Prioritizing Student Needs in Program Redesign: Lessons from the League of Innovative Students

As we look back on 2025, Digital Promise’s League of Innovative Students (LOIS) program’s third iteration stood out for the way it amplified student voice and modeled how education and industry leaders can center student perspectives. Through this initiative, Digital Promise directly involves students in education research and development (R&D), entrepreneurship, and policy development to create tools and solutions that reflect their lived experiences.

Students this year participated in one of two strands. In the “Researching Challenges and Reimagining Solutions with Students at the Center” strand, students worked in teams to design research tools to understand top education challenges within their respective district communities and identify potential strategies for addressing them. In the “Students Shaping EdTech to Advance Agency and Outcomes Design” strand, students partnered with members of EdTech Remix Collaborative at Stanford d.school to co-design edtech features that enhance learner experience with two companies, Uprooted Academy and Unrulr. In addition to the valuable insights provided by the students, this year’s iteration of the LOIS saw a significant increase in student engagement, attendance, and impact on student self-advocacy, which we attribute to our ability to adapt the program to student needs.

Maximizing the Impact of Student Voice

For education and industry leaders to meaningfully and consistently embrace student voice, adults must create the conditions to bring students to the table. Here are three strategies we found to be most impactful when working with students:

1. Meet students where they are—create environments that allow students to participate more easily.

Although it requires extra time and effort, adults should be intentional in how they invite, recruit, and include students to share their voices. Program developers and education leaders need to make accommodations to meet students where they are; whether it be by creating space for students to participate in co-design activities that take place during school hours and on campus, or maintaining flexibility to meet with students one-on-one in response to scheduling needs. These practices recognize students’ many roles and responsibilities and help ensure they all have opportunities to contribute.

2. Provide access to mentorship and support that students can trust.

We found that assigning a school faculty member to serve as an “Adult Champion” benefited student participation and collaboration. This trusted adult was present for co-design sessions and served as an essential thought partner and resource for students. The Adult Champion was also a valuable liaison among students, school or district leadership, Digital Promise staff, and edtech product developers. More importantly, this person was part of the local community and made it easier for students to feel comfortable speaking up, allowing them to be authentic, open, and honest with their thoughts.

3. Ensure students feel heard and valued for their insights.

Students’ voices are crucial to the successful development of learning experiences, whether they are contributing to shaping edtech products, instructional strategies within the classroom, or the overall culture within a school community. Ensuring student voices are heard and valued relies on the commitment of adults to support and continue these conversations beyond a single event.

Through LOIS, the Adult Champions served as advocates for students, reserving time during faculty meetings and school board meetings for students to present their findings. By providing ongoing opportunities for students to share their insights, feedback, and perspectives with those who hold power, education and industry leaders can sustain a culture that meaningfully weaves student voice into decision-making processes.

As we continue to work toward integrating student voice into initiatives that reimagine learning environments, it is important to keep in mind how best to accommodate students to ensure their voices enter authentically into district leaders’ and developers’ decision-making processes. By structuring initiatives to consider student responsibilities, provide ample access to trusted supports, and create ongoing opportunities for student voice, education and industry leaders can transform student participation into lasting change in education.