PUTTING RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE
For School Administrators
Beyond the Leadership Title identified patterns in the experiences of student leaders and offers 12 recommendations for strengthening student leadership. This page looks at what those findings and recommendations could mean for principals, superintendents, and other school leaders.
The answers draw on the student and advisor surveys, the leadership programs and resources we reviewed for the report, and our own experience in student leadership and school and district governance. Some questions go beyond what the research directly examined, so we’ve tried to distinguish between what the research found and practical ideas schools might consider.
Two Questions for Schools
Does every student leader have a foundation of support?
Look across organizations at advisor support, clear responsibilities, planning, task tracking, delegation and accountability, and leadership handoffs.
Are students getting meaningful opportunities to lead?
Look at whether students have opportunities to take responsibility, make decisions, solve problems, reflect, and grow into greater leadership.
Questions & Answers
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One place to start is simply figuring out what student leadership actually looks like across the school. Make a list of student organizations and the leadership roles in each one. If that feels like too much to do at once, start with the top student leader in each organization.
Then ask each advisor a few questions about that role: What is the student actually responsible for? What decisions can they make? What do they plan or manage? Do they lead or coordinate other students? Are there things the advisor is doing that the student could be doing instead? And what kind of preparation, feedback, or support does the student receive?
The goal isn't to make every leadership role the same. A student council president and a robotics team captain are going to have very different jobs. But looking across the school could help show where students already have real responsibility, where they may have a leadership title without many opportunities to lead, and where they could use more support.
Schools could also gather the role descriptions they already have and look at them together. AI could even help compare them and spot differences or things that may be missing.
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Look at what students actually get to do. Do they make decisions, solve problems, set priorities, plan projects, coordinate other students, or have a say in where the organization is going? Or are they mostly carrying out tasks that an adult or someone else has already decided on?
Two students can both have the title of president or captain but have very different leadership experiences. Looking at what students are actually responsible for can help schools see which roles give students meaningful opportunities to lead and which ones could give students more ownership.
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No. A team captain, newspaper editor, student council officer, DECA president, and theater leader are going to have very different responsibilities. That's part of what makes each leadership experience different.
What matters is whether students have real opportunities to lead within that role. Are they making decisions, taking responsibility for something that matters, working with other students, solving problems, or learning from what happens? The experience doesn't need to look the same across organizations to give students a chance to grow as leaders.
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Schools don't necessarily need to create a whole new leadership program. A lot can be done by giving students more support in the leadership roles that already exist.
That could mean bringing new student leaders together for a short orientation, giving them a few simple tools for planning and communicating, checking in with them during the year, offering occasional leadership workshops, or helping outgoing leaders pass along what they've learned to the students taking over.
Even a few small changes could make existing leadership roles stronger without adding another major program for the school to manage.
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Advisors are a big part of the student leadership experience, but they shouldn't have to figure everything out on their own. When every club or organization approaches leadership differently, students at the same school can end up getting very different levels of preparation and support.
It could help to have one person—such as a principal, activities director, or dean—look across student leadership at the school. That person could make sure advisors have useful resources, help create a few things that all student leaders can benefit from, and notice where students may need more support.
Individual clubs and teams can still do things differently. The goal isn't to make every leadership experience the same, but to make sure every student leader has a strong starting point.
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It can help to think of the advisor more as a coach. When a student leader runs into a problem, the advisor doesn't always have to solve it. They can ask questions, help the student think through different options, give feedback, and let the student decide what to do. Of course, there will also be times when an adult needs to step in.
One question advisors could ask themselves is: “Am I doing this because an adult needs to do it, or because it's faster and easier for me to do it?”
Sometimes letting a student struggle with a problem a little longer—or even make a mistake—can be part of giving them the chance to actually lead.
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Student leaders can learn a lot from other student leaders, both at their own school and beyond it.
Within a school, leaders from student government, athletics, clubs, performing arts, service organizations, and other groups could get together occasionally to talk about challenges they have in common. How do you get people to show up? What do you do when someone doesn't follow through? How do you delegate work or keep a big event on track? Students in very different organizations may have figured out things that could help each other.
Schools can also look beyond their own campus. Some student organizations are connected to state or national organizations that offer conferences, officer training, resources, and opportunities to meet student leaders from other schools. DECA, HOSA, Key Club, SkillsUSA, and student council organizations are examples. Schools could ask whether these opportunities exist for their student groups and, if they do, whether students and advisors are actually taking advantage of them.
The point isn't just to belong to another organization. It's to give student leaders more chances to learn from people who are doing the same kinds of things they are, and to bring some of those ideas back to their own school.
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I wouldn't start by creating a major new program. I'd start by looking at the student leadership opportunities the school already has.
A Student Leadership Audit could help with that. Look across student organizations and see what students are actually responsible for, what kind of preparation and support they receive, and where the same challenges seem to come up. Then choose one or two things the school could realistically improve this year.
After a semester or a year, ask students and advisors whether those changes helped and what they still need. Schools don't have to fix everything at once. They can start with what they already have, make a few changes, and keep learning from the students and adults involved.
A Practical Place to Start
Schools don't need to implement all 12 recommendations at once. Start by looking across the leadership opportunities students already have, identify where support or meaningful responsibility may be inconsistent, and choose one or two manageable improvements to try.