Overview
The Student Advisory Committee (SAC) serves as the voice of students in the State Board’s work. They are consulted on issues of policy before the Board. The SAC meets at least once per month. Each year, the Committee sends the SBOE a report on a matter of importance to District students, providing recommended next steps. If rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors are interested in joining the Student Advisory Committee, contact us at [email protected].
Please find a view of each cohort's membership through the table below:
2021-22 Student Advisory Committee
Following the recommendation from the SY20–21 cohort of the SAC, the State Board expanded the number of Student Representatives to four (4), which was effective immediately for the SY21–22 cohort. The State Board also approved the ability of Student Representatives to vote in all committees to expand the voice of student representatives in the development of policy.
At the July 20, 2022 Public Meeting, members of the SY2021–22 Student Advisory Committee (SAC) presented their Annual Report to the State Board. This report contains findings from the Committee's "City-Wide Survey," which covered topics such as safe passage, mental health, and Covid-19 safety protocols, and overall recommendations for the SY2022–23 school year. Read their full report here.
2020-21 Student Advisory Committee
At the July 2021 public meeting, the Student Advisory Committee (SAC) presented their annual report, a summary of the most important issues the SAC tackled throughout the 2020–2021 school year, and the recommendations the committee made. This report covers distance learning, mental health, in-person learning, safe passage, inequities in funding, and recruiting applicants for the SAC/Student Representative positions. Further, the SAC recommended that the State Board expand the number of Student Representatives from two (2) to four (4) and to ensure that the student representatives provided a diversity of experience. Read their full report here.
The SY2021-21 Student Advisory Committee organized two student-led town halls to discuss and engage with the public on a variety of topics, including distance learning, student mental health, student engagement in an online setting, synchronous v. asynchronous learning, online platforms, reopening, standardized testing during distance learning, and more. The recordings of each can be found on the State Board's YouTube channel or viewed below:
2019-20 Student Advisory Committee
At the June 17, 2020 SBOE Public Meeting, Student Representatives Dayja Burton and Alex O'Sullivan, along with members of the SAC, presented a final report to the Board for consideration. The SAC met monthly over the course of the 2019-20 school year and focused their work on "Post-Secondary Preparation" and "Maximizing Productivity Within the Classroom." The Post-Secondary Preparation committee focused on how students feel that there should be a greater effort towards helping students navigate post-secondary options. This committee designed a survey to determine what students would need in order to feel prepared and supported, and recommendations include developing financial literacy and career classes, and increasing the number of counselors. The Maximizing Productivity in the Classroom committee worked towards examining in-class factors that could improve student learning. It identified four main areas of focus: access to learning, teaching and learning styles, relationship with teachers, and mental well-being of students and teachers. Additionally, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the implementation of District-wide distance learning, the SAC included a list of recommendations on how distance learning can be best implemented in the fall and addressed concerns for safety upon reopening of schools next school year.
2018-19 Student Advisory Committee
At the June 19, 2019 SBOE Public Meeting, Student Representatives Tatiana Robinson and Marjoury Alicea, along with members of the SAC, presented a final report to the Board for consideration. The SAC met monthly over the course of the 2018-19 school year and focused their work on "Teacher Retention" & "Equity Across Schools." The Teacher Retention committee worked to create solutions to keep more teachers in schools, find the main reasons that teachers leave schools after a short period of time, and advocate and voice the ways in which erroneous retention rates affect students. The Equity Across Schools Committee focused on finding the real reasons behind the inequities in DC schools, examining the differences in school course offerings such as languages, extracurricular activities, college tours, and the quality of substitutes at different schools.
2017-18 Student Advisory Committee
At the May 16, 2018 SBOE Public Meeting, Student Representatives Tallya Rhodes and Tatiana Robinson, along with members of the SAC, presented a final report to the Board for consideration. The SAC met eight times over the course of the 2017-18 school year and selected two key topics that its members felt could be improved in the District’s public schools. The proposals submitted by the SAC focused on college readiness and equal access to educational opportunities in the District. Working in two teams, SAC members developed a peer-to-peer mentoring program for District students and built a resource website for students looking for guidance and insight into college and career opportunities.
2016-17 Student Advisory Committee
In its second year, the Student Advisory Committee continued its mission to promote student voice within the District of Columbia Public Schools and public charter school systems. Student Representatives and SAC co-chairs Alex Dorosin and Jamiah Hall led the committee in writing a final proposal for a system promoting administrative accessibility and other improvements to the high school student experience.
The State Board of Education approved the Student Advisory Committee’s final report at its June 2017 public meeting.
2015-16 Student Advisory Committee
By a unanimous vote in their first meeting, the Student Advisory Committee selected the topic of Teacher Accountability as their area of focus for the year. The SAC met four times over the course of the 2015-16 school year, with each meeting representing a distinct step in the process of developing a set of policy proposals for the State Board of Education. You can read the full final report here. At the State Board’s June public meeting, the final SAC report was presented and passed unanimously.