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The Council of Youth Research

IDEA’s Council of Youth Research partners with Los Angeles high school students, teachers, and administrators to examine educational conditions in the city.

"If public questions were frequently being discussed by a local community forum with widespread democratic participation by adults and youth, then a good share of citizenship education could be brought about by participation in those councils." 
                               —John Dewey, 1937

The Mayor’s Council of Youth Researchers is a partnership between Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, IDEA, and Los Angeles high school students. The council members are current high school students attending Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) high schools.  Beginning in Summer 2007 with an intensive youth research seminar at UCLA (students receive college credit for successfully completing this course), students examine a central question impacting the lives of LAUSD students. They will study relevant literature on this question and employ social science research methods to gather data in their schools and communities. The youth researchers report their findings to the mayor and the broader public at the end of each summer seminar and at the end of each school year. 

The council of youth researchers: 

  • Promotes a powerful model of civic education where youth not only study "government," through participation they will learn about the rules and functions of government and acquire tools of investigation and public engagement that will be useful in future academic and civic endeavors.  
  • Contributes valuable insights and information to public debate in Los Angeles through students’ first-hand experience in schools and communities, as well as their uncensored access to other youth voices.  
  • Broadens and enriches Los Angeles civic life by infusing youth voices into the public conversation and counters low levels of voting and other forms of civic participation among Los Angeles youth. 
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