The Role and Impact of Student Council in School Leadership

Introduction

Student councils are a key part of many schools. They are student-led, student-initiated, and are specifically for students to voice their opinions and make decisions about life at their school. Some councils are set up just for students to create a stronger, more unified community at school, while some councils are responsible for planning and funding whole school events and activities. Student councils throughout the state, the United States, and the world have their origin in the student government or council movement that emerged after World War II.

In these councils, students are elected to a board of directors by the student body. These student "delegates" serve one or more of the policy-making, building, city, or national boards. Over time, the council has become a subsidiary of the Education Department and has come increasingly to reflect the role and mission of the school—the development of leadership, scholars, school citizens, athletes, and students as individuals.

Other groups, however, continued to function as student boards. For example, the Legislative Council of the Associated Student Body at the University of Wyoming in Laramie meets regularly to pass rules that pertain to all governance. At the grade school level, Atlanta Public Schools has student governance councils. These are elected and appointed leadership groups who make, carry out, and monitor decisions that affect the lives of the students. Student council members have a variety of roles. At its best, the student council is about including different voices and opinions in planned decision-making. Wherever a student council makes decisions, it is a good idea to operate along a democratic model. The council should be able to air different views, to take part in discussions, and to have a say before a decision is passed. This encourages teenagers to be thoughtful and to listen to others. The council should have clear rules about how many agree or disagree with a particular proposal before the goodness of the motion is officially recorded. If more than half of the delegates or representatives agree, a motion, proposal, or idea is carried.

Fostering Leadership Skills

One important duty of a student council is to promote leadership among students. Through their experiences in student government, students learn a number of skills important to effective leadership, including the ability to think critically, communicate ideas effectively, and work in a group setting toward a common goal. The skills developed in effective communication and decision-making in student organizations are transferred to professional positions in the business world. Other studies have shown a link between a student’s level of involvement in student governance and leadership experience following graduation. Importantly, the very culture of student affairs work is rooted in the idea that the student council is their organization rather than an outside company.

Students involved in campus leadership are often encouraged to take risks, set goals, and operate in a high-stakes, demanding environment. When they move into the workforce, they can apply this knowledge and skills with confidence and assurance. Those involved in activities view themselves as more capable of analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, formulating a vision for a group, and acting to attain a goal. Student councils are essential to creating citizen leaders. A student council is more than just a provincial entity, however. At Kirkwood High School, the young men and women who sit around the student council table are the few students willing to take that initiative and other responsibilities, delegate work, effectively manage time, communicate with students, increase staff lesson plans by facilitating periods of service learning with students, and foster a positive school climate. Advised by a team of staff members, these students are allowed to lead meetings, plan events, and carry out social action activities with some training, guidance, and oversight by adults. A team of students interested in such opportunities will elect these school leaders to office in the spring. Helping the candidates reach every interested voter is an essential component of a successful campaign. Voting takes place at the end of April.

School Culture and Climate

Student councils influence school culture and climate in many ways. When representatively chosen from their classmates, members of student councils bring a broad range of student perspectives to discussion tables. Students who are involved in student leadership opportunities begin to understand school from multiple dimensions and can promote inclusivity in their schools. When students are involved in decision-making roles, particularly in governance, they are more inclined to support the resulting decisions and to help communicate reasons for decisions to their peers. Similarly, involving administration in the student council decision-making process makes students more likely to support decisions and less likely to express a lack of trust.

Student-focused councils improve student morale and school spirit by organizing and promoting extracurricular or service club participation, developing and implementing school and community programs with broad student involvement, and fostering a positive image of the school in the community. A survey of over 40 high schools indicated a statistical correlation between student council activity and reductions in the reported rate of school-based violence. A provincially funded program endeavors to prevent bullying and victimization, improve school connectedness and competence, and reduce mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. The program’s foundational element is a vibrant, inclusive student council.

Challenges and Opportunities

Arguably, challenges for student council leadership at schools are aplenty. The council often works with very limited time, financial, and human resources. Additionally, there are several administrative challenges they face, such as dealing with teachers' changeable time availability for an election, fear, or a perceived workload. Some student representatives consider their peers disengaged or indifferent when it comes to elections or contributing to aspects of school leadership. Additionally, it is evident that school administrations are ambivalent about shared leadership at schools. Despite the lack of opportunities, student council leaders adapt their leadership style with changes underway in the twenty-first century.

For student leaders in the student council, the opportunities arising from this potential discomfort seem to have translated into a better impact of their initiatives for the school as well as the student body. Nevertheless, school principals and teachers may have conflicting views. These changes seem to make councilors engage more in educational issues because of widening opportunities for student voice and choice. The student leaders seemed to adapt to the question of how to make student councils effective at school by adopting negotiated action, participative, and transformational leadership to complement directly elected leadership in some cases. Communicating with the school administration pre-council (in planning), intra-council, and with teachers, students, and the wider community (in evaluation and advocacy) is especially important. We pay particular attention to the fact that student councils are evolving and the many ways that the twenty-first century is changing our schools' relationship with students.

Best Practices and Strategies

Setting effective goals is one of the best ways to make a student council's work valuable. Big events are a lot of work, and from week to week we would rarely know what to do about them. Planning weekly is critical, but successful weeks are meaningless if they do not tie into the school's overall plan. Therefore, it is critical to have a yearly or quarterly plan that the student council follows. Simply setting goals is not enough. The trick to setting goals is to write them in a way that can be measured and leave no room for conflict about whether the goal has been reached. For instance, a goal to improve school spirit is too general. An action plan to improve school spirit must state how we will know if we reach our goal. The action plan may include people in charge of coordinating events; a schedule of spirit days, special events, and rallies; a plan to cover the events with the school paper and assignments to decorate the school to reflect the events. Build in evaluation. Finally, student councils must have ways to learn if they reached their goals. There are a variety of testing strategies councils can use, but rushing to get feedback from those who would like to provide it is a good place to start. Opening up mechanisms for feedback is a good insurance policy. If what I want to do is feed the students in the cafeteria, then I don’t just give it to them. Once a week, I go into the cafeteria and say, 'Tell me what you think. Is this working for you?'

Training. Many advisors indicated that they have incorporated student council leadership development workshops into the curriculum for their student leaders. Many demonstrated power in their communities, as seen in their involvement with local chambers of commerce, boards of education, and regional school districts. Few advisors indicated that they collaborate with other student organizations within the school in order to widen their scope of vision and include a variety of perspectives when planning activities. Advisers have built strong connections with small businesses, service organizations, and local communities. Community volunteers can be found in the school on a daily basis. Very few indicated that their members communicate regularly with other student council members around the nation and the world. They all work to increase communication with the community. Gather information from superintendents or others who will recognize our data and also support the program. Use the proposal section as a way to actively get people interested in providing the support needed. Each school has a program and should be able to identify at least one criterion developed in the proposal section. More specifically, participants will learn methods to assist student councils in assessing change in school climate over time and will compare that data to information available in school reports focusing on student achievement and attendance. A presentation on the significance of data collection is important in obtaining support from the administration. Several advisors describe what the data told them about the effectiveness of their student councils.

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