ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the pragmatic impact of school-based student voice work as evidenced in the research: student voice opportunities, in most forms, contribute to improved student outcomes in academic efficacy, academic engagement, school sanctioned behaviors, civic engagement, and civic participation. In direct connection with other 1960s student movements, ethnic studies grew out of the explicit demands of youth of color to have their schooling support and be accountable to the needs of the urban communities in which they often grew up. The student movements for ethnic studies originated as an extension of prior student of color movements for civil rights and decolonizing antiracist education, including the 1960s Freedom Schools. Urban schools have been sites where students have exerted their voice and leadership by pushing back against criminalizing narratives of undocumented immigrants and organizing action. Immigrant youth have taken up various immigrant rights campaigns, both inside and outside of schools.
