe've newly created are these
asechness training videos thatteachers or principals or even
school leaders who areimplementing PB can go in and
watch a video just about each ofthe phases.
(47:41):
And it really breaks it downinto smaller pieces so that
teachers and students aregetting exactly what they need
at that point in the process.
Um, another thing is we have amonthly professional learning
community where educators acrossthe state who are doing PB can
come together and learn from oneanother.
(48:03):
What are some of the challengesthat we can work through
together?
Or what are some of the thingsthat are working really well in
your process?
And how can we uh have otherteachers also do that and build
upon it?
So those are some of the thingsthat we are working on
currently.
SPEAKER_02 (48:21):
And I do want to say, like, I'm looking at this,
these videos are not long.
The longest video is fourminutes.
So it is, they're verydigestible and very like I think
user-friendly, right?
If somebody's just like, Iwonder what this is, I mean, I'm
I've been looking at the page.
There's so much here thatanybody who's interested can see
(48:43):
impact, they can see how it'sdone.
There's news articles in here.
I mean, there is so muchavailable on this page that can
be helpful to whether you're anadministrator, um, a parent,
like a teacher, whatever thatlooks like.
Is there so before we kind ofclose out, because and I will
(49:04):
put that link in our show notes.
Um I do want to say, if you'relistening to this and you're
like, that sounds really nice,but I just don't have the time.
Let me tell you something.
I taught AP government in asemester.
I did this spring semester.
Spring semester, I have 10 lessdays with my students because of
breaks.
(49:24):
They have their AP tests, youknow, the the very first one.
Spring is was my like shortesttime to teach kids.
I cannot overstate, and I'm notbeing paid to do this.
I just this program was soimpactful.
I cannot overstate the skillsand the processes that these AP
(49:49):
kids got, and they were anamazing group of kids because
they just were I saw in their APtest.
And that was the year that theyhad to take their AP test
online.
Like there's a lot of just, itwas scary.
The world shut down.
It was so impactful.
And if I was still in theclassroom, I would still do it,
(50:10):
even if it took time out of myspring semester with my AP Gov
kids because of the genuineimpact I saw on my classroom and
I saw on our school as a whole.
Like it's cool.
My daughter goes to that schoolnow and she fills up her water
in something that my students,you know, made sure was there.
(50:33):
And the students at Batcha HighSchool in 2019, 2020 voted on.
And I think that that is it'ssuch a big deal.
And I don't, I just I can'toversell this enough.
I also want to say that I, as ateacher, felt so supported by
the center.
(50:53):
Um, I felt just supported ingeneral.
I didn't feel like it wassomething thrust upon me, extra
thing I had to do.
I had supports all the waythrough, and I was.
I was a facilitator of learning.
And there were things I neededto do because I was the adult in
the room and emails.
But for the most part, this wascompletely student-led.
As somebody who's also taughtkindergarten, I could do this in
(51:16):
a kindergarten classroom.
Little kids, they have opinionsand they they have a sense of
justice and they want to dothese things and they don't want
to be told you're too young,whatever else.
So I am so happy we finally didthis because, you know, I taught
for 17 years.
(51:37):
I got to do a lot of really coolthings, but I wish that every
school in our state did this.
And I really, really hope thatthis is something that spreads
nationwide because it's notpartisan.
It is an ability to participatein a political process that
doesn't invite all of that in,right?
(51:58):
It is about the students, it isabout what they think, and that
is so incredibly powerful.
Sabrina, Carlin, Tara, thankyou, thank you, thank you so
much.
And listeners, I will make surethat this, these show notes are
full of everything you couldever want.
And I really hope that a teacherlistens to this and reaches out
(52:21):
because this program is amazing.
Like it genuinely is.
So thank you so much for yourexpertise and for your passion.
Because I know people can't seeus, but we're all smiling, we're
nodding every time somebody'stalking.
So thank you so much.
SPEAKER_03 (52:38):
Thank you.
Thank you for having us.
SPEAKER_02 (52:40):
Thank you, Liz.
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