Academic freedom, or the right to control one’s education, is an important aspect of the rights students have at school. It includes the right to access resources, to choose our own courses and teachers, and to consent to methods of assessment and evaluation. It also includes the right to decide what is important to learn, and to choose the best-suited environment for learning. Academic freedom is also about our freedom of thought and the right to determine for ourselves what gets to take up space in our minds.
Unfortunately, most schools deny this right to young people. In fact, most students are treated as if we are too lazy to control our own learning and that our interests are trivial. We are cajoled, threatened, and punished into learning in ways determined by others rather than ourselves. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
NYRA strongly supports extending academic freedom to all students. Please use this page as a resource on the various facets of academic freedom and how students are working to take back control of their education.
Student choice improves learning
Academic freedom is advocated and practiced in various learning environments including democratic schools, Montessori schools, a small number of public schools, and in certain forms of homeschooling. There is also a great deal of research that shows the many benefits of allowing young people to control their own education. In fact, most of us know that we learn best when we are allowed to follow our curiosity and passion and choose to learn a subject because we want to – not because someone else thinks we should. Even when we are very young, we are capable of directing the nature and pace of our own learning as shown by how we learn to walk, talk, interpret our environment, and build relationships.
When we are denied the right to have a say in our education, we are hindered from learning how to take control in our lives. We submit our intellectual lives to the power of another person. This not only violates our rights, but puts us at risk of losing our ability to question and to think for ourselves.
Influencing curriculum in public schools
Most public schools limit the amount of control that students have over the curriculum. This happens at the state level where course requirements dictate what courses are required, but also by school boards and the administration of individual schools that may restrict the curriculum even further.
However, some students have been able to encourage their schools to switch to more a student-centered approach or by successfully submitting proposals for independent projects.
Students are also able to opt out of certain aspects of their required courses. For example, many states have laws allowing public school students to opt out of animal dissections, and some don’t even require parental permission to do so. A few other states allow students to opt out of a wider range of activities for religious or ethical reasons. Students have organized protests against changes in the curriculum made by their school board or the removal of elective courses without their consent.
Opting out of standardized tests
One of the areas where students have had the most success in exercising their right to control their education has been through boycotting “high stakes” testing. For example, more than 20% of New York students opted out of state standardized tests in 2015 and so many students opted out at one high school in Oregon that not one student took the state standardized tests for math and English in 2017.
Students have also organized protests against standardized testing and unfair grading systems. In Colorado, students organized statewide campaigns and staged walkouts during the test. The Providence Student Union successfully petitioned the Rhode Island legislature to pass a three-year moratorium on using high-stakes testing as a graduation requirement through organizing rallies and conducting sit-ins at school board meetings.
Students have raised awareness that students can opt out of the SAT and ACT and still get into college. In fact, there are over 1,000 colleges in the US that don’t require test scores, and some reject them altogether.
Due to many of these efforts, along with the support of parents and teachers, many states have abandoned testing requirements to receive a high school diploma. This map shows which states still require students to pass a specific test in order to graduate.
School Choice
Within the public school system, students can sometimes decide which school they wish to attend. This is known as “open enrollment,” which takes two forms: intradistrict or interdistrict, the latter allowing students to attend school outside of their district. States that require public schools to allow open enrollment between districts (interdistrict enrollment) include Arizona, Delaware, Florida, and Idaho. Although interdistrict open enrollment is mandatory in some states, there are usually circumstances in which schools can refuse to accept students (too many students, for example). Additionally, many states have voluntary intradistrict or interdistrict enrollment, meaning that schools can decide whether to allow open enrollment in their school. There are also states, such as California and Indiana, whose laws involve both mandatory and voluntary enrollment within and between districts. In California, it is mandatory to allow open enrollment participation for students who attend schools with low performance records.
School choice within the public school system allows students to take control of their education and decide how they want to spend the formative years of their lives. Although not every student can take advantage of alternative education environments like homeschooling, public school choice allows some young people to make decisions about which school to attend.
Student-directed learning environments
Some learning environments allow students complete academic freedom where students are free to pursue their own interests and direct their own education. Students decide what, where, and how to learn, whether to use any teachers and resources available, and what kind of feedback they receive.
Student-directed learning can give students greater ownership over their education. Instead of spending most of the day completing work chosen by adults, students can devote more time to subjects, projects, skills, and questions that are personally meaningful to them. This can make learning feel less like an obligation and more like something students actively participate in, while also giving them opportunities to discover interests that may eventually influence their careers, hobbies, or future education.
These environments can also help students develop independence and decision-making skills. Students must learn how to choose goals, manage their time, seek out information, determine when they need help, and decide how deeply they want to explore a subject. Because learning is not limited to a fixed curriculum or classroom schedule, students may also have more flexibility to learn through reading, experimentation, creative projects, volunteering, employment, community involvement, online resources, or other real-world experiences.
Non-coercive schools
Unlike public schools, private schools are allowed to set their own rules about how much academic freedom they give the students. Unfortunately, most private schools don’t do any better than public schools at respecting students’ rights – and some are a lot worse! But in democratic or free schools, many of which are also called Sudbury schools, students set the curriculum completely and make all decisions including punishments and hiring and firing of teachers. are allowed complete academic freedom.
One of the major benefits of non-coercive schools is that students do not have to organize their entire day around compulsory assignments, tests, and classes that may have little connection to their interests. A student may spend hours writing a story, programming a game, practicing music, reading about history, building something, talking with other students, or working on a long-term project. Students can often remain with an interest for much longer than a traditional class period allows, which can make it easier to develop substantial knowledge or skill in areas they care about.
Democratic schools can also give young people meaningful experience with self-government. In many schools, students have little influence over rules that affect them. Democratic schools instead allow students to participate in meetings, propose rules, vote, resolve conflicts, and sometimes participate in decisions involving staff or school policies. This gives students practical experience with negotiation, responsibility, due process, collective decision-making, and living in a community where their opinions carry real weight.
Student-directed learning centers
Some students choose to attend a learning center instead of school. These learning centers take many forms such as and agile learning centers, North Star Model centers, or organizations that offer an alternative to school.
Student-directed learning centers can provide many of the social and educational resources associated with school without requiring students to follow a conventional school structure. Students may have access to mentors, classes, workshops, computers, art supplies, books, group activities, field trips, and other young people while still retaining significant control over what they learn and how they spend their time. This can be particularly helpful for students who want the independence of homeschooling or unschooling but also want a regular community outside their home.
Learning centers can also make it easier for students to pursue interests that require collaboration or specialized resources. A student interested in theater may find other students to perform with, while someone interested in science, programming, art, or writing may be able to work with a mentor or join a group project. Because participation is generally more voluntary than in conventional schooling, students can choose activities because they find them valuable rather than simply because attendance or completion is required.
Unschooling
Homeschooling can also provide an environment of academic freedom, especially if your family takes an unschooling approach. Unschooling is the homeschooling philosophy that gives students the highest degree of academic freedom. Students are free to pursue their interests, using their parents as resources if they wish. The main role of unschooling parents is to provide a safe and supportive environment in which their children can learn. Unschooling is a matter of youth rights because it lets youth decide how they want to spend the first 18 years of their lives instead of having parents and schools choose for them.
Homeschooling often has the added benefit that students can selectively enroll in outside classes to supplement the work they do at home. Some states even allow homeschooled students to play on school sports teams. This means that student-directed education does not necessarily require students to learn entirely alone or at home. Families can combine independent learning with community college courses, online classes, tutoring, clubs, sports, co-ops, learning centers, and other opportunities based on what the student actually wants or needs.
One benefit of unschooling is that learning can be organized around the individual student’s interests, pace, and preferred way of learning. A student who becomes fascinated with a particular topic can spend days or months exploring it without having to stop because a class period has ended or a curriculum says it is time to move on. Students can also learn academic skills in practical contexts—for example, using mathematics while budgeting for a project, developing writing skills while creating stories or websites, or learning science through experiments, gardening, building, or observing the natural world.
Unschooling can also provide considerably more flexibility over a student’s daily life. Students may be able to sleep according to their own schedule, learn at the times when they concentrate best, travel without being limited by a school calendar, take jobs or internships, volunteer, participate in community organizations, or devote substantial time to art, athletics, activism, entrepreneurship, or other interests. This flexibility can be especially valuable for students who struggle with the rigid schedules, constant transitions, or standardized expectations of conventional schools.
Check out our How to Direct Your Own Education page for more resources on unschooling and finding or starting a student-directed learning center.
Additional Resources
Alliance for Self-Directed Education – A nonprofit organization focused specifically on promoting and supporting Self-Directed Education. Its website includes explanations of self-directed learning, articles and research, guidance for families, and a large directory of democratic schools, learning centers, co-ops, and other self-directed education communities.
Alliance for Self-Directed Education Resource Directory – A useful directory for finding organizations and materials related to self-directed education. Resources are organized into categories including schools, co-ops and learning centers, advocacy organizations, events, books, websites, podcasts, research, and other educational materials.
Agile Learning Centers – A network and educational model built around self-direction, trust, collaboration, and student choice. The website explains how Agile Learning Centers work and provides tools and practices that students, families, educators, and learning communities can use to support self-directed learning.
Agile Learning Centers Starter Kit – A free guide for people interested in applying Agile Learning Center principles in schools, homeschool groups, learning communities, or other settings. It provides practical tools for creating environments where students can set intentions, organize their own activities, reflect on their learning, and collaborate with others.
North Star: Self-Directed Learning for Teens – North Star provides an example of a learning-center approach designed specifically for teenagers who want to leave conventional schooling. Students choose their own activities and can make use of voluntary classes, one-on-one tutorials, personal advisors, and community resources without following a required curriculum or system of grades and tests.
Sudbury Valley School – One of the oldest and best-known examples of the Sudbury model of democratic education. Students are given extensive freedom to decide how they spend their time and what they want to learn, while participating in a school community built around student independence and shared governance. Its website also contains extensive writings explaining the philosophy behind the Sudbury approach.
The Ultimate Homeschool Toolkit for Kids on the Spectrum – A detailed homeschooling resource focused on autistic and neurodivergent students. It discusses how autism can affect learning, sensory needs, routines and transitions, and offers strategies for creating a homeschool environment that can be adapted around an individual student’s needs and learning style.
