Going deep

Designed to generate an hourlong conversation, the 25 listening project questions below explore high school students’ school experiences in a variety of areas. Interviewers’ guides also include suggestions for follow-up questions and techniques for eliciting more complete information.

Student goals and success

• Tell me about the best thing that happened to you yesterday here at school.
• What are your goals after graduation?
• Is your high school experience setting you up to meet your goals after graduation?

Classroom experiences and learning

• Describe a time recently when you felt really successful here at school.
• What are the leadership opportunities here at school that you know about?
• Describe a time recently when you thought what you were learning in class was relevant to your life. How often does that happen?
• What type of class is hard to relate to? Why?
• What is one thing that adults at school could do differently to help you learn more?
• When you need help with a class, who do you go to? Do you feel encouraged to get help?
• Are you in honors or AP classes now?
• What do your teachers expect of you?
• If you were a principal or a teacher here, what would you change to help all students learn more?

Supports and school culture

• Where do you feel comfortable and emotionally supported at school?
• Do you have an adult on campus who you trust that you would go to for problems other than academics?
• What obstacles have you faced here at school? Are there barriers you are facing to graduation?
• Have you seen other students struggle here at school? What kinds of things do you see that keep students from being successful and graduating?
• How has the counseling center helped you? Did you get the help you needed to select classes? Is there more help you need from the counseling center?
• If you could redesign this school so it had all the supports you need, what would you change?

Diversity and equity

• When and where do you get to hang out with the most diverse group of students on campus?
• Which places at our high school are the least diverse?
• Are your classes balanced by the number of students from different racial groups? Which ones?
• Do your teachers balance the discussion of different racial groups’ histories, stories and contributions in class?
• Do teachers make the classroom a safe space to talk about race?
• How could AHS/SILSA become a more integrated and equitable community?
• Do you feel that some students have been given advantages or disadvantages when it comes to your education based on race?