Dr. Peter Piazza Co-Authors Article on Youth Engagement in Education Policy
Content
Dr. Peter Piazza has co-authored a new article in the American Journal of Education, exploring the gap between student experiences and their role in shaping education policy.
The article, “How Policy Positionality Helps Explain Policy That Does Not Fit Students,” examines changes to admissions policies for academically selective public high schools in the "Metropolis School District." Piazza and his co-authors compare how students and adults participated in the policy change process and highlight how students, despite being most directly affected, had limited influence.
The study introduces the concept of policy positionality to explain this disconnect, showing that adults with less firsthand experience had greater power in decision-making. As a result, the final policy reflected adult priorities more than student needs, such as well-being and school climate.
The article offers insights into how policy structures can better include and respond to student voices. It appears in the May 2025 issue of the American Journal of Education, available through the University of Chicago Press: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/734908
Featuring
Peter Piazza
Peter Piazza is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Policy, Research, and Administration at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
