How Participatory Budgeting Builds Civic Power In Arizona Schools

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 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 CASP 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 PB to your district or classroom? Explore the toolkit, try the short training 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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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Host’s PB Success Story
• 4:02 What School PB Is And Where It Began
• 9:20 Civic Health And Trust Building
• 12:07 How The PB Process Works In Schools
• 17:10 Student Projects That Changed Communities
• 25:03 Inclusion, Challenges, And Funding Realities
• 31:55 Measuring Civic Skills And School Culture Shifts
• 39:01 Scaling PB: Training, Resources, And Adoption
• 44:53 Teacher Support, Time Myths, And Closing Thanks

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:52

Welcome to the Arizona Civics podcast. I am stoked to talk to these three ladies today because they do something incredibly amazing and 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 talking about school participatory budgeting. And if you're like, Liz, I have no idea what that is, that's okay, because that's what we're going to talk about today. But my favorite thing, one of my favorite things that I did teaching in the 2019, 2020 school 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? And I was like, sure. I had seniors, they were AP, and they absolutely ran with it. I, as a teacher, just had to, I mean, facilitate my class. Um, but it ended up being this really cool, engaging thing to do right before the pandemic. Um, and it was probably one of the more memorable things we've done, and so memorable that there is a, you know, there's pieces of it on our campus. So the district said, here's a set-aside budget. Um, my students came up with different campaigns to have things on the ballot, created a ballot, and we had an 85% voter turnout at our school. And the thing that the students chose was water bottle refilling stations because they were tired of 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 were AEDs because at our school the year prior, we had a student that had a cardiac event, and the closest AED was across campus. The district and my principal were so appreciative of the students because they had this thing in the gym where kids came in and voted. We had kids sign up to uh actually vote that were going to be of age, but the district and the principal liked it so much that they funded both because they were just so impressed by the kids. So I feel like everybody needs to know about this. So I have these three amazing women here to talk about it. So the first question is probably what people are wondering about. What is school participatory budgeting and how did it first take root here in Arizona?

SPEAKER_01: 3:20

Yeah, I'll go ahead and answer that. And thanks, Liz, for hosting us today. Uh, my name is Tara Bartlett. I'm currently professor in the Arizona State University College for Teaching and Learning Innovation. And just like Liz, I had the wonderful experience of first encountering school participatory budgeting on the educator side. And I was working with middle school students. I did that process for three years. And during those three years, I saw such incredible gains across my students through agency, efficacy, and really greater engagement within their classroom and the school campus broadly, that that was actually the impetus of me wanting to then jump into doing a PhD and actually studying this phenomenon and student voice within school spaces broadly. And so school participatory budgeting for me is one of those outstanding civic learning programs. It really derives from a hands-on process that, as I said, really talks about, you know, how do we improve student agency? How do we improve their voice and engagement within school communities? But then for the long term, how can we get them to see themselves as change makers and have that efficacy to be able to make change within their greater community? 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, that really paints this picture of school participatory budgeting as a win for engaging young people to be prepared in civic life for the long term. And so what we say with partners at Center for the Future of Arizona, who will be sharing in a bit, we call this this learning by democracy, learning democracy by doing process. And that students themselves are actually doing democracy on their school campus, but at the same time learning about what is democracy, right? What does that look like and how can I be a part of that? And actually, school participatory budgeting is not a phenomenon in of itself. It derives from a municipal model, the participatory budgeting model, um, that happens across cities and towns and communities worldwide. It actually started, I think it's nearly been 40 years ago, actually, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. And in that particular context, the city of Porto Alegre decided to set aside a budget of their city for city residents to decide how to spend. And it was actually from that model that people began to say, we need better health care and we need better sanitation in our city. And some of the facts and figures that came out of that were amazing. The infant mortality rate decreased by nearly 20% within the city. Um, sanitation went up to nearly 90% 98% of homes having sanitation instilled. And so just those key takeaways were enough to spread this phenomenon across the world. But what's really cool is that the school version actually started here in Arizona. So in 2013, a principal at Bioscience High School heard about this for one of the longtime engaging folks within the school participatory budgeting and participatory budgeting world broadly, Danielle Shagarensky, was teaching a class at Arizona State University. And this particular principal was taking this course and heard 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 budget and have my students do this process. And so that was in 2013. Since then, school PB has spread across Arizona, across the US, and really the globe. And in 2016 was really when the Participatory Budgeting Project, the Center for the Future of Arizona, and Daniel Shogarinsky at Arizona States University Participatory Governance Initiative came together to help seed and feed this process. I think Liz, in terms of Chandler, that you were right behind that in 2016 having started. I know myself as an educator in Mesa, we started in 2015. So there was already this kind of 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 of Arizona. And I know that, Carlin, you can probably speak better to this, is that this process really uh seeds and feeds what we call civic health. And I know that CFA has been a longtime um proponent for that.

SPEAKER_03: 7:56

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 for Civic Health at Center for the Future of Arizona. Um, and exactly what Tara has been saying, I I actually started at CFA around 2022. So this was kind of post a lot of this expansion and growth that was going to other districts as folks were just hearing how powerful this process was. Um and it got to me too, from across the country, actually. And I ended up moving to Arizona in 2021 with my then boyfriend, now husband, and heard about this work and saw it as just a really powerful way to be able to engage young people in trust building in their communities. And um I really came from a lot of the bridge building spaces and um national service spaces too, before I started at CFA. And I saw, especially with some of the young adults that I was working with, some of that disconnection with the trust in institutions, the trust in being able to see that we can make a difference. And this process just provided the answer, in my opinion, to be able to practice a lot of the things that we preach about democracy and how democratic practices can look. Um and I just thought it was super, super exciting as a program. And so I wanted to be a part of it. So I started as a program coordinator at CFA in 2022. And around that time, what Tara was mentioning, and you know, as I was learning about our skin in the game at CFA, was around what civic health can look like. And so at CFA, we just we define civic health as the way people come together to solve public problems. And what we see as really promising with School PB is that is an opportunity to practice all of these skills and competencies that Arizonans want to see from our leaders. Um, and we know that our leaders in our school communities, our both our educators and the students, are going to be those community members who make a difference out in our community for the long term. And we know that investing in school PB can have just, we hope we will we started to see, as we've been doing it for about 10 years now, um, we're starting to see what kind of progress can be made and how important and impactful it can be for students to learn this process and how school cultures shift as well. One of the greatest things that was happening when I started to onboard was that we were seeing that we needed to be able to build the capacity of multiple educators, multiple schools and districts, whereas in the past we were only able to do that kind of district by district, and as folks were um becoming aware, um, people had really it's really started to pick up through word of mouth, through a lot of our um championing of the process. We go literally in any space we can to talk about how powerful SPV can be. Um, and then had to change our model, of course, to help meet that so that we could expand to what Tara mentioned, these 80 plus, and I mean this number is growing every day. 80 plus schools, um, hundreds of thousands of Arizona students who get to participate in this process, which is super impactful.

SPEAKER_02: 11:02

I love how you talked about the culture shift at a school because I do think it's really important for students to feel an actual part of the school and that they can affect changes and that they're not just, you know, passive participants in the democracy that is a school. So, can we talk about how does the process work inside a school? So, from the kind of idea generation to students casting 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 the senior program coordinator of civic health at the Center for the Future of Arizona. And I've been here about a year and a half. So I am always I'm still learning, especially as our amazing teachers and students continue to innovate on this process. Um, but I'll dive in with a little bit of how this process looks in action. So once a champion brings participatory budgeting to their school, and this can be a student, a teacher, a principal, or even a district leader or governing board member. Um, the first step is building that buy-in with key stakeholders and securing a budget. And from there, the process is truly student-led. Uh, it all begins with a student steering committee, um, and they get support from school staff and partners like CFA and ASU. Um, and that steering committee of students sets the project parameters. Um, they will announce the available budget and the purpose to their whole school. Uh so everyone, including uh teachers, staff, and students, know what's going on. Um, and then they open a call for ideas. How should we invest this money to improve our school community? What are our school needs and how can these funds address those needs? So once they start to get those ideas coming in, the steering committee will review them and narrow them down to the top options based on those parameters that they set, as well as what is feasible. Um, and then they turn those ideas into full proposals. So this is where they are contacting vendors, researching costs, uh establishing timelines if a project needs to be implemented and installed. They're looking at the sustainability of a project and the impact of that project on their school community needs. Um, so then after project proposals have been completed, they're approved by their school leaders, and then they are placed on a ballot. Um, then at this point, students will shift into campaigning and deliberation. So they create campaign materials. Uh, so everyone knows what's going to be on their ballot, everyone's aware and informed. Um, they will talk with their peers to discuss the pros and cons of each proposal. Um, and we encourage them to practice that civil discourse with one another. Then comes uh the really big moment of their vote day. Um schools often organize it uh like a real election with centralized voting areas. They will have ballot boxes, voting booths, and even I voted stickers. Uh and the students will come and they will get to select the project that they want to see for their school community. And this is where students get to experience the power of their vote in a tangible and memorable way. Uh and then once those votes are tallied, the winning project is announced, it is funded, and it is implemented. So this is authentic change that is happening at a school. It's not a simulation. Um, and after that, students, teachers, and other uh school stakeholders will conduct an evaluation of their entire process to reflect on what went well, what did they learn from doing this process? What areas of growth did the students experience? And how do they want to improve it for their next cycle? And something we emphasize throughout every phase is that students are not just deciding, you know, how to spend a budget, but they're strengthening their civic skills and learning how to work collectively to improve their 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 AP government teacher to actually have the curriculum come alive, right? Instead of just sitting and talking about it, students got to actually participate in it and really kind of flex those muscles that they wouldn't have done, you know, in any other way. And, you know, for us, the the student that had the cardiac event, he was fine, but that brought out this need. And I think sometimes people don't understand. If you give students agency, they will run with it. And they're so incredible. And this is why we got two projects funded, is because our administration was like the passion and the power and how many students voted and how close it was, showed that this is actually something the students want and need. So can you each share a memorable example of student-led projects that made real differences in school communities?

SPEAKER_01: 16:29

Yeah, there are so many amazing examples as you shared, Liz. And having done this for several years with my own students and then now broadly supporting initiatives across the state, there's so many projects I'd love to talk about. I'm gonna highlight two. One that was one I did in partnership with the school that I had worked at and the students that um I had worked with for two years in seventh and eighth grade. And this project outcome was actually a school therapy dog, which is absolutely amazing. And I know where dog people live. So, yes, I think this speaks really, really greatly to our love of dogs. Um, but this was amazing because this particular project already had an emphasis on inclusion. And so we actually partnered with the Arizona Developmental Disabilities Planning Council for this particular school participatory budgeting process. And the goal was to make it inclusive. And so we mindfully included over 40% of the student steering committee having a documented disability, and we over-represented a sampling of student groups who historically had not had a voice in leadership positions or engaging processes throughout the school. And so, just by design, I feel like the voices that were central to this process in the student steering committee really drove this idea of inclusion that came out in several of the projects. However, again, the winning project was a school therapy dog. And that story doesn't stop there because the entire school district then adopted school therapy dogs across the district to every single school, which was absolutely amazing to see the 50 plus schools in this school 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, you know, reading a book to a dog. It is just a really incredible story. So yes, I know I'm getting teary-eyed, Liz. I can see you are too. But that is one of my favorites. Um, and that one was also special because it was students I had worked with for, again, a number of years and their families that also were included in the vote that year. The other one that I think is also pretty amazing and I would say really captures a lot of our communities within Arizona was done in partnership with the Tahano Odham tribe down in southern Arizona. And this particular school actually had their Native American student club run the process. And they had other students engaged throughout, but their voices were very central. Their winning project was actually a shade structure, but they didn't go with, you know, your kind of fabricated metal, you know, that kind of plastic type of, you know, netting type of shade structure that you see on typical school, you know, playgrounds and, you know, different spaces across schools. They actually decided to partner with the tribe and build a Watho, which is an indigenous shade structure built from the landscape, right? So like a catillo branches and mesquite logs. And it was incredible because, you know, this the school put out a video where students are actually building alongside tribal members. Elders came out once it was built and actually blessed the actual Watho structure and talked about the significance of representation on that school community for those student groups, and just really thinking about how that is a sustainable piece of uh, you know, a project on that school campus that really brings in the fold of, you know, Arizona's ecosystem and how to build sustainable infrastructure. And so that is also one of my favorite projects and stories to tell. Um, but I know Carlin and Sabrina, you have your own as well. So I'd love to hear what your favorite projects have been.

SPEAKER_03: 21:00

Oh, thank you, Tara, for those. Yes, I'm also holding back tears. Um, it the process is super powerful. So you'll see. Like that's why we had to narrow down our stories. Um, one that I will share, um, when I started, I actually started in a fully elementary school district, which I don't know if we've um mentioned up to this point because we've talked a lot about the process happening in the high school settings. Tara has mentioned at the junior high middle school levels too. Um, but kiddos as young as kindergartners, and we've even heard like some pre-K classes, maybe as a class, maybe not as individuals, have also been um doing this process. And we think that just shows the power of this truly like pre-K or K-12 initiative. And can we even imagine if kindergartners are getting these types of civic opportunities every year after they start as kindergartners, what they will be empowered to do as adults when they're able to participate in the community and even before then, right? Um, there's ways that we can make our voices heard and make change in our communities before we're allowed to vote. Um, so just to go to one quick story, um, at that K-8 Elementary School, Foley Elementary School District, one of the sites, um, you know, a lot of times this the adults aren't using sometimes the same spaces as the students are. So these students in their first year of bringing PB to their school had like recess equipment on their ballot, but they also had bathroom mirrors. And it was one of those um winning projects that made it to the ballot that came from the students, right? That adults were just super surprised about. Um, and it actually ended up being the winning project. I remember being there on their um vote day, and as they were announcing it across the campus, um, folks were doing drum rolls and all the classes were on Zoom together as they were ending the day and making the announcement. And when they said the bathroom mirrors, like you could hear the whole school roar. And I think something as simple as like a space where students can be able to engage with themselves. I'm thinking they might not have had like those clear types of mirrors, like some you might imagine some of the ones that are at like a park where it's more like reflective, but it's not fully you. Um, and the students wanted to change that. Um, I think that was a super powerful example of a winning project and how it made a real difference on their community. One of the other things we've heard from the adults at that campus, too, was that if there were questions about how students were taking care of things or maybe there was damage that was done to some of the previous mirrors, that the hope was that because students voted on this project, that then they would have some buy-in too on taking care of what their community looks like. So I think that was a super um powerful example. And then the only the last thing I'll add there is that those students actually like continued the process for two more years after that. And even when they had adult transitions, so these are four through eighth grade students, they had teacher transitions who were supporting them through the process. They did not skip a beat because they were, they learned the process as young um students, were able to come back and continue to share it with others. And then now they were really using their voice and their leadership to run this process with or without, or, you know, of course, not without, but with the support of educators on the side. So I think it that example, not only from like the surprise of what the project actually was, and that students come up with very meaningful ways to use funds, but also that they're learning their own leadership through this process and they can carry that with them, like you 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 with me because it's in a community that I used to teach in as well, in Tulison. And it's um it's one that happened. Well, I've been here at CFA, so um I'm happy to share this story. It's about West Point High School. Um, they had their pilot process last school year, and I really feel like it shows the difference that the PB process made into the broader community. Um, under the guidance of their coordinator, Gabriela Cabrera, the um she really created opportunities for those students to connect what they learned through the PB process to broader um community involvement. One example is they took a field trip to the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center, and they learned how ballots are processed. They learned about different ways to make voting more accessible. And the students on their own went back to their PB process and found ways to implement that learning. They created like an early voting uh ballot, an absentee ballot. And then they made sure that the students in like self-contained classes had the opportunity to vote too by creating a special ballot for those students. Um, then another thing that they did was they had students participate in the junior deputy register program, where you 16 and older are trained uh to register anyone uh who is eligible to vote, um, to register those voters. And they hosted voter registration drives at their school carnival during homecoming and at other community events like their trunk or tree. Um, and they even registered teachers, they registered parents. So they really started building bridges between the school and the wider community. And on their SPB vote day, in which took place in about six and a half hours, they registered 250 new youth voters. Uh, and so we just see the ripple effects of that continuing to grow. Uh, the year prior, they had zero students get the civic literacy skill seal on their diploma. And in that first pilot year of doing PD, they had 20 students do it. So it just continues to show how how impactful this can be for our student learning and the broader community. And this is their second year implementing this year, and we are so excited to see what's to come for them.

SPEAKER_02: 27:26

And I know this is an audio podcast, but I wish it's also touching to us as the adults, right? Because every time somebody's telling a story, we're nodding, we're tearing up, because it is we take for granted how powerful students can be. And I love that we're talking about elementary and middle school and high school and all of them participating. And I appreciate that the um mirrors was brought up because we talk about kids taking care of things. It kind of leads me to my next question. What challenges come with implementing school participatory budgeting? And how do you make the process inclusive for all students? So those with disabilities or students 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 always in competition to educator time, capacity. And if it's not also in line or recognized to be in line with the school's mission or vision, oftentimes, or how that is, you know, aligning with uh initiatives and priorities that are happening within that school or district, then that sometimes is a challenge to really get this process started. Um, we also understand the balancing of multiple priorities, and so some of that is a um a re-lensing or a reframing of how this shouldn't, to your point, Liz, be an add-on, right? Like it should be institutionalized, it should be ingrained, like this is literally something that could be done in existence to you know, classes and programs and already learning taking, you know, across that campus. So I think that's also um something to think about when we specifically look at the adults on campus. We talk a lot about student agency and student voice through this process. And I know, Liz, you actually said at the beginning that you facilitated alongside students, right? You were not the stage on the stage. You were not telling students, we are doing this, these are the things that you should be doing for projects. This is so much a decentering of adults that sometimes that adultism can come into play. And that also has been a challenge in communicating how students really are the leaders of this particular process. Um, there's a lot of, you know, conversation around how does that look? You know, how much give and take and power. And again, every school has the ability to, you know, implement this process according to their own context, but we really do try to emphasize the idea that this is a student-driven process. Um, the other challenge that comes into play is the idea around funding. So when we talk to school partners around, you know, you set aside a certain amount of your budget, a lot of school partners think that, oh, I need to go find more money to do this particular process. And that actually is not the case because we're asking folks to think, to rethink on how budgetary decisions are made, right? Like there's money that's being spent on school campuses every year. Sometimes there might be, you know, a working group of parents involved, or there might be some consultation with students, but it's not truly a budget line item or a section of a budget set aside for students. And so it's more so rethinking that design process of the budgetary decision model to have students central to that decision. And so that I think has been one of the larger issues that we've seen. We also want to make sure that all student voices are heard when these budgetary decisions are being made. So to really think about who has historically not been involved in these decision making processes on schools. We like to encourage school districts and uh partners to think about who are your not usual suspects, right? Like not just student government students or students in, you know, National Honor Society that are already getting these amazing leadership experiences. But how can we kind of find those diamonds in the rough that just need a little opportunity to 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 I shared before, uh, through that process, you know, with the school therapy dog, but just in general, uh, students that have not 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 when we're within implementing the process. I think Tara was just talking about um sometimes a challenge that comes up with identifying those 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 the spring, but there is definitely different iterations of how that can look based on each school community. We really do like to say that the SPB process can be designed by your school community for your school community because it truly can be. It's it's highly malleable and adaptable in that type of way. Um, but that also means like there sometimes challenges for making for sure that you can keep and retain students on that steering committee. So sometimes that just looks like how you design when you'll meet, maybe not doing after school because they might end up having competing priorities depending on those types of students that you're trying to engage. Um, maybe having it in the classroom model, but then those students didn't necessarily sign up for it. They might have been voluntold that they'll be doing it. So I think the second part of that challenge, too, is just making for sure that you can engage the students over the process as well. So not just retaining them and being able to design a meeting structure and frequency and uh a group norms and things like that that can invite students from all walks of life to be able to be able to be a part of the steering committee, but also to engage them throughout the process. Um, but I think, like you both mentioned, what some of the ways that we encourage our educators and being intentional about this is just how they can think creatively of being that guide on the side and in imparting kind of that wisdom and some guidance for the students to think about how they can engage throughout the process. So that might look like translating materials into the languages that students speak on their campus or creating multiple ways to share ideas, like drawing a picture instead of having to write out what you would say, especially when we're thinking about some of those kindergartners who are filling out their idea collection too. Like maybe just let them have a little bit more creativity in the way that they collect those ideas. Um, also hosting town halls where students have the opportunity to discuss amongst one another and deliberate on what's going to be on their ballots and what they can vote for. So, some of that we just say, you know, thinking that creatively of how you can engage students, how they can be the leaders in their process, and then ensure that the students really represent the diversity of the student body that they're um, that they're leading alongside of. I mean, I mean, Sabrina mentioned some of these stories too, of just like at West Point High School, where students, when they are given that opportunity to be able to think inclusively about other folks, um, to be able to be creative in the ways that they can um make their ballots and host their vote days, like those types of things make it really um powerful for them to be able to kind of engage in the process as well. Um, and then the last thing I'll mention is just we really do ask the students to, we challenge them to ask themselves, like, who else is missing? Whose voices are we not considering? Um, and I think that's really what makes SPB so powerful. It's not just this budgeting exercise, but it's a real democratic practice. And the students are making for sure that it's not just their perspective as the student leaders on the steering committee, but also that they're being representative of their student body and sometimes their school community at large, too, depending on who all is participating in their process.

SPEAKER_02: 35:41

I love that. And I love that you talk about civic skills because I think sometimes teachers get rightfully 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 look because it really does. Civic skills really really do span all sorts of state standards. So, what impact have you seen on student 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 these are things that are measurable according to standards, right? I mean, even just looking at the social study standards, all of those interdisciplinary skills and processes, that's all civic skills. And then when you dial down into specific grade levels, right, there's like literally written in there, as Carlin talked about, like the need to have students exposed and engaged in deliberative forums and civic discourse. So, I mean, this is inherent to what students are already learning. Um, and so I get to, in my role now, um, that I'm at the teachers' college at ASU is assist the Center for the Future of Arizona on the measurement around these specific civic skills. And so what we've done is we've created lots of opportunities to be able to gather data alongside school districts, teachers, and students. And we've really been able to look at the student steering committee specifically and their growth across their civic skills, civic efficacy, civic confidence. And it's really exciting to see all of the gains that students come out of post-school participatory budgeting. So we actually have a framework called the CASP, which is really it, you know, there's different kinds of uh semantics that come into how this is set up, but it's you know inherent to every single kind of civic measurement. So we have our knowledge, right? Civic knowledge. Do students know more about you know rules and how they're made at their school? Are students more aware of, you know, what a democracy is and how they can engage? So all of these kind of institutionalized processes and infrastructures are measured within that knowledge aspect. And then we also have attitudes, right? Which again, other kind of frameworks might call it, you know, dispositions or values. But in terms of attitudes, you know, are they building empathy? Are they, as you know, Sabrina and Carlin talked about, thinking of other students at their school and broadly beyond themselves, what their school community might need. And then we also have civic skills, which really are, and I hate this term, but a lot of people call them, you know, quote unquote soft skills for employability. They really are skills that are very needed on the day-to-day and actually are what employers are looking for more nowadays. Um, but skills like public speaking, being able to work in a team with, you know, collaborative experiences, um, being able to do research, all of these things, you know, project management. And so we measure those underneath our skills aspect of the framework. And then, of course, practices. And these are really kind of those behaviors, those day-to-day actions and how they show up students themselves, right, within their school communities. You know, are they more apt to talk to students who they didn't talk to before? Are they more apt to use their voice to talk to educators about, you know, problems that they're seeing in their school and they're they're advocating for change, right? Are we seeing kind of a propensity that they're saying, I'm going to register to vote as soon as I'm able to? Or am I going to pursue a career in some type of public service or community-driven outlook, right? So these are things that we're measuring across this particular framework. And I'll say we've had huge gains across every single one of these areas. You know, students are reporting that they feel more confident to be able to speak out about issues within their community and on behalf, you know, of other students' needs. They're, you know, more apt to have leadership skills broadly and that they're actually, you know, wanting to put those leadership skills into use post-high school in some type of career or even like their college pursuits and their voting pursuits. And then obviously their collaboration and being able to think about how am I engaging on the day-to-day within my school community. And so across the board, I, you know, we have anywhere from 40 to 50 indicators that students are showing these huge gains. And it's always super exciting to be able to see what they're reporting out post-the process. And we capture this through again various ways, whether it's focus groups or surveys or interviews, and then also observations. I know our team comes out and tries 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 really hold dear to being able to support schools with this process. I think it's important to highlight, and I know we've kind of alluded to it, is this idea of the civic opportunity gap, right? It's not an achievement gap, which you can't achieve what you don't have an opportunity to achieve. And so school participatory budgeting carves out that opportunity and really intends to enclose that gap by having all students participate in this powerful process. And so, again, this comes back to the not usual suspects, ensuring that, you know, all the ideas and the process itself is driven by students and that really they're looking to make a change within their immediate school culture that then lends itself to this broader societal culture. And I think that that's the most exciting 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 skills needed. And when you said project management, Tara, as somebody who is a project manager, I actually thought back to when my students were doing it and I was like, the skills, the workplace skills that they were learning in doing this, and these project management skills are so apparent now. Now, again, now that I'm a project manager, but these are skills that students might not have been able to practice or might not have been able to develop without this school participatory budgeting. So it's so funny, like talking to you all now. I mean, I'm five years out of the classroom, but I can still remember these things and I know where my students, you know, the that group of students is. And I'm like, yeah, because a lot of them are doing really amazing things. And I saw it when they were seniors because they had these skills. So looking ahead, how is ASU's Teacher College and the Center for the Future of Arizona planning to grow school participatory budgeting across Arizona? And if other states are like, hey, this is kind of cool, what lessons could they learn and take from this work?

SPEAKER_03: 42:36

Yeah, I'm happy to kick us off. I think we're really excited about the momentum that SPB has like both had in Arizona in the past and as it has been a leader in the country as well, as Tara mentioned. So, our goal, of course, is to continue to build the coalition of the willing to share and champion this process as much as we can so that more districts and students across Arizona can see it as a key part of being able to build student voice and have a really high-quality civic learning experience as well. I know Sabrina mentioned in the past that the Arizona Seal of Civic Literacy, our program being one of the many that is available for Arizona students to be able to contribute towards that seal of civic literacy, makes us really proud. And we see those numbers have been going up over the last years as we also have been highly sharing about that opportunity, especially for our high school students. Um, I think some of the other things that we're considering, of course, as we continue to plant the seeds and support processes that grow is providing that educator professional development to more of the teachers, the school leaders. We haven't mentioned, you know, we've had librarians who have run the process alongside the students. So just making for sure that all educators who are interested in being able to support this process have the tools and resources and knowledge that they need to be able to bring it to fruition with fidelity as well. Um, and we know that that takes time too. You start, you know, you practice it, you implement it. And then, like you mentioned, there's things that you look back on and you're like, oh, I could have done this differently, or educators are learning from one another with what Sabrina had mentioned earlier, which are really innovative approaches to how they integrate the process into the school communities. So I think we'll continue to document those, um, help support the educator professional development, and of course, alongside a lot of other civic education partners here in Arizona, be able to empower our educators and our school communities to take on these processes. And hopefully, what we share a lot too is that they can then institutionalize them. So we hope that over time they don't need us as much. Um, hopefully, we're just there as cheerleaders and champions for their process, but now they have the skills that they need to be able to adapt it to their school community and continue it without our support, hopefully, over time, which I think is really um powerful and a really systems-level way of thinking about how folks can adopt the process. Um, we're also really focused. I think when you mentioned uh other states who are interested in it, yes, we've already had folks who have shared or requested, you know, more information or coaching or conversations with us about what it can look like in other communities across the country. Um, one of the things that we've been working on is really building our online resource hub. It has kind of worked in it for two ways, both to be able to provide a one-stop shop for the educators who are implementing the process, to access lesson plans, activities, templates. There's like email guides. There's so much information. It probably is a little bit overwhelming. Um, but we try to like put that all into one space. And what we're hoping to do too in the next few years is be able to share those resources and kind of our playbook of how we support school communities across Arizona with other states and others who are interested in replicating that or looking at how it can look in their community. So being able to bring that together, like our unique ecosystem that happens in this partnership with you know, you know, AESU, a university kind of practitioner nonprofit at CFA, for us to be able to share our insights and lessons learned of how we work together to make this possible in Arizona, I think will be what we're what we'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 of these accessible kind of platforms and resources. I know that it was last summer we kicked off our first like in-person, you know, professional development intensive workshop that we did with educators and Chandler. And then from there have, you know, really offered a wide variety of other ways that, you know, educators can learn about the process. Um, I don't know, Sabrina, if you 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, you know, weekly type of meetups. Um, so yeah, I just I want to say that they've really upped the access in being able to spread the word around how to implement school PB.

SPEAKER_00: 47:21

Yes. Uh some of the resources that we've newly created are these asechness training videos that teachers or principals or even school leaders who are implementing PB can go in and watch a video just about each of the phases. And it really breaks it down into smaller pieces so that teachers and students are getting exactly what they need at that point in the process. Um, another thing is we have a monthly professional learning community where educators across the state who are doing PB can come together and learn from one another. What are some of the challenges that we can work through together? Or what are some of the things that are working really well in your process? And how can we uh have other teachers also do that and build upon it? So those are some of the things that 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 four minutes. So it is, they're very digestible and very like I think user-friendly, right? If somebody's just like, I wonder what this is, I mean, I'm I've been looking at the page. There's so much here that anybody who's interested can see impact, they can see how it's done. There's news articles in here. I mean, there is so much available on this page that can be helpful to whether you're an administrator, um, a parent, like a teacher, whatever that looks like. Is there so before we kind of close out, because and I will put that link in our show notes. Um I do want to say, if you're listening 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 a semester. I did this spring semester. Spring semester, I have 10 less days with my students because of breaks. They have their AP tests, you know, the the very first one. Spring is was my like shortest time to teach kids. I cannot overstate, and I'm not being paid to do this. I just this program was so impactful. I cannot overstate the skills and the processes that these AP kids got, and they were an amazing group of kids because they just were I saw in their AP test. And that was the year that they had to take their AP test online. Like there's a lot of just, it was scary. The world shut down. It was so impactful. And if I was still in the classroom, I would still do it, even if it took time out of my spring semester with my AP Gov kids because of the genuine impact I saw on my classroom and I saw on our school as a whole. Like it's cool. My daughter goes to that school now and she fills up her water in something that my students, you know, made sure was there. And the students at Batcha High School in 2019, 2020 voted on. And I think that that is it's such a big deal. And I don't, I just I can't oversell this enough. I also want to say that I, as a teacher, felt so supported by the center. Um, I felt just supported in general. I didn't feel like it was something thrust upon me, extra thing I had to do. I had supports all the way through, and I was. I was a facilitator of learning. And there were things I needed to do because I was the adult in the room and emails. But for the most part, this was completely student-led. As somebody who's also taught kindergarten, I could do this in a kindergarten classroom. Little kids, they have opinions and they they have a sense of justice and they want to do these things and they don't want to be told you're too young, whatever else. So I am so happy we finally did this because, you know, I taught for 17 years. I got to do a lot of really cool things, but I wish that every school in our state did this. And I really, really hope that this is something that spreads nationwide because it's not partisan. It is an ability to participate in a political process that doesn't invite all of that in, right? It is about the students, it is about what they think, and that is so incredibly powerful. Sabrina, Carlin, Tara, thank you, thank you, thank you so much. And listeners, I will make sure that this, these show notes are full of everything you could ever want. And I really hope that a teacher listens to this and reaches out because this program is amazing. Like it genuinely is. So thank you so much for your expertise and for your passion. Because I know people can't see us, but we're all smiling, we're nodding every time somebody's talking. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03: 52:38

Thank you. Thank you for having us.

SPEAKER_02: 52:40

Thank you, Liz.