TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — A program at Desert View High School is flipping the script on teacher training by giving students a direct role in shaping how educators teach.
Learning Ambassadors is a student-led group that started four years ago with just four students. The idea came after educators realized an important voice was missing from conversations about education — the students actually experiencing it.
"It really opened our eyes to the fact that if we want to do things differently in education, we have to partner with students, and we have to leverage the things that they can share with us about their experience as a student, because without that, we're missing a major puzzle piece," Larissa Peru, a peer collaborative teacher at Desert View High School, said.
This year, 10 students are in the program. Kasie Betten, a peer collaborative teacher at Desert View High School, says students learn about "learner agency" — a concept built around four skills: metacognition, self-efficacy, self-regulation, and learner autonomy.
"It's a skill set that supports students. If students can kind of build those four skills, then they have a toolkit essentially for learning in college and outside of college that supports them forever," said Betten.
For senior Joshua Cañedo, joining the program meant seeing his teachers in a new way.
"It seemed very like progressive in the sense that I finally had the opportunity to be like, one of my teachers. I can work with them. I can help them improve. They can help me improve," Cañedo said.
Learning Ambassadors work alongside teachers to share what they think works — and what doesn't — in the classroom. Senior Alicia Escobedo said it was intimidating to give feedback to adults at first, but that changed when she realized teachers were actually listening.
"I have seen a lot of the things that I've talked about be put into action, and teachers actually use what I say to implement it into their classrooms," Escobedo said.
Both Escobedo and Cañedo have been in the program for three years.
Students in the program also attend district leadership meetings and present at national conferences.
"I presented at a conference once and I had multiple teachers come up to me and say that, I'm going to take this advice back home and we're going to do this," Cañedo said.
For the teachers behind the program, Learning Ambassadors is about more than improving the classroom — it's about giving students the confidence to advocate for themselves.
"I hope for the adults and for a system that we embrace this idea that students really deserve a seat at the table. If we give them the language to be on the same page as adults, they will take it seriously and it benefits everybody," Kasie Betten, a peer collaborative teacher at Desert View High School, said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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Jacqueline Aguilar is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9. Born and raised in Yuma, AZ., she is no stranger to the unforgiving Arizona heat. Now this U of A wildcat is excited to be back in Tucson and is looking forward to involving herself in the community. Share your story ideas with Jacqueline by emailing jacqueline.aguilar@kgun9.com or connecting on Facebook, Instagram or X.
