Step 4
Design Experience 4: Imagining the Student Experience

Pre-work

Preparing for Design Experience 4

Experience

Design Experience 4

Post-work

Post-Work Activities

Engaging Community

Overview

In this step, you will engage students, families, educators, and community partners in providing feedback on your student experience artifacts and your Bold School Concept. This step ensures that diverse voices help sharpen the design, build shared ownership, and prepare your team to confidently present your work during Design Experience 5.

Outputs
  • Organized and synthesized community feedback documented in the Design Journey Notebook
  • Updated Stakeholder Engagement Plan capturing who was engaged, what was learned, and emerging themes

Goal
Gather community feedback and input to refine and strengthen your student experience artifacts and your Bold School Concept.

Owner(s)
School design team

Contributor(s)
District transformation team, students, families, community stakeholders, facilitation partner

Resources

Community Engagement Toolkit
A menu of ready-to-use engagement strategies—from student shadowing to community interviews—to spark listening and learning.

Youth Voice Toolkit
Tools that help students surface issues that matter and shape their school’s future.

School Design Journey Notebook
Central hub for team plans, community engagement activities, collected input, design reflections, and next steps between Design Experiences.

Putting It Into Practice

1

Facilitate community engagement activities:

Select strategies from the Community Engagement Toolbox to share your Day-in-the-Life and 4-Year Trajectory artifacts and gather input on the student experience. Options might include:

  • Community gallery walks or showcases
  • Focus groups or listening sessions
  • Surveys or feedback protocols

As always, invite diverse perspectives: Ensure your engagement includes a wide range of voices, with particular attention to students, families, and underrepresented groups.

2

Synthesize and organize feedback:

Designate a team member (or small group) to gather and organize all feedback in your Design Journey Notebook, including notes, photos, and artifacts from your engagement activities. Identify emerging trends, key insights, and areas of divergence. Summarize these themes in a clear, shareable format so the full team can reflect and decide how to respond.

3

Reflect and respond:

As a team, review the synthesized feedback. Identify which insights should directly shape revisions. Ask:

  • What feedback aligns with our vision and Design Principles?
  • What changes will make the design stronger and more connected to our community?
  • What did this feedback reveal about how we’re communicating our vision or the “why” behind our design? How might we build greater clarity and conviction so future engagement leads to deeper, more informed input?
Go to Next Step
Preparing for Design Experience 5
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