Want to know how to become a better teacher? 

Just ask your students. That’s what Northwest Regional Education Service District’s recent Cascade Alliance for Equity Conference was all about. For the first time ever, NWRESD hosted a conference led entirely by students -- some as young as 10. 

Khloe, a fifth grader at Witch Hazel Elementary School in Hillsboro, said it felt great to share her ideas about how she would like her school to change. 

In her session, nearly four dozen educators and community partners sat in circles around her and her classmates as they talked about their experiences in school. The format, called a story circle, invites people to share their stories with one another in order to build understanding, compassion and empathy. 

When people are seated around a story circle, as they were at this conference, it’s called a circle within a circle. The setup helps people in the outer circles -- in this case educators -- learn from those in the inner circle. 

The students’ ideas included having more Black students and teachers, teaching more about African American and African history, teaching all students how to talk about race and racial experiences, and most importantly, intervening immediately and following up on racist comments and incidents, including asking students who engage in racial aggressions to do reports for the class about why their words are harmful. 

Jelana Canfield, recess support liaison and elementary Black/African American/African student family liaison at Hillsboro School District, facilitated a story circle that included two students who participated virtually from outdoor school. 

Neha Hertzog, who leads school safety and prevention efforts in Clatsop, Columbia, Tillamook and Washington counties, says it struck her that the students kept reiterating how important it is for them to have friends and teachers who look like them. They shared that talking about race with their white friends takes so much more energy and often includes a barrage of questions, she says. 

“We need to figure out how to make our communities and our schools places where people of color -- and in this case Black people -- want to be,” she says. “What can we do to make these spaces safer and more welcoming?”

Whitney Wagner, attendance services lead at NWRESD, says she believes some of the responsibility for making our communities welcome lies with educators themselves. 

She heard the students say they want teachers to do more immediately after a racist comment is made and in the weeks and months afterward. 

Her main takeaway from the event is that she wants all educators, especially white educators, to be dedicated to increasing their skills so they can respond to racist incidents in a multi-faceted way. 

“I want educators to have the skills, time and vulnerability to not only intervene with the students, but to facilitate conversations with the parents, and especially the parents of students who caused the harm,” she says. Only then will the students -- both those causing the harm and the student being harmed -- be receiving consistent messages of intervention and support from everyone around them. 

“If we can do that, then we will make a broader impact,” she says.  

Yolanda Coleman, a talent acquisition and retention administrator at NWRESD who is working to expand the number of diverse educators in Clatsop, Columbia, Tillamook and Washington counties, also attended the session. She says it’s not enough just to listen. “We have to take action,” she says. 

Ingrid’s suggestion about having a student do a report to the class following a racial aggression is a great example of going beyond listening, Yolanda says. After working for 15 years as an educator and a principal primarily in the Portland and Hillsboro school districts, she has found reports to be an effective way for students to learn about why they shouldn’t say or do certain things. 

“Doing a report helps them learn why what they said or did is hurtful or harmful,” she says. 

Rikki, an eighth grader at Whitford Middle School, and Suri, also an eighth grader at Whitford, facilitate a session in equity professional development at the Cascade Alliance for Equity conference on May 29 at Wingspan Conference Center in Hillsboro.

Another session on equity professional development led by Whitford middle schoolers gave educators that chance to work through specific race-related scenarios. One scenario asked how teachers should respond if a staff member calls a student a racial slur. 

It’s a question teachers might not have ever been taught in their teaching programs or in other professional development they receive. 

“Addressing racism can be uncomfortable for some, therefore it is important that we provide time and space to practice interrupting racist comments and actions,” Yolanda says. 

Danielle, an eighth grader at Whitford who led the session, says she hopes teachers go back to their classrooms ready to build community, especially with their students of color. 

Danielle, an eighth grader at Whitford, leads a session on equity professional development for teachers from Clatsop, Columbia, Tillamook and Washington counties. Danielle says her students came in with an open mind and she felt good about them learning from their experience in her session. “It’s a great opportunity for teachers to take this back into their school,” she says. 

“I think something that teachers can do better is just being there for students -- you see them in the hall and their color and you just see them -- even if you don’t know them,” she says. “I feel like not a lot of students have that sense of community from teachers.”

Kamila, a ninth grader at the Oregon Islamic Academy, also wants teachers to learn more about their students and then encourage them to take that next step and become leaders.  

Kamila, a ninth grader at the Oregon Islamic Academy, speaks with another participant during a session about improving school culture and climate. Kamila believes storytelling is a vital tool for building empathy and understanding. 

“My goal is to make sure teachers are aware that they should understand all perspectives and empower their students,” she says. Kamila says without that encouragement, students might not understand the potential they have to be leaders and to make change in their communities. 

S.Z. Liwaru, the conference organizer and the equity and family partnerships director at NWRESD, says he came up with the idea to include students in 2020 after hosting two previous events. 

“We realized we were talking about students but not including them,” he says. 

So he set out to make it happen. The event in May was the culmination of that effort. Liwaru says he hopes the concept will be replicated across the region and beyond. 

There are already plans in the works for another Cascade Alliance for Equity Conference for the fall of 2024. Liwaru says in addition to presenting, students will have a hand in the logistics and planning.