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For many students, memories of remote instruction during the pandemic are now as blurry as a hazy background on Zoom. But the impacts are ever-present. One study found the rate of students chronically missing school increased so much that it will likely be 2030 before U.S. classrooms return to pre-COVID norms.

Solving chronic absenteeism involves tackling big structural problems like transportation and infrastructure. But we also have to make our schools places where young people want to learn. Too many teens, in particular, had negative feelings about school even before the pandemic. Yale researchers conducting found most teens spent their days 鈥渢ired,鈥� 鈥渟tressed,鈥� and 鈥渂ored.鈥� Fewer than 3 in 100 reported feeling interested while in school.

Decades of research prove that students learn more when they experience high levels of academic engagement and social belonging in school. That鈥檚 why XQ developed grounded in the science of teaching and the importance of cultivating caring, trusting relationships within schools. These principles are being used to rethink the traditional high school experience in across the country to make learning more relevant and engaging for the needs of this generation.

Our partnerships are still new. But so far, we鈥檙e finding graduates from our first 17 schools have more interest in their classes and a stronger sense of belonging at school than their national counterparts. More than three-quarters of the XQ class of 2023 鈥� which includes 17 high schools 鈥� said they were at least somewhat interested in their classes. And 52% of the XQ class of 2023 felt like they belonged 鈥渃ompletely鈥� or 鈥渜uite a bit鈥� at their school, versus only 40% nationally.

I spoke with four students from XQ schools across the country to hear what makes a difference in creating high schools young people want to attend. They are: Evan Bowie, Class of 2024 from Ron Brown College Preparatory High School in Washington, D.C.; Karisse Dickison, Class of 2024 from Elizabethton High School in Elizabethton, Tennessee; Henry Montalvo, Class of 2025 from 颁铆谤肠耻濒辞蝉 in Santa Ana, California; and Lillian Roberts, Class of 2024 from Brooklyn STEAM Center. 

Create Bonding Activities

has fewer than 200 students, but Henry Montalvo didn鈥檛 know most of them when he started there as a ninth grader. That small size helped him adjust to the Santa Ana high school, but he also credited bonding activities. One called Community Week provides an opportunity for students to celebrate, pause and reflect. Students create their own schedules based on available sessions. Montalvo said they may lead the sessions alone or partner with teachers for non-academic, fun classes on topics like putting on a thrift shop and even Pok茅mon card-collecting.

鈥淚t’s just basically a time to come together as a community,鈥� he said of the most recent event this past spring. 鈥淪ometimes you write a letter to yourself, and then they give it to you at the end of the year so you can reflect on it.鈥� 

Evan Bowie said teachers at , an all-male district school in Washington, D.C. that鈥檚 part of the partnership, also look for creative ways to help students bond. Students might be asked, for example, to stand or move their desks into circles and answer a question like, 鈥淲hat’s your affirmation today?鈥� Or, 鈥淗ow was your weekend?鈥� He said sometimes it can feel like you鈥檙e being put on the spot, but it works.

Bowie said if he answered with, 鈥溾�業t was boring.鈥� They’d be, like, 鈥榊ou got to give a real answer.鈥欌�� The upshot: 鈥淚t just pushes the student to think a little bit better.鈥�

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Seek Student Feedback

Check-ins like this can also happen more formally, as they do at the The program takes students from several local high schools for mornings or afternoons, five days a week, offering them concentrations in career pathways including cybersecurity, design and engineering, filmmaking and more. Brooklyn STEAM Center is in the Imagine NYC

Lillian Roberts chose culinary arts as her concentration. She enjoys how teachers meet with students quarterly. She said they ask how students feel about their classes, which includes 鈥渢he way they’re teaching, if you have any input.鈥� There are also student-led town hall meetings where students can give feedback anonymously on 鈥渢hings that you might not feel comfortable with.鈥�

Bowie said his teachers at Ron Brown College Preparatory High School also solicit feedback on a weekly or monthly basis, depending on the instructor. They鈥檒l ask questions like, 鈥淲hat went well this week? What can I improve on? What ways can you improve your grade?鈥� Bowie said students are also asked to rate the classes on a scale of one to five stars and provide suggestions for how to make a class better, such as including more hands-on activities or more Socratic seminars instead of written assignments.

Make Personal Connections

is located in northeast Tennessee, an area that has struggled for years with the loss of manufacturing and the opioid epidemic. It was selected as an XQ Super School largely because of its teens鈥� proposal for more student-centered learning to benefit the community.

Karisse Dickison, who graduated this year and is heading to college, described a close relationship with school librarian Dustin Hensley 鈥� who regularly talks to students about what they鈥檙e reading and their extracurricular activities. When Dickison helped start a group dedicated to ending gun violence, she said Hensley would ask her about related events in the news.

鈥淚t was just nice to have him reach out and make sure that I knew what was happening in the world,鈥� she said.

Bowie also valued a personal connection with English teacher Teresa Lasley, who encouraged him to apply to Georgetown University, where he鈥檚 attending this fall. He recalled her showing the class a video about how Black students didn鈥檛 feel welcome at the prestigious school. When he spoke with Lasley, he said she told him he doesn鈥檛 have to work extra hard to prove he belongs. 鈥淕oing to Georgetown means you’re adding more to Georgetown,鈥� he remembered her saying. 鈥淚t’s better for them than it is for you. You belong. You already have it in you.鈥�

He said that exchange allowed him to 鈥渂e seen,鈥� and that he鈥檚 witnessed similar exchanges between other students and teachers.

At Brooklyn STEAM Center, Roberts recalled one guidance counselor who reached out after he saw her crying. 鈥淎nd then we set up weekly meetings just to have someplace to talk about what’s happening,鈥� she said. But at her other high school, she thought guidance counselors seem to focus more on 鈥減urely more academic things.鈥�

Leave the Building

Students at all four schools experience internships, work-based learning and partnerships with community organizations, which they said make classwork feel more relevant. 

Montalvo said teachers at 颁铆谤肠耻濒辞蝉 helped him land internships at a congressional campaign and with a law firm. He said these outside experiences lead to presentations in class. At Brooklyn STEAM Center, Roberts earned an OSHA 10 as well as a New York Food Protection Certificate, and joined a class trip to Italy to study cuisine. 

Dickison worked on social media and advertising at a local nonprofit. Some classes at Elizabethton High include project-based learning, such as one in which students helped solve a cold case involving a serial killer (their work became the subject of the hit podcast this year). 颁铆谤肠耻濒辞蝉 also offers , which Montalvo said makes classes feel more interesting. In his first year, he recalled how he and another student in his English class interviewed local environmental justice experts about lead contamination and the lack of green space, then made a presentation to their school and invited the greater community.

All three students who graduated this year are going to college in the fall, and Montalvo plans to go to college after graduating next year; he wants to be a lawyer. In our senior survey, 72% of XQ students in the class of 2023 planned to attend college, illustrating a great example of students remaining engaged in school beyond their high school years. 

But a sense of belonging and engagement can only happen with student input. 鈥淪chool is about 鈥�飞颈迟丑鈥� not 鈥�蹿辞谤,鈥�鈥� Roberts said. 鈥淓verything is with the students. It鈥檚 not for the students. You have to do everything with the students in mind.鈥�

Disclosure: is a financial supporter of 社区黑料.

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