This article appeared as "SPARC Notes" in the Fall 2024 issue of Independent School.
What happens when students’ knowledge of their own school drives the research process? They create projects that peel back the layers of school culture and share findings and recommendations unlikely to come from traditional research.
That’s at the core of the School Participatory Action Research Collaborative (SPARC), which held its annual presentation at The Shipley School (PA) and the University of Pennsylvania in April 2024. Eight schools—Belmont Hill School (MA), Collegiate School (NY), Crescent School (Canada), Greenwich Academy (CT), Miss Porter’s School (CT), St. Albans School (DC), The Blake School (MN), and The Shipley School—presented 23 research projects that showcased students’ research skills and their commitment to evidence-based change at their schools.
Topics ranged from the impact of the dress code to the schedule’s role in student wellness, from cultures of “brotherhood” at boys’ schools to participation in single-sex vs. coed classes. Greenwich Academy investigated student overload and the factors that shape student decision-making in selecting academic pathways (e.g., peer pressure, parent pressure, college admission). Belmont Hill School explored the social media climate at school. And The Blake School examined diversity as reflected in the world history and literature curricula.
SPARC started in 2002 at Penn’s Graduate School of Education and was originally known as the Center for the Study of Boys’ and Girls’ Lives. SPARC faculty and graduate students work with students and teachers at independent schools to come up with research concepts to improve school culture for all students. From September through April, most students meet about once a week to work on their projects. At the beginning of the school year, students discuss a range of issues and assess whether they are compelling to the broader student population.
Once a topic is chosen, students push each other to see different perspectives; identify problems; and draft specific, purposeful questions, including what kind of data would help them arrive at a solid thesis. With the help of SPARC’s research team, students collect and analyze data, eventually identifying emerging themes that begin to point them toward answers.
More than 120 SPARC projects have improved school communities by developing more understanding of problems and proposing solutions, many of which have become new school policies.
Interested in exploring student research opportunities or learning more about SPARC? Email [email protected].
Students from Collegiate School, Crescent School, and St. Albans School join Joseph Derrick Nelson, research director of the School Participatory Action Research Collaborative, at the presentation of projects in April 2024.