Dane Stickney, an assistant teaching professor in ASPIRE, recently published a research article with two SEHD alumni, two local K-12 students, and another educator in Evidence & Policy. The peer-reviewed article, titled “Drive to equity: The impact of youth-generated evidence on transportation policy” examines two cases in which students and educators leveraged youth participatory action research (YPAR) to enact changes to Denver streets and bus services. It is part of a special edition examining the impact of youth-generated evidence in policy issues.
The author team features Milahd Makooi and Caleb Burns, alumni of both ASPIRE to Teach and the Curriculum & Instruction MA. Makooi, a high-school teacher in the Mapleton district, and Burns, who now teaches in Nebraska, first began working on this project as part of the inaugural Teachers as Policy Actors Forum, held at CU Denver. The author team also features two students who conducted the YPAR projects while attending local schools. Asherah Alder-Eldridge, 19, is a DPS alumnus and recently graduated from Suffolk University in Boston. Emilleo Moralez-Baldizan, 16, is a student in the JeffCo district. Reina Cruz, a local teacher and DU student, also helped write the article.
This work grew out the Transformative Student Voice research collective and was supported by a grant from the Hewlett Foundation.